Category: November 2018

When the mobster wanted the money owed to him, the gabbai tzedakah could think of only one thing to do By: Shaul Behr On one of my business trips to Delhi, India, a few years ago, I was required to stay over for shabbos, where I was most grateful to be able to take advantage of the hospitality of the local Chabad. There were around 50 guests at shabbos supper, almost exclusively Israeli post-army backpackers. By my reckoning there were maybe two or three other people over the age of…

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Life is about the journey, not the destination – especially when you go by train By Chandrea Serebro It is not likely that the youth of today will ever know the feeling of that slow chugging along the desert plains, head out of the window, wind in your hair while you watch the landscape of the Karoo pass you by at what seems like a snail’s pace. Like the changing landscape of the South African plains from Johannesburg to the Cape, so too is the landscape of growing up today…

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Say goodbye to canned tuna and savour the best that Africa – and beyond – has to offer By Chandrea Serebro Imagine Kosher catering in the bush. Or, at the beach. We are not talking paper plates and plastic knives and forks, two-minute noodles or tuna. We are talking fresh, kosher food, prepared on the spot daily, the table prepared with real plates and silverware. The food is the best that kosher has to offer, but it is the scenery and the thrill of who, or rather what might join…

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By Chandrea Serebro There goes Simone Penn, chugging along in her Generation X Toyota Tazz, her greens in cardboard on the seat, drinking out of a glass. Not because it tastes better, mind you. This Spartan lifestyle isn’t a product of her bowing to popular culture or what is trending on twitter. Neither is it a result of a modest upbringing. No, this frugal existence is not built into her being. When Simone was young, her stepfather used to tease her that she had “stuffitis”, the “disease” of accumulating stuff,…

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When a couple of years turn into a life… South Africa’s charms have a way of keeping people here longer than they ever intended to stay By Chandrea Serebro   Emanuel and Tali Goldberg Belgian Emanuel Goldberg didn’t choose South Africa, but, he says “it kind of chose me”. And like all good matches, it was a great fit. “I told my mother that I would only be going to South Africa for a month,” says Emanuel, when he got an opportunity to go and learn in a yeshiva in…

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By: Dovid Samuels What did the Jewish people do after the victory over the Greek army and the entire empire’s downfall? Firstly, celebrate, surely. We know they went into the Beis Hamikdash (the Temple) and found the jar of oil and miraculously used it to light the menorah for eight days. We also know that they proclaimed those days a festival for all generations, on which we are to sing hallel (special praises to Hashem) and thank Hashem for our survival. But there was something else that the rabbis of…

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Why were the Greeks so determined to defile all of the oil for the menorah? By: Aron Ziegler The Gemara[1] discusses Chanukah: “The sages taught that on the 25th day of Kislev are the eight days of Chanukah… When the Greeks entered the Temple Chamber they defiled all the oil [there]. Once the Chashmonaim overpowered and became victorious over [the Greeks] they checked and found only one jar of oil still sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol. There was only enough oil in it to light (the menorah)…

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