So. We shall begin the Jewish Dictionary of Frum Words with Hebrew words that begin with 'A.' With that in mind, we will only get up to Amnon's today.

Ad Journal- a) A way to say "mazel tov" for $1,600. Sentence: "We should get to know less people in this community. They're honoring everybody. I'm going to be friends with people nobody likes." See Fundraiser and Day School for why I can’t afford to be Jewish in America, and why my accountant suggested I convert. b) What smart people use for advertisement. Proper Use of Ad Journal: "We at Shloimy's Deli want to wish the Simchavitz family a Mazel Tov on being honored for knowing people and loving our hot corned beef on club with Russian dressing, also known as The Simchavitz. Come on down to Shloimy's in honor of the Simchaviz's to get your hot corned beef Simchavitz style this week, 20% off. A Mazel Tov sandwich."

Accountant- A job that people have, some of whom are Jewish.

Airplane Food/TV Dinner- What Frum Jews eat everywhere they go, where they interact with not Frum people. This includes, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, banquets, their parents’ home. See Bal Tshuva for how to offend parents. Sentence: "We don’t trust the Hashgacha at the wedding. Please bring us the TV Dinner…No. We don’t want the London broil. We enjoy our cuisine vacuum-packed. Good till 2038."

Al Hamichiyah- a) A prayer you say because you want to eat baked grains and fill yourselves up without having to say the long prayer after dinner. Sentence: ‘We had crackers for supper, because we didn’t want to say the Birkas Hamazon. That prayer is too long. I would rather starve than thank Gd that much for bread. I appreciate bread, but not that much. I like the Al Hamichiyah. I like to thank Gd a little.’ b) A prayer you forget to say after you eat.

Aleiynu- a) One of the few prayers everybody knows, because it comes at the end of Davening, when you show up to shul. b) A prayer that has a bowing segment. People bow very low, because they don’t want to get whacked by the people who are folding their Tallis by swinging it, intentionally at my eye. At the end of the prayers, people fold up their Tallis shawls, which have tassels on the corners, and not one of these people is concerned with my safety.

Aliyah- a) Getting called to the Torah. For good Frum Jews it has nothing to do with Israel. b) An honor that shuls give people in order to blackmail them into giving money to the congregation. Sentence: "I got an Aliyah this past Shabbis, and then they made me say I will give a donation. The amount was announced in front of everybody... They gave me an envelope. No stamp. I guess I have to pay for that too. I haven’t used stamps in years." Alternative Sentence: "Now I am in debt. They put me on the spot and I didn’t remember that we already gave money to the Ad Journal." c) Another reason to scream at the Gabai and threaten his family. Sentence: "The piece of... didn't give me an Aliyah." And that sentence finishes with, "And now we have money for the vacation down to Florida."

Aliyah LRegel- Heading to Jerusalem on the pilgrimage festivals, in a car. That was cute, for those who know Hebrew. A Bissel Hebrew pun. You see, in Hebrew "regel" means foot. Now read the first line again. Did you read it? Of course, it’s not funny now.

Am HaAretz- a) Anybody who disagrees with the length of time Davening should be. b) Anybody who says that I am speaking Lashon Hara. c) Anybody who wants to sing another Shabbis Zemer. Sentence: "These Shabbis songs are so fun. I would love to do more of them." Sentence by Frum Jew: "I've been singing these songs for years. I've fulfilled my requirement quota of singing during dinner. I don’t want to sing again. This is not Oneg. Shabbis is about enjoyment, not singing a twenty-minute song, you Am HaAretz." d) Anybody who bows too far during the Amidah. Sentence: "This shul thing is really good for my back. Let me do another penitent move. Stretch out those hamstrings."

Amah- How they measured back in the day. They didn’t use measuring tape. They used the forearm. Similar to taking steps to tell distance. As everybody’s elbow to finger length is different, once you started a project, you needed that same guy there at all times. And they had to not grow.  Sentence: "Where is Shlomo? Wake him up. We have to make sure the pillar is a Shlomo Amah... The Nissin Amah won't work. I told you. We're building this Sukkah in Shlomo size. Low ceilings… You should have gotten a grownup. Shlomo hit a growth-spurt last week. Now the building is crooked. We should've never hired him at fourteen. I told you I'm against child labor." See Tefach for other traditional measurements that we do with people’s appendages.

Amazing Savings- a) Where Jews go shopping, because they sell aluminum pans. Either there or at a store that has "Dollar" in it. Sentence: "I trust Amazing Savings. Are you sure the Dollar Store has tins? If not, then what are we shopping for?" b) The name of a store and what you are going to do. Sentence: "I go there because the savings are amazing." Alternative Sentence: "At Amazing Savings nobody calls me cheap. I feel good when I shop there. It's Amazing. And we're all Saving."

Amen- a) Something you are supposed to say a lot at Shul. b) Response of agreement. Sentence: "You put on weight." Response: "Amen." Continuation of Response: "I don’t like you." Retort: "Amen."

Amidah- a) The silent prayer which is said out loud, together, in not Frum congregations. Sentence: "If everybody can please rise for the silent Amidah and repeat after me." See Shmonah Esrei for how we mess up numbers too. b) Something that takes longer the Frumer you are. Sentence: "I think that guy is still in the middle of the Amidah. It's been 12 minutes. He must be very religious. I can't fall asleep standing like that."

Amnon’s Pizza- a) If you don’t know this, you haven’t been to Boro Park, and thus you aren’t really Jewish. Take a trip to Brooklyn and then you can call yourself Jewish. b) What a pizza shop smells like when you keep strong to tradition, and don’t air it out for 40 years.

***This is an excerpt from the Dictionary of Jewish, written by David Kilimnick.

Mahmoud Abbas was educated at the University of Damascus. Studied law where he learned the legal right to create history.
Fatah has spent time under Abbas ensuring that they have a history, and I support that. It's not an easy task, and Abbas has taken it on. Much respect.
Abbas has taught that Big Ben was stolen from Palestine. A well-known fact, the clock was placed at Westminster Palace in 1858, after being stolen from Hebron in 1922. He has also empowered his people with knowledge of the Israeli aggressors, who use sharks to attack Gaza. The violent aggressors who trained wild pigs to destroy their fields in the settlements, Israelis also train rats to only bite Arabs. Which, if I may say is the greatest act of modern-day warfare.

I am here to help with more "Palestinian History" and propaganda about the "Israeli Aggressors."
The PLO has done a brilliant job of creating a history that did not exist. Let's help with more history for the Palestinians and their heritage of discovering the Western World.

More Palestinian History You Didn't Know
The Statue of Liberty was made by Palestinians in the year 1304 CE. They delivered it to Jaffa. Then the Americans stole it.

The Arabs built up Tel Aviv from nothing. Then Israelis stole the hotels. The huge breakfast served at Israeli hotels is Arab heritage, known as the Adhan.
It turns out that Israelis stole Mezuzahs from the Muezzin. Mezuzahs are a small Muezzin.

In 1492 Saleem sailed the ocean blue and discovered America. His ships. The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, were built in Gaza. And they traveled from the Mediterranean Sea. They first discovered Cyprus. And then America. Not many people know that Cyprus was first discovered in 1492.

The Palestinian people colonized many countries. A history they are very proud of.
The first colonizers of South Africa were Palestinians. Very light-skinned Palestinians.

Waterloo. That was them. Arafat led the charge.

Astrodome. Their idea. They built it.

Byzantine Empire was the Palestinian people's. Byzantine is ancient Greek for Palestinian.

Arafat received the Torah at Mount Sinai, and then took it to Lebanon when the Hashemite Kingdom rejected it. Another piece of Palestinian history we are very proud of.

Queen Esther was a Palestinian girl named Fahid. Her uncle, Mordechai, was really Mamoosh. The Jews stole that story from Mahmoud Abbas. He can prove that.

