Back in 2016, I wrote an article for @Jewish_Action profiling the settlement of Har Bracha, the hometown of the two brothers who were murdered yesterday and buried today.
It's important to say some things about Har Bracha today. 1/n
jewishaction.com/jewish-world/i… Har Bracha's #1 export is Torah, mainly (but not only) the Torah of Rabbi Eliezer Melamed. I've had the privilege of editing 10 volumes of his Peninei Halakha. But in more ways than I can describe here, or even in that article, the community is where it comes to life. 2/n

Post by Shivi Froman, worth translating in full.
In the last teaching of his life, Reb Nachman of Breslov says that in life, the main thing is not the words, but the tune. The main thing is the means and the mood that convey the words, not necessarily their content 1/5 The way one does something is quite essential, perhaps the most essential to their correctness, to the good and bad in them. A lousy tune can destroy beautiful words, and - sometimes - vice versa.
I oppose the words of this reform, think it's too exaggerated, dangerous 2/5

Another point to clarify, concerning the belief that Black Americans are Semitic:
I have no problem with the belief itself, regardless of whether or not it is true. @Amareisreal believes this, and it led him to become a righteous Jew with real ahavat Yisrael.
1/19

https://twitter.com/Adderabbi/status/1588428303580352512

The problem is the belief that ONLY Black people are the true Jews or Israelites or Hebrews or Semites. That non-Black/White/European/Caucasian/Ashkenazi Jews are at best medieval converts and at worst usurpers conspiring to oppress the "real" children of Israel
2/

The @ADL hasn't changed how it measures antisemitism or Jew hatred for over 50 years. Entire theories, believed by millions, have developed since then. These beliefs, (about Ashkenazi origins, slave trade, "real" Semites) are no longer just held by some nuts at Times Square.

https://twitter.com/Adderabbi/status/1414993952206430212

We hear about it when some celeb like Ye or Kyrie spouts it, but nobody, certainly not @ADL has even tried to ascertain how widespread it is or prepare educational materials. It's not just NOI and BHI. It's clearly believed by many more. It needs to be studied and countered.

In honor of Pesach and of the publication of @prof_dainy's "Orthodox Jewish Childhoods" (with contributions by @leslie_g_klein @FinkelmanYoel @HannahLebovits @ShammaBoyarin @HillelBro @HoffmanJess me and many more), a 🧵 on my first Haggadah: 1 It's a classic, the English translation of the Livni Haggadah. I got it as an afikoman present from my grandfather in 1982(?). I don't know if I had it before the Seder, or maybe before the second Seder. The blessing of living near grandparents... 2

A thread on Rav Shmuel Brazil, for a change.
He's a talmid chacham, a rosh yeshiva, a true mentsch, and a warm, friendly human being. He is not, and never was, at the center of a cult of personality, and there were never rumors or allegations of predation 1/ There are three tunes he composed that are extremely well known, even if they don't realize they're his. The first, composed in the late 60s and set to words written by his rebbi, Rav Hutner, is the classic, gorgeous "Bilvali Mishkan Evneh".

The Yiddish word of the day is "shvartsemeyenik", which means "Black-Hundredist". It's one of those crazy Yiddish words with components from three different language families:
shvartse = black (Germanic)
meye = hundred (Hebrew)
nik = -ist, member, affiliate (Slavic)
1 What is a Black Hundredist? Rather, what were the Black Hundreds? And why is this relevant today?
The Black Hundreds was a reactionary monarchist, Russian-nationalist, and (of course) anti-Semitic group that functioned between 1905 and 1917.
2

You may have heard that Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the translation of whose books I've had the good fortune of editing and overseeing for the past decade, has been criticized (and worse) recently for some of his more independent halakhic rulings. 1/4 Our response? To launch a campaign to learn more of his Torah!
This is the first ever Charidy campaign whose "currency" is sefarim studied! Sign up at charidy.com/hb/TeamChutzni…
2/4

I read this over Shabbos. It's a book I never heard of before Shabbos. It's not even this book, but a book of responsa with the same name and by the same author. Responsa Devar Yehoshua by R. Yehoshua Menahem Mendel Ehrenberg. There's a story here, and it's worth telling. 1/ I was in Arad for Shabbat (the one in Israel, not Romania), for a @MidreshetAmit Shabbaton. I was a mere spectator. Shabbos morning we went to the main Ashkenazi synagogue in Arad, which has basically become a Gerrer shtibl in recent years. 2/

I read, learned, and/or consulted these over Shabbos, mainly because of a couple of deep dives into halakhic issues. Here's a thread to cover it all. 1 War and Peace is my Shabbos "non-Torah" reading. Bein Midrash Le-Mishnah is my Shabbos shul/general reading. I got the Shu"t Shalmat Hayim as a gift this week (as @StuHalpern knows) and was perusing it over Shabbos. I also looked something up in Mateh Ephraim (not shown) 2

