What Happened Today in Jewish History?

This is an link to a cute and interesting website. It is called Torah Tots, and has a lot of features such as parshat ha'shavu'a, tales from our geonim, and historic synagogues around the world, among others. The website in general is for younger children, but it still has a lot of information that you might find useful. What I found particularly interesting was the feature called "This Month in Jewish History", under the Time Capusule link. Put in any Hebrew date of the year and it will tell you major events that happened on that date throughout Jewish history. Enjoy!

Kashrut Writing Contest

THIRD ANNUAL OU KOSHER ESSAY CONTEST UNDERWAY, WITH MARCH 24 DEADLINE; 12TH GRADERS ARE INVITED TO PRODUCE VIDEO ON ‘GOING KOSHER’

It’s baaaak! Building on the success and enthusiastic response to the previous contests, the Third Annual OU Kosher Essay Contest for grades 7-12 is now open for entries from students across North America, with the deadline for submissions being March 24, 2011. The competition is geared to intensify a deeper appreciation of kashrut on behalf of participants.

Once again the prizes will be $50 gift certificates from Eichlers.com, a leading Judaica website. Winners will have their essays published online at oukosher.org, and Grand Prize winners will be invited to record their essays on OURadio.

As an indication of the national interest in the competition, winners and participants in the previous contests came from New York, California, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, and Connecticut.

According to Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, Vice President of Communications and Marketing atOU Kosher, the contest is an additional component of OU Kosher’s educational outreach to schools and yeshivas. This program includes visits by OU Kosher rabbis across the country. Scheduled for the coming weeks are visits to Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, NY; Bais Yaakov, Far Rockaway, NY; Soille Day School in San Diego; and at UCLA in Los Angeles, as part of the OU‘s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campusprogram.

Among the suggested topics in the essay contest are: “How Does Eating Kosher Enhance Your Jewish Identity?” “What Does the Kosher Symbol on the Label Mean to Me?” “Is Eating Kosher More Than Just A Way of Eating?” “Kashrut and Kedushah – A Connection?” Essays should range from 750-1000 words.

This year, in addition to the writing contest, grade 12 is invited to participate in a class contest to produce a 15-minute video/DVD entitled Going Kosher – What Do I Do? How Do I Do It? The DVD’s focus is to educate and guide individuals or family looking to become kosher, Rabbi Safran explained. The DVD must include both hashkafa (philosophy) and halacha (Jewish law), as well as practical suggestions and instructions on how to accomplish the goal. Deadline for DVD entries is March 1, 2011. The prize-winning DVD will be posted on ou.kosher.org and the winning school will receive $150 worth of OU Press books for its library.

Rabbi Safran noted that he “hopes that the quality of the winning DVD will be such that it will be able to join with the high caliber series of OU Kosher DVDs previously released, which are being used in schools, yeshivas, seminaries and kollelim throughout the world.”

For further information and clarification, contact Rabbi Safran at Safrane@ou.org. 

Let it Rain

This past מוצאי שבת we began reciting ותן טל ומטר לברכה.  Here is the relevant passage from the Ezras Torah calendar:

MOTZIE SHABBOS, DEC. 4, 28 KISLEV 

At Maariv, we begin to include "ותן טל ומטר לברכה" into the Shemonah Esrei. If one became aware, after he had completed the Bracha מברךהשנים , that he had omitted "ותן טל ומטר לברכה" he should wait to insert it right before כי אתה שומע of  Shma koleinu.    If he had already completed the Bracha  Shomea Tefila, he may insert it before saying "רצה". If he had already begun "רצה" he must return to the Bracha " ברך עלינו", which is the proper place for ותן טל ומטר לברכה. If he had already completed the Shemonah Esrei and stepped backward, then he must repeat the entire Shemonah Esrei. In any situation in which a person must repeat the entire Shemonah Esrei, he may fulfill his obligation by listening to every word of the Chazzan's Repetition from begining to end, with the intention of thus fulfilling his obligation. (It is advisable to repeat 101 times [at the very least 90 times]: " טל ותן לטובה תבואתה מיני כל ואת לברכה ומטר" so as to make the inclusion of "ותן טל ומטר לברכה" habitual and fluent, thus eliminating any future doubt as to whether one included "ותן טל ומטר לברכה" in the Shemonah Esrei or not.) 

For an extensive summary of why we (those outside of Israel) are dependent on the secular calendar, see here.

Dreidelpalooza

NEW YORK — All they want for Hanukkah is a new world record - and they apparently got it.

Two Yeshiva University students led the effort to beat the current holder of the top place for dreidel spinning in the Guinness Book of World Records.

A university spokesman says the two students, along with 616 others, set a new record of 618 simultaneously spinning dreidels on Tuesday night. The old record was 541. It happened at the school's athletic center at 184th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

The "Dreidelpalooza" event is also a scholarship fundraising event.

The record for spinning the four-sided tops was set five years ago in New Jersey.

Guinness must still certify the dreidel record to make it official.

More pictures and a video made to promote it here.