I left out much of the Palestinian historical facts, such as their building of the Great Wall of China. Which was first known as the Great Wall of Gaza. Which the Chinese stole, brick by brick, in the year 9,427 BCE, around 67.995 million years after the Palestinians first claimed autonomy to their homeland in Uzbekistan, which is modern day Israel.

Palestinian Facts of Israeli Aggressors
The Palestinians are the strongest nation, since the dawn of time. As early as sixty-eight million years ago, when Farid rode a stegosaurus rex to the Temple in Jericho on a motorcycle, Palestinians were already conquering the world. Yet. They have to deal with the Israeli aggressors. Too much aggression.
To note. Palestinians created choppers and that was stolen too. By Israelis.

Israelis have trained chickens to give salmonella poisoning to the people of Ramallah only.

The Jews use the Purim packages, known as Mishloach Manot, to transport thimble sized alcohol that can blow up Arabs. But they give it to Jews, and it doesn’t blow up. Go figure how the Israeli aggressors work.

Israelis birthed around 175k kids in 2024, so they will have more soldiers to fight in the war. The first word of an Israeli child is "I am a colonizer." And then the babies train pacifiers to pass on poison to Arab babies. The poison pacifiers make sure to only sell themselves to Arab Muslim kids.
Shark Tank is a ploy to overtake Palestinian Villages the settlements, known by the colonizers as the West Bank. Jordan is run by Jews.

Palestine was an autonomous state with its own people. Sixty-eight million years of autonomy till the Jews claimed falafel and shwarma as theirs.

The Israelis are not the Israelis. I believe Abbas did say this.
The real Israelis are the people living in Manila. Very bothersome, as the people living in the Philippines are truly the aggressors here. And that is Palestinian history and how they dealt with the Israeli aggressors.
I hope this all makes sense.

Last fact of Israeli aggressors: Jews implanted explosives in pagers to blow up members of Hezbollah. Now it all makes sense. Abbas' is definitely right about the sharks.

Conclusion
To learn more about Palestinian history, I would suggest purchasing a book. I saw a history book selling on Amazon. It was empty. Pages were blank, expressing the rich and honest history of the Palestinian people and their ancestors.

Announcements
The shul Turkey Bowl will be next Shabbis. We ask you celebrate Thanksgiving with nonviolence, even though there’ll be food. It’s been violent in years past, due to only offering two turkeys. This year there’ll be four turkeys so that nobody runs over Fran or Ethel.

We ask everybody be nice to the losers in our shul. They’re lonely. They all sit together. The eighteen of them crowd around their table. Sitting there talking with each other and lonely.

We welcome the Bar Mitzvah kid’s family. Though you are guests and we're happy to have you, we will not feed you or your animals. It’s getting too expensive. Ask your brother-in-law to put out some money for once. The guy hasn’t sponsored a Kiddish.

We want to apologize for any Shidduch ideas given to you by Chaya Tova. We know they are bad.

Contemporary Halacha Classes: Attacking a Turkey Violently with Mendel Baruch. How to Be a Loser like our Members. Bad Shidduch Ideas with Chaya Tova.

Rabbi Mendelchem's Drasha Excerpts
Shabbat Shalom My Pupils...
She lived one life... I know it says Chayei... Maybe it should've said "Chay Sarah." But it didn't. And you would've asked if she is still living...
Eliezer is sent to find a wife for Yitzchak. Avraham doesn’t trust any Shadchan. Avraham would’ve never sent Chaya Tova out there. She’s a Yenta and she has the worst ides for Shidduchs. Which is why Noach is still single...

(Bereishit 24:14) In his prayer to Gd to help him find a wife real quickly for Yitzchak, Eliezer says, “And the girl that I tell, ‘Please give me your pitcher and I will drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink and I will also give your camels water,' she is proven for your servant Yitzchak. And by her, I will know that you did kindness (Chesed) with my master.”
He based the proper wife on Midot. Positive attributes in actions. He could've said, "If she says, 'No. You get the water,' I will know that she is a daughter of Howard Felsenberg...
Eliezer didn’t want to work hard. That’s why it’s a great act of Chesed. He wanted it done quickly. First girl that says I’ll help. 
Right when I got to Beis Knesses Anshei Emes uSefilah, I knew nobody would help with a Minyin. I realized that right away. It was a Chesed from H' that I knew to never expect anything from our congregants...

It is a Chesed to find somebody a wife that is good for them. Not somebody Chaya Tova suggests... I know this, because the Shidduchs that Chaya Tova does are not Chesed. Worst ideas... Good and decent people Chaya Tova. Not people who are desperate and not good looking...
It was kindness. Something the Shadchans in our community don’t do. Simcha and Noach have never said, “Thank you Faigel for setting us up with the girl nobody likes.”

Rashi teaches that “she will be proven (shown)” means that she is “one who does acts of kindness, and she is worthy to enter into the house of Avraham.” People who don’t do kindness are not welcome. Which is why I always say the board members and the president are not welcome in our shul... I know they claim that they run it...
What makes somebody fit to be part of Avraham’s family? Giving. Kindness. And Kindness to animals.
To be fit for our shul, you have to want to eat as much as you can at Kiddish, and to ensure that others will not get Kugel. You take and make sure you have. Then you don’t offer others.
Girls are not like this nowadays... Nowadays, you have to draw the water and cook for yourself. Not fit for Avraham’s family...
​
You offer food. Even to Bar Mitzvah kids’ families. Have you seen how bad the catering is?! They invite them for the weekend, to a Simcha, and don't feed them. They ask you to the host their family and then you have to feed their family...
Bad catering would not have been in Avraham’s family. They served tongue.
Eliezer made sure they had good food...
They’re guests in our shul. You let them get to the Kiddish first... Animal food is crazy expensive. That's why we don't serve it at Kiddish. We would have dogs elbowing each other to get to the treats.

Kindness of H', kindness of Eliezer, kindness of Rivka. That is what makes for good family and guests that we don't have to take care of... They're your guests Baruch... Then drop off food baskets before the event...

The Tukey Bowl is not a physical activity. Our congregants would not participate in anything that might be deemed healthy. It’s a big bowl a turkey cooked in for Shabbat Kiddish. If you eat free food, you’re worthy to enter into our community.
Rivka was a giver. She would've let other people take turkey first. She would've served them... She wasn't cheap. She couldn’t give Coke. They didn’t have Coca-Cola three thousand years ago.
Rivka would've shared the turkey...

It’s hard to tell who the losers are. But they’re part of the community. They are still nice. They are losers and nice... That one is smug. A smug loser. You don’t have to be nice to her. Mocking everybody with her loserness...
I understand they have more friends than you, Shlomo. You're not a loser. You just have no personality...

Pets are not allowed at Kiddish anymore... I don’’t think Eliezer was praying for a girl that would bring her cat to Kiddish.
It’s about being a giver. That’s what Avraham’s family represented. Thinking about others. Not like the board...

Work on better Shidduch ideas. When setting up somebody you care about, think “who would not fit into our congregation.” That is a good a person that a family would want...

(Bereishit 24:22) Of course he gave her a gold nose ring. What girl would want to marry a guy without money and nose rings?!... Nobody in our congregation gives anything. Not even their dues...

Rivka's Rundown
​The girls in our community are not happy with the guy options either. The worst Shidduch ideas. Never trust Chaya Tova. One time she set up Noach. Killed her reputation with the girls.

Many congregants said that Rivka only gave water because it was free. At least she shared it.
The people in our shul like to take stuff. They never give. I’ve never been offered even water. I fainted once and somebody else took the water.
Only time they gave money was at the raffle. They were hoping to take the prize.

The rabbi went off on women not helping around the house... He seems to be very against the feminist movement

It's a Chutzpah. They invite their family for the Shabbis of the Bar Mitzvah, to my house.
It's a bit crazy when they’re hosting the Bar Mitzvah and half of their cousins are staying at my house. And I have to feed them.
The Fleishmann family truly expects me to be righteous. They figure that as long as there are righteous people in the community, they don't have to do anything.

