ASClock The Blog About Everything!

JTA: The Obama campaign knows the Wright question continues to rile. Obama has been gaining support in the Jewish community, with recent polls suggesting a near split among Jews between the Illinois senator and Clinton, who once enjoyed a strong lead in the community.
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Clinton still got the support of the bulk of the Jewish establishment in Pennsylvania and leaders of the local federation were visibly absent from the special Obama event.
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But Obama is also enormously popular among segments of the Jewish community. Obama dismissed the notion that he said is often put forward – that Wright is his “spiritual adviser.”
For Nancy Gordon, an ardent Clinton supporter, Obama was not convincing. Obama did more to move Max Schapiro, a University of Pennsylvania student who chairs Hillel’s Israel committee there.
Noting that Israel was his number one issue, he was impressed as well by Obama’s record on Israel, but needed to hear more.
From the Jewish Press: While Tishrei marks the beginning of the world’s creation, it was during Nissan that God revealed the purpose of His creation. [Imrei Chaim]
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Rabbi Chaim Tirer of Chernovitz, renowned as the Be’er Mayim Chaim, an eminent Torah scholar and Kabbalist, was the son of Reb Shlomo, a pious Jew who laid no claim to being a talmid chacham by any standard. Reb Shlomo had for many years eked out a living by the brewing of distilled spirits. It was on one of the days before Pesach that Red Shlomo encountered a fellow Jew from another hamlet who was on the way to the big city to sell his chametz. Reb Shlomo, hoping to save himself a trip, asked the man to do him the favor of selling his as well. Reb Shlomo and his wife methodically went about gathering firewood and dry branches to lay beneath the walls of the brewery and set fire to their livelihood. The local reservoir gradually became tainted, affecting every living entity that consumed drinking water. Reb Shlomo, however, was bothered by a thought wholly divorced from what he had unwittingly wrought. “Twice a day in Krias Shema,” Reb Shlomo said, “we recite the commandment to ‘love Hashem your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all that you possess.’ As the two pondered how they could inject some happiness into their predicament, Reb Shlomo hit on a solution. The gypsy sat on a chair playing his fiddle while Reb Shlomo danced.
The dumbfounded poritz mounted his horse and rode into town to check things out for himself. “Shlomke,” began the poritz when Reb Shlomo appeared. I consider you a smart Jew. Reb Shlomo’s attempt at explaining the intricacies of chametz and mechiras (the selling of) chametz fell on deaf ears – the poritz could not grasp the concept. And so Reb Shlomo and his wife wandered off to seek lodging elsewhere.
This widowed sister-in-law resided in a distant town and Reb Shlomo was strongly advised by friends and family members to delay his travel plans due to inclement weather. Reb Shlomo refused to listen, citing the injunction that one is not to delay fulfilling a mitzvah that presents itself.