Sunday, August 2, 2026
Soul and Sleep
Zohar (Bereishis 010b) At the beginning of the day, when a man rises in the morning, it is his duty to bless his Master as soon as he opens his eyes. The pious men of old used to have by them a cup of water, and when they awoke in the night they washed their hands and rose and occupied themselves in the study of the Torah, having first pronounced the appropriate blessing. When the cock crows it is precisely midnight, and at that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, is to be found in company with the righteous in the Garden of Eden. It is therefore proper then to pronounce the benediction and study the Torah; but one may not pronounce the benediction with unclean hands. So, too, at any time that one rises up from his sleep. For whilst a man is asleep his soul departs from him and an impure spirit comes forth and settles on his hands and defiles them: hence one may not pronounce a blessing without first washing them.
Limit to G-d's Testing
I finally found attempts to prove that there is a limit to G-d's test
The Ramban (Bereishis 22:01) notes that tests like the Akeida are done for the benefit of the testee
AND G-D TRIED ABRAHAM. The matter of “trial,” in my opinion, is as follows: Since a man’s deeds are at his absolute free command, to perform them or not to perform them at his will, on the part of one who is tried it is called “a trial.” But on the part of the One, blessed be He, who tries the person, it is a command that the one being tested should bring forth the matter from the potential into actuality so that he may be rewarded for a good deed, not for a good thought alone.
Know further that G-d trieth the righteous, for knowing that the righteous will do His will, He desires to make him even more upright, and so He commands him to undertake a test, but He does not try the wicked, who would not obey. Thus all trials in the Torah are for the good of the one who is being tried.
Devarim (08:05) Bear in mind that the ETERNAL your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son.
The gemora Berachos (32a) Moshe says to G-d that of course Jews sinned because G-d gave them too much gold.
What is the meaning of and Di Zahav? The Sages of the school of Rabbi Yannai said that Moses said the following before the Holy One, Blessed be He, to atone for Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf: Master of the Universe, because of the gold and silver that you lavished upon Israel during the exodus from Egypt until they said enough [dai]; it was this wealth that caused Israel to make the Golden Calf.
Silly me, I thought Hamas was finished
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/431089
Israel, the nation that beat Hamas to a pulp in response to the slaughter of Oct. 7, 2023, gets to play the part of the loser in Trump's peace plan. Opinion.
Trump’s ‘historic’ deal to disarm Hamas faces uphill climb
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6002984-israel-hamas-roadmaps-skepticism/
President Trump’s announcement Thursday of a “historic” deal to disarm Hamas is drawing more skepticism than fanfare.
Hamas said it was prepared to abide by the terms, but only with the buy-in of Israel, which remains skeptical about the deal, according to a U.S official invited into the discussions.
The agreement would see Hamas hand over weapons in phases, with Israel ultimately withdrawing its military. However, with trust between the two sides at zero, countless hurdles remain to fulfilling Trump’s vision of a demilitarized and reconstructed Gaza.
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Trump claims Israel ‘very happy’ about Hamas disarmament deal, as Netanyahu indicates otherwise
US President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that Israel is “very happy” about the disarmament deal his Board of Peace inked a day earlier with Hamas, even as Israel has objected to the proposal and Hamas has said the deal’s implementation must begin with Israel complying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on the agreement, which would see the IDF pull back from its positions in Gaza as Hamas lays down its weapons and transfers control of Gaza to a technocratic body. But a pair of statements attributed to a “senior Israeli official” have asserted that Israel does not accept the proposal and will not carry out any withdrawals from territory in Gaza as it requires.
One statement, issued by Netanyahu’s office on Thursday, said Israel demanded “the full disarmament of Hamas, including removal of the weaponry from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a condition for any process” of withdrawal. The statement added that the agreement does not include “a sufficient response to those demands.”
Trump Unravels in Alarming Fashion After Reflecting Pool Humiliation
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-unravels-in-alarming-fashion-after-reflecting-pool-humiliation/
President Donald Trump has gone on a bizarre rant after his excuse for the green-slime disaster at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool took a turn for the worse in court.
The 80-year-old president continued to push his own version of events, taking to Truth Social to lash out at his own appointee, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, after she said Trump’s $16 million renovation failed not because of “vandals,” but due to a “flawed installation by the contractors.”
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote on Saturday.
‘Platner on steroids’: Max Miller abuse claims have Republicans silently sweating
The surge of attention presents a dilemma for Republicans: speak out against their colleague who is running in a competitive race or face accusations of hypocrisy after hammering multiple similarly scandal-plagued Democrats — including Graham Platner, who recently ended his Maine Senate campaign, and Eric Swalwell, who resigned his House seat in April.
‘Bioweapons’ and cover-ups: The untruths behind RFK Jr.’s disease claims
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has argued that Lyme disease was cooked up by the American military in a Long Island laboratory in the 1950s.
It’s a debunked conspiracy theory that Kennedy has repeated in campaign events and on his podcast in the months before being named by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee national health policy.
In his telling, the tick-borne illness, which can cause debilitating pain and facial paralysis if untreated, was created as a military bioweapon at the Department of Homeland Security’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The facility opened in 1954 and is situated across Long Island Sound from the area of Connecticut where Lyme was discovered in the 1970s.
“Clearly this disease was not created by even the most evil genius military biologists in 1954,” said Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. “It is easy to refute with 100 percent certainty.”
DOJ will drop Reflecting Pool criminal case, citing ‘flawed installation’
The Department of Justice (DOJ) moved Friday to drop its criminal prosecution of a former Olympian charged with destroying the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying the damage was instead the result of a “rushed and botched installation.”
Prosecutors said it’s now evident some of the damage was in areas unlikely to be the result of vandalism, and a National Park Service engineer had raised concerns about peeling days before Hearn’s arrest. Prosecutors insist they didn’t become aware of the broader issues until after Hearn was charged.
“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” prosecutors wrote.
Friday, July 31, 2026
Republican Says Fauci Fifth Plea Shows Guilt—Here’s Each Time Trump Used It
Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during Senate testimony Wednesday, prompting Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, to suggest the move showed guilt.
While some Republicans criticized Fauci for invoking the Fifth Amendment, Trump has also relied on the constitutional protection. During a 2022 deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud investigation, Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment hundreds of times.
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Tosefta?
Wary of perception that Israel driving war, Trump and Netanyahu opt to avoid optics altogether
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the White House for his Tuesday meeting with US President Donald Trump via a side entrance.
Trump didn’t greet him outside the West Wing as he had for many of their seven previous meetings in his second term, and reporters weren’t called into the Oval Office to hear the pair issue statements or answer questions.
The limited public nature of the meeting, confined to a handful of photographs initially released by Netanyahu’s office, appeared to advance a joint interest — that Israel not be seen as once again dragging the US into renewing the conflict against Iran.