The Turkey Bowl brings people to shul, to eat. Like every Shabbis. Free food. The one thing I don't understand is that the turkey bowl is a plain pot.

The losers have more friends than me. The Dungeons and Dragons players are the cool people. The losers are hanging out with people, partying. Having conversation. The losers are the cool guys.
Nasty losers who rag on everybody. how does that work? Maybe it's because they have the friends to back them. 
I feel like the non-losers need friends. They're sitting there, looking all hip, with a guy that comes for a "what's up" every five minutes. Then they're stuck standing there with a hand in the pocket and one holding a drink, staring out to nowhere, like a JC Penney ad.

How did they do it? How did the Conversos fool the Spaniards?
Conversos are also called Crypto-Jews, but I wouldn’t suggest investing in them. Crypto means hidden or "a friend told me I could make a lot of money if I listen to him." We will not use Marranos, as that is now offensive, as is anytime I call somebody by something I used to know them. Phil is offended when I call him Phil. I used to call him Phil, now that offends him. So, I call him Crypto-Mark. To answer your question, the Spanish people were not very smart, so hiding their Judaism wasn’t very hard. Here is how they fooled them. Here is what they told the Inquisitors.

Mezuzahs
It just got stuck there on the doorpost. It's a windchime that got stuck.
How they got all over the house, is an excellent question. We built one room at a time, so each room you see was at one point the room leading out of the house. A lot of windchimes.
The new windchimes from Bernaldo's Home and Repair?! Well. The house developed goiters. Some came out in interesting shapes, so we carved a Magen David into them. Jewish stars just look nice. We like the pattern.

Tefillin
Messed up belts. The buckles got too big. Turned into huge boxes. I thought one would look cool on the head. Right?! I know it looks kind of cool. Style-arte if you will. It's a fashion thing I'm trying.

Yarmulke
No. It's not a Kippah. It's a hat without a visor. Sometimes, you don't need that stuff popping out around the head, keeping out the sun. You just need the top. My family balds real fast. It stops the sunburn up there.
And how do you know what a Kippah is?! (that will stop the Inquisitors from asking more questions)

Shofar
This is part of the horns section. We thought a trumpet, then we said we like this sound. Can only do this note, but that's the note we want.
We like these three specific sounds with it. The one blast. The three short blasts. The seven quick blasts. That's the kind of music we like. 
Yeah. We were playing it for a day or two in Septembe. Then we get board of it.

Chanukiah
It's not a Menorah. It's a lamp. A candelabra with eight stems, and then one in the middle. The middle one is a little higher for decoratory purposes.
Check out the oil we use. Yeah. We like to keep around eight days' worth. 

Jewish Art
It's just the look. It's the look we like. It's that ancient Temple look with people in sackcloth. Love the dichotomy.
No. That's Arabic letters written on top of the ark.

Tzedakah
We like putting our charity in a tiny box, with a slit. We make sure to never give more than a nickel at a time. It's our family tradition to be cheap. 
It's a piggy bank. Yeah. That's what it is. A piggy bank. A charity pig. We save money for others. 

Torah Scroll
No. That's just more enjoyable. Ever try reading off a scroll? It makes you feel like royalty.
A scroll with Arabic that was dedicated by the Schwartz family. Yeah. That's why the cloth covers it. They dedicated it to our house in honor of their grandparents.
Why are we yelling at the guy reading it?! We're all his teachers. One student and a lot of teachers teaching this guy how to read Arabic off a scroll correctly. More teachers is more affective.
​
They were so good at fooling Inquisitors that many decedents of Crypto-Jews don't even know they have Jewish ancestry. They have a nice book with five books in it that Papa used to like to read every Saturday morning. Then they have that family tradition of having a huge last supper every year, with big crackers and four cups of wine. A family tradition to get the little ones drunk and asking questions about the famous family saltwater recipe. Then they have the fancy food cubbies for three flat round tortillas that their grandparents liked to use around springtime. 
And that is how Bitcoin started.

It was the young man's engagement party. We'll call him Shmuel Baruch. Well, Shmuel Baruch was very nervous. He had impressed the young woman, but he had not impressed the rabbis yet. None of them agreed to marry him.
At an engagement party (we'll call it a Vort, a LChaim, a Tichel party- anything to get more gifts), there were many rabbis. Why so many rabbis were there is a question people are still asking. The Shidduch was already made. They already knew he was Jewish. It was too late to change the thing. But, you never know what can happen once community gets involved in a marriage.

The Chatan, groom, got up to give a speech and quoted a Minchat Chinuch. He didn't have any original ideas, so he quoted Rabbi Yosef Ben Moshe Babad. We know him as the Minchat Chinuch, because by the time you finish saying his name, people are asking if the guy finished the Dvar Torah yet.
In the middle of the speech, a commotion came from the rabbis' table. It wasn't a sermon. You can't talk during a sermon. You can talk during a Dvar Torah given by anybody that isn't a rabbi. Halacha. I'm assuming.
One rabbi was telling the others that he's never seen that Minchat Chinuch. So they all started mocking the Chatan. I was impressed the Chatan was able to quote a Minchat Chinuch. Forget about whether it exists or not. The fact that he quoted the Minchat Chinuch is impressive. The rabbis should've been commotioning about that. But instead they mocked, "Look at the guy misquoting the Minchat Chinuch. He couldn't even misquote a Sugiah from the Gemara. Pathetic. My son-in-law misquotes Tosfos."

​The commotion died down and the Chatan finished his Dvar Torah. I thought he was done when he returned to his speech and went on to tell everybody the name of the author of the Minchat Chinuch.
I should note, he was a religious Chatan, a Frum groom. He was a Chussan.

Rabbi Elyashiv saw this and made it a point to check into it, as the Chussan was correct. He was quoting the Minchat Chinuch correctly, though it wasn't a Gemara. It had Gemara in it, but it wasn't Gemara. Rav Elyashiv realized that negative thoughts can sit there and simmer, even if they're not true. Which is why people still think it's a good idea to serve black and white cookies instead of chocolate peanut butter squares.
Rabbi Elyashiv asked where the father-in-law to be is in the mornings. It turns out the father-in-law goes to the Mikvah every morning at 4am, to wash himself off of the contamination of a son-in-law. Rav Elyashiv said, "Convenient. 4am is perfect. I'll be there. 4am at the Mikvah." Apparently, there is no Minchat Chinuch about that.
It turns out 4am is Rabbi Elyashiv preferred time for meetings.

To ensure the father-in-law didn't have time to think about this foolish son-in-law to be, Rabbi Elyashiv was at the Mikvah at 4am. The father-in-law was listening to Rabbi Elyashiv. You listen to a rabbi when he meets you at the Mikvah. It's a very awkward situation. You're trying to dunk and they're not even handing you a towel. You try to make it out out of there. You sit there and listen to what the guy has to say.

Rabbi Elyashiv gave the father-in-law a package. Inside was an old Minchat Chinuch. Rabbi Elyashiv didn't have the money for a new one. He was supporting a Beit Midrash, and all of his time he could've spent focusing on the stock market, people were asking him Halachik questions. The price of being a Gadol HaDor. Very expensive, and you're broke. Turns out people don't pay for you to answer their questions.
Rabbi Elyashiv turned to the page and pointed, "This is the Minchat Chinuch your son-in-law quoted last night." It might have been a different one. The father-in-law was spacing out the whole time the Chussan was talking, trying to figure out why his daughter wasn't marrying the rich one, the one was carrying his own new Minchat Chinuch.

Negative thoughts develop. even if they're not true. By jumping on the issue right away and meeting the father-in-law at the Mikvah at 4am, Rabbi Elyashiv saved the son-in-law from negative thoughts developing about him by his father-in-law. Thoughts that would've been much worse if the son-in-law had shown up at 4:15am to take a dunk in the Mikvah.
When the father-in-law now thinks of his son-in-law, he thinks the guy is a Yutz who can't make a living.

