$1.00 WWW.5TJT.COM HAPPY PURIM! VOL. 7 NO. 22 12 ADAR 5767 vum, ,arp MARCH 2, 2007 INSIDE FROM THE PURIM PRESS SERVICE RAV AVROHOM BLUMENKRANTZ vfrck ehsm rfz MindBiz COMPILED BY LARRY GORDON Esther Mann, LMSW 28 THE LOSS OF A TORAH GIANT Orthomom To Run For School Board The Best Purim Hannah Reich Berman 30 As a reaction to District 15 This was a difficult and Lawrence school-board mem- important decision for the Taxi! Taxi! ber Pamela Greenbaum’s controversial Jewish blogger, Larry Gordon 62 request that Google identify for a number of reasons. First, the person whom she per- and most importantly, the Ultimate Commuter ceives as her Internet nemesis, issue of protecting her identity Danny Block 64 known as Orthomom, the needed to be dealt with and, blogger has announced that after rather long and laborious Our Aliyah Chronicle she has decided to run against negotiations, it has been Shmuel Katz 77 Ms. Greenbaum in the spring reported unofficially that a election. Ms. Greenbaum’s deal has been struck. seat on the board, as well as According to sources privy to those of board president Dr. the discussions, Orthomom Asher Mansdorf and Dr. David Sussman, is up for election. Continued on Page 13 THE HALF SHEKEL BY IRWIN H. BENJAMIN the Jews, Haman offered to Although it was only a buy them for 10,000 pieces of Chabad of the Five Towns dream, it was horrifying. It silver. That 10,000 number Annual Dinner. shook me to the very core. Even was considered an enormous See Page 38 now, as I think of it, I shudder. amount of money, something But I know it was merely a that would have certainly dream. Here is how it began. caught the attention of most of Several years ago I had the the country. No doubt it would good fortune of hearing a have made front-page head- BY RABBI YAIR HOFFMAN ing of Rav Avrohom Purim shiur given by Rav lines. The rav pointed out that Blumenkrantz, z’l, at age 62. Moshe Weinberger, shlita, the that aspect, the making of Last week, both the Five “Whoever has not seen Rav distinguished rav of Aish headlines, has been Haman’s Towns/Far Rockaway commu- Avrohom Blumenkrantz, z’l, Kodesh in Woodmere. The rav (Amalek’s) modus operandi nity and the greater Jewish has never seen true human revealed an incredible insight from time immemorial, and community throughout the warmth in his life,” said some- into the Purim story. He men- world suffered an irreparable tioned that in order to destroy Continued on Page 23 loss, with the untimely pass- Continued on Page 19 DRS February concert. See Page 57 HAFTR 29th Annual Dinner Experiencing THE LAWRENCE Simcha In DISTRICT Difficult Times MEGILLAH BY RAV ARYEH ZEV BY DR. ASHER GINZBERG MANSDORF CHOFETZ CHAIM TORAH CENTER Most readers of the Our Chazal require us to be Megillah, from schoolchildren filled with joy during the to scholars, cast the story as month of Adar. We are that of Esther, the queen. instructed clearly that Arguably, however, the true Steve Brown honored. “mishenichnas Adar marbim essence of the Purim story is See Page 58 b’simcha”—when the month not Esther, the queen, but The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway held its 29th of Adar begins, we must Mordechai, the governor. The Annual dinner this past Saturday night at the Brooklyn Marriott. increase the simcha in our story of the Megillah, though CANDLE LIGHTING Above (L–R), HAFTR President Steven Myers with guests of honor lives. This seems relatively traditionally understood as Mar. 2 – 5:29 PM Dr. Jack and Mrs. Naomi Levenbrown. Dr. Levenbrown is the mayor simple, an easy mitzvah to ful- the story of how the Jews were Mar. 9 – 5:36 PM of the Village of Lawrence and Mrs. Levenbrown is the associate principal of the HAFTR Upper School. See Page 59 Continued on Page 4 Continued on Page 17 2 March 2, 2007 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 2, 2007 3 Simcha In Difficult Times Continued from Front Cover fill. Or is it? We live in difficult times. A strong country with millions of its citizens bent on the destruction of Eretz Yisrael is led by a madman who has seemingly nothing else on his mind except the Jews. His country is moving ahead, despite objections from the world com- munity, with a nuclear program—a nuclear program that will find all its warheads directed at Eretz Yisrael. Closer to home, in our very own backyard, Hamas has assumed control and, despite urgings from the civilized world, they refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. In civilized France, young Jews are kidnapped and tortured. And thousands of Jews, former residents of Gush Katif, find themselves penniless, jobless, homeless, and without any prospects for the future. With all this and more, how do we reconcile in ourselves that we are sup- posed to be in a “simcha” frame of mind for the duration of the month? Maybe if we reflect a little more deeply upon the significance of what this month of Adar truly represents, we will be able to find in ourselves the strength and conviction for a true and deep sense of simcha. Our Chazal teach us that each of the 12 months of the year corre- sponds to a different sheivet (tribe) of Klal Yisrael. The last month of the calendar year, or rather what the Torah refers to as the 12th month, the month of Adar, corresponds to the sheivet of Yosef. That’s why during a leap year, when we have to add a 13th month, we do so in Adar, for Yosef had two sons, Efrayim and Menashe, and each one represents one of the two months of Adar. What is it that is unique about this month, that we are taught that this is the one month of the year that can and will bring the downfall of the descen- dants of Esav and Amalek at the hands of Bnei Yisrael? Why specifically in the month of Adar? The Midrash provides the under- standing of the nature of the month of Adar. It says that there’s a tradition handed down to us from generation to generation that Esav will only be destroyed by the hands of the children of Rochel Imeinu. What is special about Rochel, that only her children will merit to be the future victors in the battle between the evil of Esav and the kedushah of Yaakov? The Gemara in Megillah tells us that the unique quality of Rochel was her ability to keep silent. When her older sister Leah was to be her replacement in marriage to Yaakov, Rochel could have told him, but she kept her silence. This took great courage and strength. This midah was transmitted through the generations to her descendant Shaul HaMelech and then later to Esther HaMalkah. The Megillah praises her silence as she didn’t share with the king her ori- gin and her people, just as Mordechai had instructed. This great character trait of shetikah, silence, gave her and her Continued on Page 8 4 March 2, 2007 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 2, 2007 5 P.O. BOX 690 LAWRENCE, NY 11559 516-984-0079 [email protected] [email protected] LARRY GORDON Publisher/Editor ESTA J. GORDON Managing Editor YOSSI GORDON Director of Sales CHANA ROCHEL ROSS Editorial Assistant SIDI BARON, YAKOV SERLE, JERRY MARKOVITZ Sales Representatives SHMUEL GERBER Chief Copy Editor MICHELE JUSTIC Copy Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Howard M. Adelsberg, Esq., Irwin Benjamin Hannah Reich Berman, Jamie Geller Rabbi Aryeh Z. Ginzberg, Yochanan Gordon Michele Herenstein, Rabbi Yair Hoffman Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, Esther Mann, Rochelle Miller Naomi Ross, Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow, Eli Shapiro YOSEF BROWN, MICHAL WEINSTEIN Staff Graphic Artists IVAN NORMAN, IRA THOMAS Staff Photographers FRANKEL & CO., CREATIVE DESIGN LLC Design & Production TALIYE CORLEY Art Director SUZETTE LEE Assistant Art Director The Five Towns Jewish Times is an independent weekly news- paper. Opinions expressed by writers and columnists are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. We are not responsible for the kashrus or hashgachah of any product or establishment advertised in the Five Towns Jewish Times. And that they bring to you pure olive oil... to raise an ever- lasting lamp... from evening to morning (Sh’mos 27:20-21) These verses contain a paradox: "everlasting flame" implies a state of perptuality and changelessness; "from evening to morning" implies fluctuating conditions of lesser and greater luminance. For such is our mission in life: to impart the eternity and perfection of the Divine to a temporal world, and to do so not by annihilating or overwhelming the world's temporality and diversity, but by illuminating its every state and condition--from "evening" to "morning"-- with the divine light. (The Lubavitcher Rebbe) 6 March 2, 2007 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES March 2, 2007 7 Simcha In Difficult Times who live completely in the physical Continued from Page 4 and external world. Yosef, the Torah tells us, is com- One For The Books descendants the singular z’chus to pared to dagim (fish), which is the overcome and finally remove Amalek mazal of Adar. Fish are hidden from BY MICHELE HERENSTEIN tion, they told me they couldn’t help from the face of the earth. the eye, they are not external, but me, and then they hung up. Feeling What is so special about this midah internal (deep in the water) and, like I planned to start this article as the beginnings of serious stress, I of silence, that it warrants such a Yosef, their strength and life-force is in such: “Thursday, February 15—from made some calls until I was able to great reward? The Maharal explains the hidden and in the internal.