Monday, November 9, 2026
Torah Study must be According to the Individual
quote from "The Spiritual Revolution of Rav Kook" by Schwartz, Ari Ze'ev -
"Many people have left religion because in their learning and spiritual perfection, they betrayed their unique personalities. For example, a person may be naturally talented in matters of aggadah1 and be unsuited to constant immersion in matters of halachah.2 Yet because he does not recognize his unique talents, he occupies himself in matters of Gemara and its commentaries, since he sees that this is customary in the religious world today. But deep inside his soul he feels a hatred toward the material he is learning, since constant involvement in it does not suit his unique natural gifts. However, if he were to find the specific type of Torah that fits his unique talents and immerse himself in it, he would then immediately recognize that the nauseating feeling he experienced when involved in matters of halachah was not coming from any flaw in that holy and important type of learning. It was rather his soul expressing its desire to be absorbed in another type of Torah. This person would then stay truly faithful to the Torah and become an expert in the type of Torah that is unique to him. In fact, he would even be able to help those who are more talented in halachah by showing them the inner peace of aggadah, poetry, and emotions. Unfortunately, because this person does not recognize the true reason for his feelings of nausea toward halachah, he forcefully ignores his nature. And as soon as the path of a non-Torah way of life opens up to him, he breaks out and then hates and becomes an enemy of Torah and religion. He will go from one sin to another. It is from these types of people that haters of our people are created. They try to proclaim a new vision and blind the eyes of the world. There is a great diversity of wisdom that expands even greater than this. One may be strongly attracted to a certain secular wisdom. Such a person must also follow his unique talents, while setting aside fixed times for learning Torah. If he does this, then he will succeed in both, because “Torah together with the way of the world is beautiful” (Pirkei Avot 2:2). And the Gemara at the end of Yoma discusses how to find the right balance of priorities for such people. In general, this whole issue is dependent on each person’s unique soul. (KYK 1, Pinkas Acharon b’Boisk, 52)"
Blinken: I warned Netanyahu Israel could lose young Republicans and evangelicals
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-914277
Former US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Sunday that he warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Gaza war that Israel risked losing support among young Republicans and young evangelicals, alongside its mounting difficulties within the Democratic Party.
“You are not only losing the Democratic Party, and that may be fine from your perspective. You’re going to be losing young Republicans, young evangelicals,” Blinken said he told Netanyahu.
Blinken said the image of Israel had changed profoundly between generations. He recalled growing up when Israel was broadly seen as David facing a surrounding Goliath; for the generation now coming to the fore, he said, that perception had reversed.
Trump cites dislike of Israel as key factor in GOP midterm losses alongside war with Iran
Trump cites dislike of Israel as key factor in GOP midterm losses alongside war with Iran
US President Donald Trump said that growing dislike of Israel among American voters was one of the main reasons for the Republican Party’s sweeping defeat in the midterm elections, alongside the war with Iran and rising gasoline prices.
Asked to explain the defeat, Trump insisted that his personal popularity remained strong and suggested that Republican candidates had failed to translate his support into votes.
The president pointed to the large crowds at his campaign rallies but acknowledged that other factors had influenced voters.
Trump: Republicans did poorly in midterms because of a ‘great dislike’ for Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-9-2026/
US President Donald Trump says that one of the reasons Republicans did so poorly in last week’s midterm elections is because Americans really don’t like Israel, with whom his government has a close relationship.
Trump is asked during an interview on 60 Minutes to reflect on the midterms, and he gives several reasons for the Democratic takeover of both the House and the Senate.
“Number one, I was not on the ballot,” Trump says, noting that voters didn’t like some of the Republican candidates, including ones he endorsed.
“But there’s something beyond that. They didn’t like the war. They didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up,” he adds.
“And there’s a great dislike — incredibly — for Israel,” Trump says, without elaborating.
AIPAC Wanted to Shape the Debate. Now It Is the Debate.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/11/08/israel-aipac-midterm-elections-foushee-01154924
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee was both the primary adversary and in some sense a model for the new group. In late 2021, AIPAC had formed its own super PAC, United Democracy Project, which spent $64 million in the following two cycles. American Priorities set a goal of raising $10 million for the midterms, and came up short of that in its spending of around $8 million. Campaign-finance disclosures show UDP alone spending over $50 million this cycle through mid-October, not accounting for other AIPAC-affiliated groups. “We never thought we could outspend them,” said Mohammed Waqas Javed, a former director of engineering at the tech company AppLovin, whose $1 million in donations made him one of American Priorities’ early backers. “We wanted to be smart about where we spent, and surgically deploying $10 million was enough to run a serious operation across the country.”
But the financial mismatch was less important than the environment in which American Priorities arrived. A longstanding, bipartisan pro-Israel consensus that AIPAC had helped establish — and, more recently, enforce — was already fracturing over the war in Gaza, and AIPAC’s own role in Democratic primary politics had become controversial. American Priorities formed in part to capitalize on the shift, but its emergence was far more an effect than a cause of the public’s changing views on Israel. Indeed, candidates attacked AIPAC in races where neither its own super PAC nor American Priorities even spent.