Lessons of What Followed
As we learn from the rabbis, demeaning people is wrong, unless if you're mocking somebody for not knowing Torah.
You don't let negative feelings simmer. You don't let Lashon Hara fly around. That's a different story about ripping a pillow and letting the feathers fly all over to teach somebody that you can repent for Lashon Hara by littering. Ripping up pillows and throwing trash on the street does not stop Lashon Hara from spreading. The lesson here is, you don't let people sit on bad thoughts of others. It creates a mindset you can't take back. Nothing to do with bedding.

More Lessons
Don't talk at your engagement party. You already got the girl. You don't have to prove anything anymore.
Never talk in front of rabbis. When there are rabbis at your party, let them speak. Otherwise, they're going to interrupt you.
Sit the rabbis with their congregants. They won't want to talk. If they talk, the congregants will fall asleep.
The true tragedy of this whole event is, that nobody talks about, they only had one platter of chocolate peanut butter squares at the engagement party. They were gone in a minute. It turns out the rabbis were talking about their disappointment in having to eat black and white cookies. They were mocking the assortment of pastry.

Final Lesson
If you ever have something important to tell somebody, say it to them at the Mikvah at 4am.

Epilogue
And since then, stories of inspiration have been told about Chatans to many single people. These include inspirational stories of the eighty-year-old who still got married. Told to a twenty-five-year-old, to instill hope in the young soul, letting him know he'll be single for another fifty-five years.
The rabbi still has not seen that Minchat Chinuch. It turns out he doesn't learn Sefer HaChinuch either.
Why didn't Rav Elyashiv correct the rabbi there, when the Chatan was giving the Dvar Torah? Because he wasn't at the Mikvah. You don't correct people who are fully dressed.

***I probably got the story wrong. See Living Chessed (p.28-29) by R' Avrohom Asher Makovsky who hopefully recounts the story correctly.

Announcements
Mazel Tov to the Kornbluth family on the worst Bris. No onions were provided. Nobody enjoyed the bagels. From now on, anybody who hosts a Simcha with bagels must provide onions. The rabbi had to take the Mohel back to his place to cut up some onions. Mohels should not be cutting onions... Tomatoes are optional. Lox may be served without tomatoes.

We are very proud of our shul programming. We have another speaker coming next week. We ask that people stop trying to be creative and we stick to speakers. There’s no reason for a games night if you don’t have a speaker at it. Our programming focus is speakers.

Bingo lost money again. We’re the only shul who loses money at Bingo. We ask the volunteers sell the snacks, and not eat them.
 
Contemporary Halacha Classes: How to Have People Not Bless Your Son by Not Providing Onions for the Lox. How to Ruin a Program with a Speech. How to Make Money off Bingo and Not Report it Like The Pintzkowitzs.

Rabbi Mendelchem's Drasha Excerpts
Shabbat Shalom My Pupils...
The angels come to destroy Sedom and the Sedomites want to "know them"... This is why I was very skeptical when Merv and Ethel invited us over for dinner when I first started as rabbi...
We’ve all been there. Lot offers his daughters. That’s how messed up Lot's family was. Imagine the Hershblooms. They were even worse than the Hershblooms...

(Bereishit 19:13) The angels tell Lot to get out of Sedom with his family. ‘For we are destroying this place, for their outcry (their screams) have become great before H’...’ What is the outcry? They were out of control. Were they loving it? Were they not? It’s hard to tell the difference between partying and crying when it’s immoral. When you have a shul that has no idea how to run a Bingo night...

When you hear screaming coming from junior congregation, you have no idea what it means. Is it that they're playing paper football, or is Shayna's hair getting pulled out again... Your son is an animal, Baruch. I don't know what you do at home, but I am sure stuff is getting destroyed.

His son-in-law mocks it. (Bereishit 19:14) ‘He was like a a guy making jokes in the eyes of his son-in-law.’ No. I’m not making jokes now, Bernie.
His son-in-law influenced by Sedeom. He couldn’t see the evil. Kind of like the same way the congregants are influenced by the board... They have no idea what Torah is. Ethel. They think it's a corporation...

There was an outcry at the Bris. People wanted onions with their lox.
You don't serve lox without onions. Who eats lox without onions?... Of course you need cream cheese and lox. But it means nothing without onions.
And no eggs???
It was a bagel nightmare... And what do tomatoes do? Exactly. Nothing. Onions. Always have onions... Not whole onions. You don’t put a whole onion on a bagel. Got to cut them...

When you’re around poor Kiddishes and a town that doesn’t have a decent caterer, you forget. You think that is normal. You want to scream at the immorality...
Now you’re bringing up cream cheese again??? Is that even a question. What? Are you going to put butter on the bagel with lox?!

The board decided on speakers. They’ve decided that people like to listen to people speak... Excuse me Bernie. I’m speaking right now...
You have no idea what Victor from Israel talked about. He was a speaker. He didn't talk... The whole time Victor was focused on the meet and greet and how there were bagels and lox, but no onions.
It’s like you want to scream. You want to scream when you don’t get onions.  When you have to listen to another speaker, you want to scream. You want to scream when you’re the only shul that can’t make profit on Bingo....

Who loses money at Bingo... Then stop eating the snacks. Sell them.
I don't know if people are screaming because they won, or because they lost 12 thousand dollars. And now they can't pay their mortgage... I don't know why people in shul can't pay their dues. Are you guys going to church Bingo?...
It's all immoral.

We can’t let this be the shul normal. There is a huge outcry and we don’t even hear it, because the Chazin is so loud...

The angels tell Lot to leave. Lot doesn’t want to leave. He doesn’t want to go too far. (Bereishit 19:18-20) He wants to go to a lesser bad Sedom city.
When you’re in a bad place, you want to stay. You don’t realize it. When you're at Beis Knesses Anshei Emes uSefilah, you want to scream. The membership. The board. The Chazin...

Pirkei Avot (1:17) 'Distance yourself from a bad neighbor. And don't become friends with an evil person.' Which is why I am not friends with my congregants.
We learn to find a moral place and be there. Find your morality and keep it... I'm here to teach. It's a mission. I'm trying to help you get out...

It’s hard when you’re in the thick of it. It’s hard to see the bad. You hear the screams and you think it's only kids gouging out eyes. We know junior congregation is scary and no parent wants to be there. Kids yelling.
There was an outcry at the Bris. People wanted onions with their lox. But you still go to the Bris, because you don't know any better. It becomes normal. The yelling. The madness. The anger over having lox with tomatoes and no onions just, you accept your fate...

This place is out of control. We must have control to keep the morality. To keep bringing in speakers. To have a well-run Bingo night. To ensure there are onions for the lox.
Keep your moral integrity and decent bagels.

Baruch's son has destroyed the building again. He's yelling and out of control. And now all the little girls and boys are crying...
Whether if it's for extreme pleasure or for extreme pain, either way, screaming is a concern.

Rivka's Rundown
The rabbi was telling the shul that they had bagels with no lox and no onions in Sedom. That is where all went wrong. He equated having no onions with the need for destruction of a people.

The rabbi literally yelled the whole sermon to get across his point that you can't sleep during his sermons.The board has been bad for so long, they are messed up. The rabbi was saying to destroy them.

What's a scream? That's a great question. And I appreciate the rabbi dealing with it very loudly.
When Bernie yells out during the rabbi's sermon, we know what that is. That's disruption.

I believe the rabbi said junior congregation is a bigger curse than the board. He did say that at least they're not in shul itself. To quote, 'Keep kids out of shul. I am already dealing with Bernie.'

Finally, the rabbi approached the onion issue.
I just left the Kornbluth Bris. I saw there were no onions. I went home and had cereal. It was very disappointing. After all of those Brachas for the newborn child and the cutting, to have no onions and no eggs. A shanda.