Yom Kippur davening would be a lot more interesting if we would be mechabed people with "Al Cheit"s like we do with the pesukim of "Atah Horeita" Someone in our vicinity flatulated during the "Al Cheit"s at Maariv.
My son: "Guess he hit himself a bit too hard."
Me: "This is טובל ושרץ בידו"

I'm waiting for mincha at the Kazinsky shul in Budapest. Some dude in a tunic is giving a lecture to his phone. Second rate, conspiracy-riddled Carlebachian neo-Hasidism. Totally nutty. This guy.

At about 3:30am today, I finished editing the translation of Rav Melamed's Peninei Halakha on Sukkot. It's the 9th volume that I've edited in English.
Later, I read Rav Melamed's column on what's been happening at Robinson's Arch. We are so fortunate to have him. 1/3 And I'm so fortunate to be able to study, translate, edit, and disseminate his Torah to the English speaking world.

Here's a partial translation of his column from @JewishPress: jewishpress.com/news/jewish-ne… 2/3

I feel like we need a whole new set of broadcasting calls for @JacobSteinmetz6:
I'll start.
***Manager slowly walks to the mound, takes the ball from Steinmetz, and says, "Rabboysay, mir velln bentchen"***
@simmy_cohen @CespedesBBQ @ElliSchorr If he pitches a perfect game:
"Steinmetz has achieved Shleymus!" (too obvious?)
So @ayilbasvach is on a roll with this...

https://twitter.com/ayilbasvach/status/1414664292725559299

@jacklanger @DBashIdeas

Okay, the latest Genazym catalog dropped in the last day or two.
genazym.bidspirit.com/?lang=he&utm_s…
And there's something really curious, perhaps even suspicious, about one of the most remarkable items on auction. This thread will raise the questions. I don't have answers. 1/n One of the headline items on auction (starting bid of $100,000) is an extraordinary document: the intact pinkas (ledger) of Rabbi Hayim Rephael Sagri, a shadar (emissary, fundraiser) of the Jewish community in Tiberias, from the early 19th c. 2/n

Best ways to kill a Shabbos meal invitation. I'll start:
"Oh, by the way, we're vegan." "Oh, I forgot to mention, we're making early Shabbos."

Some thoughts on the present situation, after a night of little sleep, interrupted by booms and sirens. A thread:

I'm not getting into the discussion of who is the bigger victim. There's no point. It's Twitter. Nobody changes their mind here.
1/n Rather, I'm going to speculate on an aspect of this tragedy that is not really being discussed, as it's not about Israel vs. Hamas or even Israel against the Palestinians.
It's about divisions among Israel's own citizens, where we were a few weeks ago, and where we are now. 2/n

With Prof. Segal's permission, and knowing @DBashIdeas love of R. Hutner's Pachad Yitzchak, here's a story.
Aaron and I overlapped @inthegush for all three years I was in the kollel and he was there post high school. Once a week, kollel guys would host a "va'ad". 1/

https://twitter.com/DBashIdeas/status/1361760380058501120

A bunch of the yeshiva guys would come over for some nosh and some non-routine learning. I was fortunate to have the same group of 5-7 guys in my va'ad for 2 straight years. The group became very close. Aaron Segal was one of the guys. 2/

Why this analysis of Israel by @Humble_Analysis is simply bad analysis. A thread:

https://twitter.com/Humble_Analysis/status/1358457353792720898

First, metrics like "highest cases per capital (sic) in the world" change every day and are misleading. The charts show that @Humble_Analysis is using a 7-day rolling avg, and he picked the day that Israel passed Portugal to give the analysis. Tomorrow it'll be different. 2/n

Fellow Jews, if you're in trouble, you can just ask "Reb Leyzer" to help you out, if you know what I mean.
😉 When we were building the @MarylandHillel back in 2004, we bought a self-leveling laser from @Sears which we used to ensure that the lechis were directly under the wires. We nicknamed it "Reb Leyzer". The device sent out lasers in six directions. 2/

Discussions of Nittel Nacht often begin with a dichotomy: Hasidim observe the custom of not learning, whereas Litvaks disregard this and learn. But neither of these groups was the first to observe Nittel. The custom originated in an unexpected place: 1/n The Rhineland. Germany. The cradle of Ashkenaz.
The earliest record of specific Nittel customs is from the Rhineland in the late 1600s.
The first two mentions of Nittel customs are from none other than Rav Yair Hayim Bacharach, author of Havot Yair. He mentions it twice. 2/n