THE TWIN BRIEF
Your morning routine has a load order (tallit first, then tefillin), Israel is voting right now, Lula pulls off a comeback, Anthropic files for a giant IPO, the Oilers drop a shootout to a goalie making his first start, and the Brewers are one win from their first World Series title.
Dvar Torah
Load order matters
Every game has a load order. Mods in the wrong order and the whole thing glitches. The Ben Ish Chai says your morning has one too: tallit first, then tefillin. The tzitzit and tefillin hint at higher spiritual levels in a set sequence, and someone who puts on tefillin first, he says, has simply made a mistake.
He even gives you the cheat codes. The poskim made a sign from a pasuk in Bereshit (30:42): “v’hayu ha’atufim laLavan, v’hakeshurim l’Yaakov” — first the “wrapped” ones (tallit), then the “tied” ones (tefillin). And another one: the last letter of tzitzit (ציצית) is a tav, which is the first letter of tefillin (תפילין). One word literally hands off to the next.
Two real-life scenarios he covers. First: you had no big tallit, so you put on tefillin, and then someone brings you a tallit. In a teshuva in his Rav Pe’alim, he writes that you take the tefillin off, put on the tallit, and then put the tefillin back on without a new beracha. Second, the bag: if your tallit and tefillin share one bag, keep the tefillin bag on the side. On top, you’d grab the tefillin first. Underneath is disrespectful, since tefillin are holier. And if you grabbed the tefillin first by accident anyway? You still put on the tallit first.
Teen takeaway: Avraham in this week’s parasha “got up early” to do what Hashem asked (Bereshit 22:3). Doing things in the right order isn’t fussiness. It’s showing you thought about what comes first. Pack your bag tonight with the tefillin on the side, and tomorrow morning runs on the right load order.
Source: Ben Ish Chai, Halachot 1st Year, Parashat Vayera (halachot on putting on tzitzit before tefillin, the signs from Bereshit 30:42 and the letter tav, removing tefillin to put on a tallit that arrived late per his responsa in Rav Pe’alim, and placing the tefillin bag beside the tallit in a shared bag); Hebrew text checked on Sefaria. Teen reference, not a personal ruling. Ask your rav for your own practice.
World
Israel votes · Lula’s comeback · Iran on hold
- Israel: Israelis are voting today in the first national election since Oct. 7, and turnout is running at its highest in more than 40 years. Polls show Prime Minister Netanyahu almost tied with former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, but neither bloc is projected to reach the 61 seats needed to govern, so coalition haggling could take weeks. Exit polls come out at 10 PM Israel time (4 PM ET), and about 70,000 people reportedly flew home just to vote (BBC, AP).
- Brazil: President Lula won Sunday’s runoff 51.8% to 48.2% over Flávio Bolsonaro, a fourth term days before he turns 81. He’s the first Brazilian president since 1985 to come back after losing the first round (Brazil’s election court via The Guardian, CNN).
- Iran: No U.S. strike yet. Reports say President Trump is weighing a deal against new strikes, with a decision possibly after the Nov. 3 midterms, while delegations from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met in Tehran to try to cool things down (CNBC, AP).
Tech
Anthropic goes public · Touchscreen MacBooks?
- Anthropic IPO: The company behind the Claude AI filed to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. Its filing shows $16.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2026, and a huge paper loss driven mostly by an accounting charge. No share price is set yet, but AP says it could be the biggest IPO ever (SEC filing, AP).
- Apple, round two: Apple holds a hands-on event in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Reports expect the first touchscreen OLED MacBook Pros and a new iMac, and a $699 OLED iPad mini 8 is already announced (MacRumors, Digital Trends, The Verge).
Money
AI rally is back · Oil dips a little
- Monday’s close: The Dow rose 146 points (+0.3%) to 52,361, the S&P 500 gained 0.7% and the Nasdaq 0.8%, as chip stocks rallied on the Anthropic news (CNBC, AP).
- Oil: Brent crude slipped 0.8% to $115.81 on peace hopes. Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia kept it from falling further (Morningstar/Dow Jones, Euronext).
- Still ahead this week: the Fed’s rate decision Wednesday, plus earnings from Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon.
Sports
Red Wings 4, Oilers 3 (SO) · Brewers up 3–0 · Cowboys rout Eagles
- Oilers: Detroit goalie Michal Postava, a 24-year-old making his first NHL start, stopped 25 shots plus all three shootout tries, and the Red Wings won 4–3. Edmonton led 3–2 on Colton Dach’s first goal of the season, but Dylan Larkin tied it with 1:26 left and the goalie pulled. Podkolzin and Isaac Howard also scored. McDavid’s assist stretched his season-opening point streak to 12 games (34 points), tying the NHL record for a season-opening assist streak with Gretzky and others. Worry: Zach Hyman left after his head hit the glass. Oilers are 8-2-2 and host Calgary Wednesday, 8:30 PM ET (NHL.com, AP).
- World Series: The Brewers crushed the Rays 10–1 in Game 3 with an eight-run fifth inning built on seven straight two-out hits, which no team had ever done in the postseason. Robert Gasser threw six scoreless innings. Milwaukee leads 3–0 and is one win from its first title. No team has ever come back from 3–0 down in a World Series (MLB.com, AP).
- NFL: Dak Prescott threw three TDs as Dallas beat Philadelphia 38–21 on Monday Night Football (AP).
- NBA: Rough start for New York. The Knicks fell to 0-3 after a 111–102 loss to Orlando and face Detroit tonight, and the winless Nets lost 136–109 to Indiana (AP).
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