Everything is a speaker. You can’t have a program without a speaker. That’s the big thing. A speaker and 5k. You get a speaker, you pay a lot and it’s a shul program. It allows people to say they went to a speaker. They never have anything to say about the speaker, because they fell asleep. People will pay a lot for a good nap, if the person is famous.
The rabbi started handing out tests after the speakers. He even kicked out a member who scored a 30 on the test. It was my friend Malkie. She didn’t even know the guy was talking about medical ethics. She fell asleep as soon as he started talking about comas.

I think I'm going to change my profession to a speaker. I can talk about how the rabbi is right. I'm sure the rabbi will dip into his discretionary fund for me.
Most of the people in our shul are talkers. Nobody likes talkers. They like speakers.

Bingo has been pathetic. I think it’s the volunteering. Our membership hears that word and they run.

Law 4-8: There are Malachim and then there is you, and you know nothing.

Law 4: Everything in Tanach about Gd being a fire (Devarim 4:24), etc., it's all metaphor. Gd is not a fire. Please keep that in mind when cooking. You're not sticking a frankfurter in Gd.
Many are right now questioning their faith, as they thought Gd was a fire. An aspect of Gd could be in the fire. He could not be fire. He's definitely more than that. Maybe an aspect of H' is connected to it somehow. I don't know if Rambam would agree with anything I wrote there. I can tell you that Gd is not a fire.
The Torah isn't lying. Metaphors are not lies, once you know they’re a metaphor. I'm just happy the Rambam told us.

Law 5-6: There are different kinds of creations. One of them is my cousin.
​Man is physical and can therefore not understand H.' So, we spend our lives trying to understand H.'
Every creation, though, comes from the strength of His truth. The truth is that you are annoying. Even so, you are still a creation. As messed up as something may seem, it is a creation of Gd’s. Thin Tahini. The thick stuff is so much better. There's a H's truth right there.
Everything exists through the power of H' and His goodness. Each thing is spiritually higher or lower than the next. There is someone better than you. The Ramabm has a way of rubbing it in.

Law 7: From the non-physical creatures, Malachim, there are those that are in a higher realm than others. Even they're competing.
Lowest level of angels is 'Ishim' because they are close to man. They are the ones that communicate with prophets. That's how low they are. They have to deal with people. It's like a curse of being the lowest in the angel realm. And they’re dealing with prophets.
So, us regular people have no connection with the Malachim, which kind of kills the friendship I was hoping to foster with the ones in the middle realms. I figure that they want some contact with somebody too.
Could you imagine if they had to deal with the members of my shul. Those are the angels they’re picking on. The ones they're hazing. “Look at you, having to talk Pinchas down from attacking the Gabai. Maybe you can cry over not getting the ark opening job at shul. Seems to be a big worry. I’m going to be up here riding Gd’s chariot. Basking in Glory.”

Law  8: Malachim, angels, can understand H' better than us. But we still have to try to feel important. So, we talk about politics and sports.
Even the highest angels can't grasp H.' I hope you are catching on here. You have no chance, so learn Torah.
No one can know H' like He knows Himself. Most people don't even know who they are. I can tell you who they are, and I am not an angel. They are annoying.

Lesson:
What's the point. You will never know.
This is the least inspirational learning I have done. Even so, I feel closer to H' now.

They're still accusing Israel of aggression. So, I figured I would put together some of the arguments against the lies again. It's a tradition to re-argue against the lies every half a year. We have to do this almost as often as we vote in Israel.
If accusing Israel of stuff they didn't do bothers you, I’m guessing antisemitism bothers you. Good luck. In the meantime, here are some myths I noticed surfacing this year. I’ll give you some ways of debunking them so you can be friends with people that hate you again.
I apologize if you're offended by my calling terrorists.

Genocide
Fools are calling Jewish defense of Israel genocide.
You're truly not trying to kill a people when you're knocking on their doors, warning them you're planning a surprise attack.
Israel is always trying to give warning to civilians to get out. Israeli soldiers are knocking on doors, "Excuse me. Just wanted to say 'Shalom.' We hear there is a terrorist in your house. We didn't want to disturb anybody. Pleases let them know we're attacking tomorrow at 12:13pm, to be exact. It's a surprise attack. Might be a couple minutes late. We don't want to shock anybody." And most of the time, out of politeness, the soldiers ring the bell.
They're dropping flyers with information on where to go. Inviting the terrorists to rock concerts. It's the most friendly attack. We send leaflets letting them know there's a terrorist living in their home. We announced on the radio that people were drilling under their homes, just in case they didn't contract for renovations. We didn't want the Gazans to have to pay for work on their home they didn't want. Israel even calls their cellphones, just in case their kids never call. First rule in honoring your parents is you call.
We have commanders on loud speakers. "Everybody get out of the area. We're going to be bombing here. If you're a member of Hamas, now is the time. The IDF will be here tomorrow... Sorry. We didn't mean to wake anybody up. We’re sorry if we’re disrupting any production of explosives. Keep safe. Toodeloo."
And the people of Gaza have multiplied eightfold since 1948. Now numbering over two million people who are trying to kill us.

Torture
They're saying Israeli soldiers are torturing the prisoners.
Singing "Am Yisrael Chai" is not torture, even if they're doing that Hora hand dance with it. Singing a song about the Jewish people and our ancestors living is not an evil act, even if the UN calls it a war crime. That's unless if the people from my shul are signing. My community singing anything is wrong. Very off tune.
I must admit, the hand dance does come off as gloating.

There Was a Palestinian State
No. There wasn't. Never.

Rape is Fine if It's Against Jews
No. It's not. At least I don't think so. I might be wrong here. I don't associate with the feminist movement.

FIDF is Anti-Israeli Soldiers
FIDF stands for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. I also thought it was against the IDF when I heard it the first time. It's not 'F the.'

Jews Try to Be Funny
Jews take a chance at being funny.
Fact: Sometimes they're not.

Israelis are Aggressors
They claim Jews are aggressors.
Have you ever seen Israeli Folk Dancing? You can't be an aggressor while dancing like that. You can't do a "Mayim BSason" twirl and scare people.
We've been accused of being aggressors ever since we got attacked in the late 1800s for making Israel livable. Sorry. Palestine. I didn't mean to offend anybody's hatred of Jews.
It seems like some of the Arabs and BBC don't understand the definitions the way I do. Correctly. The way the dictionary defines the words. The meaning of the words that they are using. With punctuation used. The intended application. The English language.
They're calling Jews aggressors for dancing. Saying Jews have committed genocide by trying to save lives of people who are housing terrorists. Maybe they just understand English differently. English is not their first language. Nor is it the New York Times'.

Apartheid
This must mean "allowing foreign people to come into your land and work, even if they want to kill you." I believe that's the Oxford definition.

ELAL is Giving Deals
No. ELAL is charging as much as possible. Fact. They are loving the war.

The Death Toll in Gaza is...
I believe the death toll is up to 12 million Gazans now.
I'm not making fun of death. Innocent people dying is a tragedy. I'm trying to understand arithmetic and how more people have been killed than there are.
They're throwing numbers out there and the BBC and CNN are going with it. You can't just say people are dying if they don't exist. Again, I'm feeling stupid. Metaphysically, someone who was never born is dead. That must be it. Over ten million Gazans were never born because of Israel. I'm just not as spiritually in touch as news anchor.
We need death rules: a) You have to be dead to be considered dead. b) You can't die more than once. You die. That's it. You're dead. I saw one kid die fourteen times. It's a tragedy. Fourteen of them. And I feel bad for the kid. c) You can't not be dead and be dead. I saw a video where the guy was laying there, dead. He then, flipped the sheet off, reached up and got a Coke from his friend. The hardship that guy went through. Do you know what it's like to be dead with a parched throat. To think he had an itch under the sheet as well. A dead person shouldn't know of such things. Another dead guy jumped off the stretcher at his own funeral and started running. The guy was sprinting. The most in shape dead guy I've ever seen. I believe that was number 13 million and 2. Another million have died since publishing this article. Hamas reported it.

