Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Monday, September 14, 2026
Tzom Gedaliah Fast Day
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2316462/jewish/Tzom-Gedaliah-Fast-Day.htm
Tzom Gedaliah is a dawn-to-dusk fast (click here for exact times) observed on the day after Rosh Hashanah (if that day is Shabbat, it is observed on Sunday). Commemorating the tragic death of Gedaliah, governor of Judea, the day begins with special Selichot liturgy (click here for a Hebrew PDF).
After the Babylonians destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and exiled many Jews in 3338 (423 BCE), they appointed Gedaliah ben Achikam as governor of the remaining Jews in the Holy Land. Jews who had taken refuge in the surrounding lands of Ammon, Moab and Edom heard of his appointment and returned to Judea to join his group—the last remnant of the once-mighty Judea. Under his wise and pious leadership, they tilled, planted and cultivated, coaxing the ravaged land back to health.
Prior to Rosh Hashanah 3339, Gedaliah received word that a certain Ishmael ben Netaniah, jealous of his position of power and dissatisfied with his tactical alliance with the Babylonians, was planning to kill him and usurp the leadership for himself. But the trusting Gedaliah refused to believe that Ishmael would act treacherously, and restrained those who wanted to kill Ishmael.
On Rosh Hashanah, Ishmael came to Gedaliah with ten men, ostensibly to celebrate the holiday with him. While they were eating together, Ishmael and his men got up and killed Gedaliah, as well as all the other Jewish men and Babylonian soldiers who were present.
Lawler deflects on supporting Trump’s $5K dividend pledge: ‘How do you pay for it?’
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/6086944-lawler-questions-trump-dividend/
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) on Sunday joined multiple Republican lawmakers in questioning the fiscal sense of President Trump’s proposal to send $5,000 to every American adult.
Multiple GOP lawmakers have pushed back on Trump’s proposal. Outgoing Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) was among them, arguing the dividends would lead to government “dependency,” which he called evil.
Vice President Vance said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity” that the administration could tap into tariff revenue to fund such a program, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday the administration will not utilize taxpayer money to dole out the dividends.
Trump Promised $5,000 Checks. Mike Johnson Won’t Guarantee Them
https://www.newsweek.com/mike-johnson-wont-guarantee-trump-5000-checks-americans-12436543
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, declined on Sunday to guarantee that Americans will receive the $5,000 payments promised by President Donald Trump on Wednesday if the GOP maintains its majority in Congress in this year's midterm election, raising questions about the viability of one of the administration's most high-profile recent economic proposals.
Republicans cast Muslim Democrats as chief enemies in ‘dangerous’ midterm pitch
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6085055-gop-cruz-muslim-democrats-midterms/
The attacks ramped up at Republicans’ first-ever midterm convention in Dallas this past week, where a host of top GOP figures called out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, two of the country’s most prominent Muslim American Democrats.
Republicans, however, say the strategy is not about religion but rather highlighting what the Democratic Party has become.
RFK Jr. is going to war against SSRIs. Doctors and patients are caught in the middle.
For years, the issue lingered at the margins — on patient forums and in a handful of studies. It gained broader attention in early May, when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced an effort to study and support the “deprescribing” of psychiatric drugs. The Department of Health and Human Services said it will encourage other interventions such as therapy and lifestyle changes to treat mental health conditions, get experts to draft guidelines for going off psychiatric medications and develop materials on potential risks.
Kennedy has long been skeptical of SSRIs, particularly their use in children, which has at times sparked controversy. Still, many scientists — including those who say the administration is overstating the potential harms of SSRIs or missing nuance — say the underlying concern is real.
Some psychiatrists caution against overcorrecting. They worry that the growing focus on withdrawal could discourage appropriate use of antidepressants or lead patients to attribute symptoms during tapering to withdrawal when they may reflect a return of the underlying illness.
Houthis grow stronger as Trump turns his back on US allies
https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/09/13/houthis-grow-stronger-as-trump-turns-his-back-on-us-allies/
The latest developments in Yemen are bad news for Israel. It is not only the Houthis' takeover of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with its damaging implications for global maritime trade and the boost it gives Iran's regional standing. More troubling is the US position, which is shying away from confrontation and effectively leaving Washington's allies to fend for themselves.