The group will face a very different Capitol Hill in January. Thirteen members of the Democratic majority will arrive with American Priorities having backed their elections. And Rep. Valerie Foushee, one candidate American Priorities opposed for AIPAC’s role helping bring her to Congress in the first place, turned on her former backers before the primary even started — the anti-AIPAC group now considers her an ally.
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Trump Shares Posts Questioning Midterm Election Results
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-midterm-election-results-truth-social-12681983
President Donald Trump repeatedly shared social media posts Saturday questioning the scale and credibility of Democrats’ midterm election gains, days after saying he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results of an election that cost Republicans control of Congress.
Trump reposted material on Truth Social questioning Democratic vote totals nationally and in Texas, including a post describing Gina Hinojosa’s performance in the Texas governor’s race as “Looney Tunes numbers.”
The activity marks a shift in tone from election night, when Trump acknowledged Republicans’ losses and said he would accept the results
Stop Telling Children How Good They Are
https://aish.com/stop-telling-children-how-good-they-are/
Instead of teaching our children to develop and maintain a positive opinion of themselves, we should teach them to accept their inherent worth—and then turn their attention away from judging themselves and toward evaluating their actions.
Because once feeling good about myself becomes the focus, I now have something I need to protect. When I fail, what does that say about me? When someone criticizes me, I need to defend myself. When someone else succeeds, perhaps his success somehow diminishes me.
Let’s spend a little less time convincing our children how good they are and more time teaching them how much good they can do. They don’t need to spend their lives proving to themselves how good they are. They need to know how important they are—and live accordingly.
Saturday, November 7, 2026
Who is Stephen Miller? The Jewish hardliner even Trump finds too extreme, now running the White House
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjjkt3i6fe
Born into a wealthy Jewish family descended from refugees, Miller became the driving force behind Trump's immigration crackdown and one of his most trusted advisers; now, as White House chief of staff, the 41-year-old hardliner faces his biggest test yet
Pro-Israel conservatives blast JD Vance for blaming Israel after GOP midterm losses
Conservative pro-Israel voices are lashing out at Vice President JD Vance after he linked the Republican Party’s massive midterm losses to the country’s relationship with Israel and the war in Iran.
Vance on Wednesday said that “the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.” Citing an unidentified pollster, he alleged the top demands of voters who had left the Republican side were: end the war in Iran; focus on the cost of living and inflation; put America first and “change our relationship to Israel.”
Eric Levine, a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he doesn’t “recall seeing a single exit poll in which any voter identified ‘change our relationship with Israel’ as a factor in their voting decision.”
Stephen Miller’s promotion angers industries reeling from immigration enforcement
President Donald Trump’s naming of deportation architect as his chief of staff unleashed anger, fear and astonishment among leaders of industries that depend on immigrant labor.
“When I got a text message, ‘Hey, have you heard about Stephen Miller?,’ my first thought was: Thank goodness he was let go,” said Chris Herr, president of PennAg Industries Association, which represents farmers and pork and poultry producers. Many of his members helped propel Trump to victory in 2024 but have soured on the president, as some farmers reel from the loss of workers to immigration enforcement, he said.
“Time will tell if Stephen Miller continues to wreck the economy, destroy families, tarnish the Republican political coalition and obliterate Trump’s legacy,” said Rebecca Shi, chief executive of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a bipartisan group that lobbies for immigration reform on Capitol Hill, which organized the letter
Is the Trump era over?
A day after their crushing midterm defeat, Republicans are already engaged in a bitter blame game. Members of Congress are demanding a leadership shake-up, while Sen. Ted Cruz acknowledges the party failed to address Americans' financial struggles: "Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high." The war with Iran is also drawing fierce criticism: "We should have never done the war before the midterms." Meanwhile, CNN reports that Trump has no intention of becoming a lame-duck president and is exploring ways to expand his powers.
House GOP erupts at Stephen Miller as Trump elevates him after midterm massacre: 'Megalomaniac'
Several Republican lawmakers are fuming over President Donald Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller to be his chief of staff.
"Horrible decision," Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital on Friday after Trump announced his decision.
"I think he's greatly hurt the administration and cost us many seats on Tuesday," retiring Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital before news of Miller’s promotion broke. "He took an immigration policy that favored the president 2:1 in the public, over-reached and made it 2:1 unfavorable."
Friday, November 6, 2026
Discipline and Punishments in Yeshiva and Mosdos
When Is Physical Discipline Technically Permitted? According to Halacha a teacher may, in limited circumstances, administer disciplinary punishment to a student as part of the educational process.[10] This permission exists only when the discipline is genuinely necessary for the child’s education or to correct inappropriate behavior.[11] The purpose must be entirely educational and for the benefit of the child, not an expression of anger or frustration. Furthermore, the teacher should only punish a student when he knows with certainty that the student engaged in conduct that warrants discipline, and not based merely on suspicion or assumption.[12] Furthermore, one is to always first try to discipline the child through other methods prior to hitting him, and only if these methods do not work may the child be hit.[13] There are many disciplinary philosophies in practice today which substitute hitting for other more useful and harmless methods.[14] It is incumbent upon teachers to train themselves to become effective disciplinarians so their children are disciplined, but not in an abusive manner.