People Like Carlebach Minyins
Myth: Some people like to sing for five hours in shul. Fact: It turns out Jews want to get out of shul.
Speaking of crimes against our people. If Israelis were making the Gazans sit through a Carlebach service, I would side with the UN.

Occupiers
They say Jews are occupiers. They say that us being in Israel is "the occupation."
My father A"H told me that his mother always said that "a Jewish boy should have a good occupation."
Anything sounds bad when you add "the" in there. "The vote." When was that? It ruined so many lives. If they just called it "Nakba" they'd be celebrating. They'd be thanking Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon. Even the Egyptians. It's the fact that they always say "The Nakba."

Israel Has Elections All the Time
That's true.

The People of Gaza are Innocent
They say the people who voted for Hamas have nothing to do with Hamas.
Is this why they were cheering when they heard Jews were killed. Is this why they were having parties when they saw an Israeli woman raped. Sorry. I don't have a joke for this one yet.
Arab villages in the settlements had fireworks going off on October 7th. It seemed like thousands of people got married specifically that night. Maybe they thought it was a football match.

I hope this helps.
There is more. They say Israel is committing war crimes, singing songs like "Am Yisrael Chai" which the Geneva Convention banned. And they say that the people of Israel are divided. Nobody is taking this war that seriously. It's not the Supreme Court we're talking about.
It's hard to fight the propaganda when you're being attacked by a people whose number one weapon is their three year old child. Hamas is using them as shields, shooting them out of cannons, killing them fourteen times.
They one thing they accurately claimed is attempted genocide, already on October 8th. Hamas tried. Many have tried. But we stand strong, from the river to the sea.
"Am Yisrael Chai." There I go. Committing genocidal war crimes.

Announcements
Hoarding in our community must stop. All of your stuff ends up at the shul. The fire department stopped by and blamed the rabbi for being a hoarder, because the Horvitz family dropped off a truckload of clothes. The shul is not Goodwill.

We ask you pay your dues with money you have. Bounced checks don’t count as payment. Trying is not appreciated. We understand it’s school tax season. We ask you pay dues as another tax write-off. If it's a tax write-off some of you might pay it.

Bingo volunteers should not be playing Bingo. It looks rigged when the ones calling are winning. We are losing customers, due to seeing the ushers hand winnings to themselves. If you’re winning and you’re the one bringing the cards to the game, it comes off wrong.

Contemporary Halacha Classes: How to Not Care About People so Your Shul Doesn’t Turn into a Goodwill, Chas vShalom. How to Get Written Off By the Shul by Not Paying Your Dues. How to Make it Look Like the Bingo Game is Rigged, with Bracha.

Rabbi Mendelchem's Drasha Excerpts
Shabbat Shalom My Pupils...
(Bereishit 13:5-8) The land couldn’t support the flocks and cattle of both Avraham and Lot. ‘And the land couldn’t support their living together, for their possessions were much and they couldn’t dwell together.’ Sounds like Jim and Bracha. Their marriage... You guys are hoarders.
When you can’t live with somebody else’s wealth, you can’t live with them, and this congregation has absolutely no money. At least the congregants give nothing to Tzedakah. I think we’re only together because nobody gives anything to the shul. The community bonds by not donating anything useful to the shul. By not helping... Ever seen the sisterhood?! Helping leads to fights.

And there was a fight between their herdsmen.
What are you going to fight over? Who was less helpful to the congregation.

Success did not allow for them to live in peace. Success separates families. Wealth pulls families apart. It definitely hasn’t stopped people from coming to shul, who don’t pay dues. It doesn’t stop them from coming to shul and not sponsoring Kiddish.

Did you ever notice how annoying rich people are?!... Poor people are annoying too. We have a lot of them in our shul.

So they separate. All should be good. Lot chooses the planes of the Yarden. Beautiful land. But again, great land means nothing without the right people. Lot encamped all the way down in Sedom. (13:13) ‘Now the people of Sedom were wicked and sinners before H’, exceedingly.’ And we know what happens there. Kind of like the board that ruined a great Bingo night. Could’ve been a great thing for our shul, like Beit Knessed Ashirut vSimcha. They run a great Bingo night, because Samantha is not running their board...

Again, Lot ends up not doing well...
Choosing based on money and living for financial success just leads to strife and bad relationships. Bad relationships with a yacht.

Would we rather have wealthy or poor congregants? Good question. Let’s start with congregants. Those are annoying. I'm thinking of giving them a choice to go to East Topeka. I'll go west...
You give the worst donations. Instead of giving of your wealth to charity, you dump stuff on the shul... Your old set of Monopoly is not a donation... It's missing the railroad cards and the thimble piece. Everybody wants to be the thimble... Your set of Monopoly will ruin junior congregation. And those kids don't give money either...
Throw it out. Why is it that the shul is your warehouse? We understand you collect doll heads. Those scare kids. And I can't stand junior congregation too.

If it’s valuable, why are you dropping it off at shul? You’ve never given anything valuable to this congregation... Your Davening is not appreciated. No value. That is not a donation...

Your check bounced... Your note that the shul should cover school taxes. Why are we to pay for school taxes?...

It’s not all about money. It’s about what you do with money, your relationships... I don’t like people either... I am sorry if you don’t have enough money to pay school taxes. Maybe this shul isn’t for you. Shul taxes.
We're going to start charging shul taxes.

We must support the shul. Not to fight over the shul having money... We don't have money. You don't pay your dues. All we have is Bingo...
It’s not gambling. It’s Bingo.
There aren't enough people supporting the gambling in our shul. Other shuls are drawing so many more people to Bingo because they have good callers. You're bringing up stories of your ancestors in Odessa. It's 'O-63.' Just say 'O-63.' You don't have to go, 'O, as in Odessa. Where I come from. My family immigrated...'
We’ll never be successful if the volunteers are winning. You called the game and said, ‘The winner is me.’
Bracha. You took the money out of your hand, showed it to everybody. Then, put it in your pocket... They all knew about you winning. You waved the money and smiled and did a leg kick on your jump... You even started singing, 'I'm in the money... I've got a lot of cash to help me get along.' And the Bingo players were asking how you won without a card...
We would be more successful if one of the card sellers went to one side and the other went the other way. Sometimes, separating does do good for a community... The problem is this community is like Sedom and Amorah. They also never donated to shul.

If we just had the issues of boundaries with money... Our issues of boundaries are our congregants over-bothering the rabbi.

Sometimes in life you go to your destiny. Other times in life you get away from wealthy people. And other times in life, you have to deal with congregants that offer nothing to the shul. Congregants that are so against money that they won’t pay their dues or help at Bingo... I feel like H’ is telling me that there is a whole land of amazing congregations and I should go and choose one...

May we be Zoyche to more fights and congregants that are useful.

Rivka's Rundown
The rabbi made a great argument for focusing on wealth to keep people away. To quote Zahava, ‘If my wealth keeps people away, and I don’t have to talk to them at Kiddish, because I have money, I’m happy.’ Zahava isn’t wealthy, but she has learned to keep people away while she’s eating kugel.
She has even found a way to get out of showing up to family events, like Lot, by sending big gifts.
I think the rabbi just said everybody is annoying. That was his message.

You want to pull a family apart, leave your kids money. Save up money and don't write a will, and your kids will hate each other. Again, separating family. It separated mine. And now, I don't get invited to half the Simchas. I save on gifts. Being poor doesn't hurt, as long as somebody wealthy separates you.

The rabbi made it very clear. He only wants congregants with money. But they shouldn’t focus on money. They should give it to the shul.

The shul is not Goodwill. It turns out, the shul doesn't care about people, especially those in need. If somebody is in need and can pay full membership, they might care.
The fact that there was a 'Chas vShalom' added to the rabbi's class about giving to people, a strong 'Gd forbid,' expresses the importance of community and keeping people out.
People still drop off their junk at shul. They say it’s not junk. But when they drop it off, we know it is. We've even had people come to pick up a 1960s Barbie they dropped off by accident. They felt bad the shul might make money off it.