US President Donald Trump, addressing the issue over the weekend, said, "The Houthis called us and they don't want to fight with us." It is a striking and troubling retreat from the role of global policeman that Trump sought to project during the first half of his second term. He is presumably reluctant to open another military front ahead of the US midterm elections, amid reports of equipment problems in the US military and shortages of munitions.
Last year, Trump launched a campaign against the Houthis, only to pull back within weeks and leave Israel to fight them alone. Now he has left Saudi Arabia behind as well. Riyadh had pleaded for assistance and now finds itself caught in a pincer movement, with Iran on one side and the Houthis on the other, while its offensive capabilities, and especially its defensive capabilities, remain severely limited.
Sunday, September 13, 2026
Kushner: US used fallout from Qatar strike to pressure Israel on Gaza deal
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/433088
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor, said Sunday that the Trump administration used the diplomatic fallout from Israel's September 2025 strike in Qatar as leverage to press Israel to accept an agreement ending the war in Gaza.
According to Kushner, the failure to eliminate the senior Hamas leaders targeted in the operation contributed to growing international pressure on Israel and gave the US administration an opportunity to advance an agreement.
Kushner's remarks follow comments he made last week regarding the implementation of the Trump administration's plans for the future of Gaza. He said that Israel's election campaign was complicating efforts to move forward with the plan.
Friday, September 11, 2026
Tumah and Goyim
Shem MShmuel (Veschanon 678) It is well known that the forces of impurity are not known or have dominion over anything other than what is manifest; Thus, a concealed area does not contract impurity. Consequently, when it appears outwardly as though the Name of God—which dwells among the people of Israel—has departed from them, the forces of impurity and the "external forces" step in and attach themselves to them, drawing them ever deeper into sin and transgression. This differs from the case of the nations of the world: just as they do not transmit impurity through death, neither do they become further degraded by sin; they remain in their natural, material state, lacking the intensely powerful force of attraction toward evil that exists among the people of Israel. This is akin to the impurity of the dead—which surges upward to the heavens—so too is the nature of the forces of impurity and evil that are drawn in upon the departure of God’s Name; they possess a potency far greater than that of the natural, material forces of evil.
Skeptical Vance reportedly sought direct intel from US generals on state of Iran war
‘Sobering private assessments’ were often quite different from Trump’s boastful public rhetoric on US performance in the conflict and deeply alarmed the VP
Rabbi Sacks' 10 Short Ideas about Rosh Hashanah
https://aish.com/what-rosh-hashanah-says-to-us/
What then does Rosh Hashanah say to us? How can it transform our lives? The genius of Judaism was to take eternal truths and translate them into time, into lived experiences. Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the creation of humanity, invites us to live and feel the human condition in graphic ways.
The first thing it tells us is that life is short. However much life expectancy has risen, we will not, in one lifetime, be able to achieve everything we might wish to achieve. Untaneh Tokef tells the poetry of mortality with haunting pathos:
The historian Paul Johnson once wrote: “No people has ever insisted more firmly than the Jews that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny.” He concluded: “The Jews, therefore, stand right at the center of the perennial attempt to give human life the dignity of a purpose” (Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, Prologue). That too is one of the truths of Rosh Hashanah.
Top Republicans didn’t expect Trump’s dividends. Now they’re scrambling.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/10/republicans-split-trump-payouts-midterms-01071816
Top Republican lawmakers had no idea President Donald Trump was going to promise $5,000 checks to every adult American so long as his party keeps control of Congress. Now, they’re grappling with how to handle the fallout.
GOP leaders have privately pushed back on similar Trump promises of giving money to Americans in the past year, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of closed-door meetings. Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill were blindsided by Trump’s Wednesday night announcement in Dallas, and are trying to manage lawmakers’ and voters’ expectations about a trillion-dollar-plus proposal they cannot deliver.
No one is falling for Trump’s budget-busting ‘dividend’ check gimmick
Socialism will not be stopped with more socialism.
President Donald Trump’s proposal to pay every adult citizen $5,000 if the GOP holds the House and Senate this fall is a desperate gimmick that betrays a profound lack of seriousness about the looming fiscal crisis. “If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” Trump said Wednesday night at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas.
This would cost an estimated $1.2 trillion next year, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The money would need to be borrowed on top of the $40 trillion national debt — and paid back with interest.