They drop it off and say it’s something the shul can use. Who makes that decision over a bike tire that went flat?! We need another committee for taking people’s junk.
The fact that Simmie thought his Davening was him giving to the shul is the real issue. If you wonder why people can't stand Simmie, it has nothing to do with his wealth.

The shul is to blame for school taxes. Why? Because they ask for dues at the same time the town is collecting school taxes.
School, Shul, they sound the same. Not a shocker. They all want our money.
The key is tax write-offs. People need to hear that. They feel like they save money when they hear write-off. Anything with write-off makes them happy. Ethel Berman wrote-off her brother. Now they don't talk, and she is happy.
Everything should be a tax write-off. Our congregants would spend a lot more. The board decided that next year's Yizkur Appeal will have 'Tax Write-off' written on it.

The rabbi is more worried about people showing up to Bingo than Shabbat morning Shacharit.
He said Bingo is not gambling but a game. To quote, 'It's a game where everybody loses and the shul wins.'
It turns out Simcha knows that I-23 and G-57 are weighted. Weighted Bingo balls should be forbidden, as weighted measurements. For some reason, nobody in the congregation has said anything about the weighted balls. And Bracha is fine with it.

The rabbi ended his sermon by blessing everybody with wealth, and that their family should hate them.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane to David complaining about people giving him a beautiful holiday fruit platter and kids enjoying themselves on Simchat Torah, with Kibbitzer's pictures of laughter from last month. We want to thank David Kilimnick for stealing food from the shuk and bringing up the price on Chamutzim in Israel.

Last time we discussed haggling. Now we will discuss practice and working the techniques. The Third of What They Say Technique, The You Name the Price and Run With What You Want Technique, The Walk Away Method. The Purchase What You Don’t Want Tactic. How do you prepare for Israel?! That is today's question.
Practice. Like anything in life, you must practice. You don’t just show up as a tourist expecting to get a bargain. You don't just show up to the Kotel expecting to not get attacked by the Tefillin guy, unless if you've been practicing your wind sprints. You don't just order falafel and expect to get an extra falafel ball, unless if you told them to hold off on the salads - a money topping method used by the skilled falafel purchaser who has practiced balancing the free salatim - a money saving method for the thrifty falafel eater. You prepare. You study. You learn Hebrew. I have a friend who spent five years getting her doctorate in Hebrew, just so she could get a decent deal on avocados at the shuk.
 
Tzimtzum and Me
Maybe I'm using that word wrong.
Haggling comes with practice. It's not just a skill set. It's a mindset. Haggling is a way of life. If you have pride, you'll never be able to get a deal. Hence, you must practice to develop the necessary skills for not caring about other people judging you for saving a shekel on a bag of pickles.
Making the shuk guy feel like he got ripped off. Not feeling bad arguing over the cost of a falafel ball. Walking in well polished shoes, letting them know you won't budge. It takes years to get to that point of not feeling shame over the shekel and a half. I am proud to say I am there.
After twenty years of living in Israel, practicing my skills, I have saved a good 15nis. True pride, if I may say so. And that only came with the understanding of myself, and not caring if I women are attracted to me.

Tooting My Horn - Inspiration for Haggling Practice Overseas
I'm a haggling savant. Nothing will stop me from getting a better deal. That's the attitude you must have, even when you're in America, which is not in the Middle East (most Americans are not aware of this tidbit). Remember, you must stay in practice. Something not easy to do, when the people working at Macy's think the price tag with the sale sign on it is the final price.
To stay in practice, you must complain. Complaining is paramount to bargaining technique. You want to let them know how bad the product is, which is why you want it. Many sales people don't get this. I went to the manager’s office at Macy’s and sat down to discuss how I didn't like the price tags. It turned out to be a decent conversation, and I walked out with nothing.
Purchasing a home? Show up and let them know you don't want it. That will throw them for a loop.

Practice Wherever You Are
If I haven't inspired you yet. Work on your haggling skill set. Wherever you are, keep your haggling up to snuff.
To keep myself in practice and ready for the shuk vendors, I've haggled with vending machines. It's hard to get a decent deal on the Snyder’s sourdough pretzels. But I was persistent. When haggling with a machine, you want to employ the Violent Yell Back Method. Whack the machine while screaming at it and a decent bag of pretzel fifths might come out.

A Story to Inspire You
I've used my haggling skills in America, and I've gotten deals. Sometimes it is a shocker. The pizza shop guy didn't see it coming. He was selling pizza.
The pizza shop guy said the slice was $3.75. I told him there was no way I was paying $3.75 for the last slice of pizza on that pie. I told him, ‘$1.50.’ Remember, you decide the price. That was the first time in my life that I got a slice of pizza for free. He said, ‘Please take this slice and never come back.’
You see, haggling works everywhere. Just keep your skills fresh.

Remember, the best place to practice is department stores. They have employees that are there to field questions that make no sense. And they have security, which adds an extra dimension to the haggling experience, when they're trying to throw you out.
Keep your skills fresh and haggle with the marked prices and sales at department stores in America, and the shuk vendors will be a breeze.

My friend who worked on her Hebrew, she still got ripped off. She knew Hebrew, but she sounded like an American. Point is, you must practice.
She regrets learning Hebrew. To quote, 'Why learn Hebrew if you can't get a deal.'

Announcements
The rabbi has called off the shul casino night fundraiser. He feels it will be too much fun, and that it is Asur. The rabbi also said it’s forbidden because the other half of the shul that doesn’t golf, spends half their week at the casino and hasn’t pay their dues.

The holidays are over. We ask all parents to stop yelling in shul.

Candy violence must stop. One of our very own children got taken to the emergency room the other day due to a Bat Mitzvah injury over Parshat Bereishit. It was after Simchat Torah, which is a very dangerous holiday due to candy. Parents somehow think it's safe to hurl candy around children at shul. The X-ray showed five boxes of Jelly Bells, three large Atomic Fireballs and Jawbreakers, with a Laffy Taffy in her spleen, due to attack for wanting a Sunkist Fruit Gem. The Laffy Taffy was wedged in there, due to the child competing for a Sunkist gem.

Contemporary Halacha Classes: How to Lose All of Your Money at Shul and Not a Casino. How to Abuse Your Children Like the Horwitz Mishpuchi Who are Yellers. How to Violently Attack Somebody Who Has Pez or Anything Paskesz.

Rabbi Mendelchem's Drashas Excerpts
Shabbat Shalom My Pupils...
(Bereishit 6:11-12) ‘And the earth became corrupt before Gd, and the earth became full of robbery (Chamas).’ And you haven’t paid your dues...
Of course it was before Gd. Who else would it be before?... Yes. It was before 1985... They must've had a board. Good question. I'm sure the president is siphoning funds. I definitely haven't received a raise in a while...
And right after this robbery, it says, ‘And Gd saw the earth and behold it was corrupted.’ Corrupted here the same root as the word ‘destroyed.’ Shachat... I used the Hebrew there so you can understand that your rabbi knows a lot. He went to Ulpan...

Chamas. Robbery. Stealing is what destroyed the world. I will not get into reserved seats during the High Holidays... It is stealing, even if you sit in that seat the rest of the year.

R’ Hirsch presents the Midrash that they stole from one another in little ways that were not subject to authority. This kind of thievery is morally damaging, as thievery within the letter of the law weakens our conscience and corrupts our social makeup. Like the board. Ruining the makeup of our shul. It's that little thievery, like the congregants who steal my time. Morally damaging society with their dumb questions...

It's the stuff that looks legal. Kind of like the way you guys don’t pay for your Mishebeyrachs... When you make us sit through fifty of your first cousins in blessing form, plus the Gabai of the shul, you have to pay for that. To not pay is what destroys the world. As do your cousins. The pain they put is through with your blessing them. When you pull out that list of sixty Ben Moshes, you're weakening the conscience of our congregation... People stopped showing up because of you and your Mishebeyrach list, Sam...

Casinos are destroying our society. Topeka is being destroyed by the thievery of the casinos. And they cause our members to not pay dues.
And this destruction has led our board to wanting to host a casino night... A fundraiser?! You're destroying our congregation. You know the roof has a leak. Might turn into a flood...

Casino night? You mean gambling in the shul???
Zecharia. You’re an addict. You think slot machines work... I didn't say alcohol was better. Though, there would be more of a chance you would pay your dues...
Ever made the same mistake 300 times. Here’s Zack... You haven’t paid your dues
This isn’t Gamblers Anonymous. What you share with the rabbi does not fall under HIPAA.
I’m here helping you. Telling the shul we shouldn’t have casino night because of you and the other 75% of the congregation that’s addicted to gambling and losing their paycheck to a panda...
Chamas is thievery. Chamas owns casinos... I’ll bet the owners of these casinos aren’t paying their dues. How much are we betting on that?!

And this destruction leads to corruption and anger. It leads to getting ripped off by my mechanic.
It just seems like you use the holidays to get mad at your kids. Take out your addictions...
I heard you yelling at your Sukkah. It’s a Sukkah. It’s supposed to be a joy. You building it with your son is messed up. I have never heard a dad berate their twelve year old child for not being a good construction worker, due to their lack of ability to slip a rod through a hole in a sheet... Your wall is bedding and you're screaming at the kid for not knowing how to build. That's not even good Chinuch... Your destruction and thievery kills the Sukkah.
How hard is it? You’re making a dwelling out of linen...

You steal in little ways, like pile driving the head of a six year old for a Sunkist Fruit Gem... That is stealing. And quite Frankly, Frank, your child is an animal. It was a Fruit Gem. Not even a Laffy Taffy...
The candies. You’re the only parents that let your kids eat candy in five gallon bags... Like you’re hoping they get sick.
Your kids at Simchat Torah were on the floor jumping for candy the whole time. A few kids were praying to a KitKat... The violence was worse than the Pitkins Park jungle gym. Stealing swings... You wouldn't survive there Heather. Those kids would've stolen your spot on the slide... A Twizzler. It was a Twizzler. It didn't have to end that way... And who throws Twizzlers?... You took it out of box. It wasn't even individually wrapped. Twizzlers are dangerous. They're like little whips.

You think it's safe to throw candy around children??? Your kid pile drived his knee into her for a Fruit Gem. Candy is violent. And quite dangerous. It's Chamas... I understand the board came up with a rule that no sucking candies are allowed, due to accidental swallowage. However, Sunkist Fruit Gem attacks, and an unwitting child's not understanding that they must give up their Paskesz to Yankel, causes much more physical harm... A pile driver!!!

Shul violence must stop. There is no need to stab a child with a Laffy Taffy.

And what’s the result of all of this corruption, thievery and candies? (Bereishit 7:21-22) ‘All that have the spirit of life in his nostrils, from all that was on dry land, died.’ Death. Is that what you want? Death by sweets?! That’s what Laffy Taffy can do. When little kids steal Hot Tamales...
And casino night kills shuls... Because you guys end up worshiping the craps table. And then the board pit bosses steals all your money... No. I did not curse there. Though, that’s what people say when they play craps.

It's the small acts of sin and communal destruction that breaks down our society and kills the world, like our board. It's the bad jokes Merv tells at Kiddish...

Yeah. The Torah lets us know that thievery kills a bunch in our Parsha... Because it corrupts, like football, when you don’t show up to Minyin and bet your mortgage on it...

Rivka's Rundown
The rabbi equated not paying dues with stealing and trying to kill people.
He then equated gambling with Chamas. Which makes sense. Chamas was probably running underground casinos in Gaza.
And then he considered Pez dispensers to be Chamas. How that was thievery. Maybe it’s how expensive they are. Between us. I’ve choked on Pez before. That stuff turns into sugar dust before you know it, and you're inhaling it.

One guy thought he was saying Chumus. I would rather have good Chumus than candy. Chumus does not destroy the world. Chumus brings the world together.
The rabbi stayed away from equating Chamas with Chamas. He thought the Chumus joke was more valuable than relating the Parsha to what we’re going through in our times.

So this is why the rabbi shares everything you tell him. He says it’s not HIPAA.
The board thought the casino night fundraiser was a good idea. They figured that with all the addicts, this was the only way they would get their money. They figured with Zecharia, he would stay away from the Witchatanqua Casino and give the money to the shul.
The shul needs the funds. If they can get the money through the back way, the board decided they should do that.
The rabbi actually bet Zecharia as to whether or not casinos are bad, and if there'll be a gambling night at shul.

The board voted this week. Decided that the only way to get people to come to shul was to have a casino in it. They're bringing it to court to allow for a casino. They feel they can do better than Bingo if they have slots and card tables.
Bingo has been the one constant in our shul. Some feel Torah reading is important. Most of the board feels Bingo is more important. To quote Pirkei Avot 'If there is no Bingo there is no Torah.'

Sukkah building in our community has been disallowed by family services. A social worker has to show up to ensure the dad does not overly berate the child for hanging a sheet wrong.
The Horwitzs are screamers. And I believe they are not allowed into junior congregation without a police escort.

The shul president gave a very passionate speech about candy violence, and the importance of gambling.

Kids are violent. At the parks too. With the swing-sets, slides and monkey-bar fights, it is more dangerous than Frank's kids around a Laffy Taffy. If they had candy being thrown at the jungle gym the rabbi would forbid slides. He already forbade candies being thrown in bouncy houses.
One kid in our shul took a hockey stick and slashed another kid so he could get a spot at the foosball table, and there was no candy on the table. Though, I think they were playing with a Jawbreaker. The rabbi is correct, these little forms of stealing people's spots destroys the world. I can tell you, I want to shoot the guy who cut me at Carvel, wehn I was going for soft serve the other day.
Note: Jawbreakers sound violent. And they are, especially when one of Frank's kids throws them to get fruit gem.

Due to the use our children have found for Laffy Taffy, the prison warden banned all candy of gooey substance from the commissary.

Against the rabbi's ruling, the congregants brought in card tables and slot machines, and Sunkist Fruit Gems. They even bet on cornhole and the little basketball hoop competition. Foosball, they just threw Jawbreakers at each other. It was the most attended event in shul history. Everybody skipped the casino that night.

Rambam (Hilchot Yom Tov 6:18)  'One who locks the doors to his house and only eats and drinks with his kids and his wife, doesn't have the happiness of Yom Tov, but rather happiness of his stomach.' That sounds like good holiday happiness to me. I'm happy when I'm eating some decent blintzes... The Rambam might be saying it's a bad thing. The idea is that people should be able to break into your home while you're having dinner with the children.
I can tell you that being around the kids and the wife does not bring happiness. You need guests to offset having to deal with them.
 
Each Shofar blast must be fully heard. Thus, the congregation must be completely silent. This isn’t going to happen.

Tradition is to whack the Aravot on the ground on Hoshana Rabbah (Sukkah 44b), and then to leave them there. Leaving your mess and other trash in shul at the end of Sukkot works as a positive omen that somebody else will have to clean it up.

(Rambam M’ Sanhedrin 10:1,1) Due to their lack of understanding, to get kids to learn you say, ‘Read and I’ll give you nuts and dates... honey.’ I liken Reese's peanut butter cups to dates. Same health benefits… The Rambam also mentions honey. I’m not a fan of that whole putting it on the Torah. My rabbi put it on the first letter of the Torah and had me lick it. I had a 'Bet' stuck to me tongue for half a year. He then put it on my Chumash, to make it sweet, I could never get those pages apart. He destroyed many Sefarim with the honey.