Tosefta?

Am learning Shabbos which cites a Tosefta reguarding domains of Shabbos. What is Tosefta and why isn't  it in the Mishna? 

Wary of perception that Israel driving war, Trump and Netanyahu opt to avoid optics altogether

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/wary-of-appearance-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.

Angels have Free Will?

 Ohr Hachayim (Bereishis 19:20) We also have a principle (Baba Kama 60) that once permission has been granted to the destructive angel to execute G'd's judgment, it does not really matter whether the measure of guilt is full. However, the angel Gabriel was then in a position to exercise some discretion. Lot was aware of this and appealed to Gabriel's discretionary powers. Lot left Tzoar as soon as possible because he was afraid that the time limit for the angel's discretionary power would elapse.

Radak (Bereishis 19:21) When God sends an angel He gives them permission to add or subtract slightly from their mission as they understand it  because they are intelligent beings

 Rashi (Bereishis 19:22) FOR I CANNOT DO ANY THING—This admission of their powerlessness was the angels’ punishment for having said, “For we will destroy the city”, attributing the act to themselves; therefore the incident could not close until they were compelled to admit that the thing was not in their power

Netanyahu Finds Diminished Welcome From Trump as Iran War Drags On

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-finds-diminished-welcome-from-trump-as-iran-war-drags-on-8144d154

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House Tuesday, navigating a growing rift five months after the two launched a war on Iran that has proven far more complex than either imagined.

Tensions between the two had simmered for weeks. It was unclear until late last week that Trump would even entertain a meeting with Netanyahu. To secure an audience, the Trump administration pressed the Israeli leader to take steps to show he was serious about advancing U.S.-brokered peace talks in Lebanon and Gaza, according to officials and people familiar with the matter. 

Tu B’Av, the Jewish Day of Love

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tu-bav/

Tu B’Av , the 15th Day of Av, is both an ancient and modern holiday. Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the Second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). Tu B’Av was almost unnoticed in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it is gradually becoming a Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine’s Day in English-speaking countries.

There is no way to know exactly how early Tu B’Av began. The first mention of this date is in the Mishnah (compiled and edited in the end of the second century), where Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted saying:

There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be your wife)? (Ta’anit, Chapter 4)

The Gemara attempts to find the origin of this date as a special joyous day, and offers several explanations. One of them is that on this day the Biblical “tribes of Israel were permitted to mingle with each other,” namely: to marry women from other tribes (Talmud, Ta’anit30b). This explanation is somewhat surprising, since nowhere in the Bible is there a prohibition on “intermarriage” among the 12 tribes of Israel. This Talmudic source probably is alluding to a story in the book of Judges (chapter 21): After a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and other Israelite tribes, the tribes vowed not to intermarry with men of the tribe of Benjamin.

Deadliest year in decades as antisemitism becomes ‘new normal’ in West, Jewish watchdog finds

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-903961

The year 2025 marked the deadliest year for antisemitic violence in the Jewish Diaspora since the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, according to a new report by the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism.

The report, released on Wednesday, documented 20 lives lost to targeted antisemitic attacks across the globe in 2025. From the Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney that left 15 dead to shootings at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, and two killed at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, as well as one killed in Boulder, Colorado.

The J7 task force, which unites major Jewish organizations representing over 90% of the Jewish Diaspora outside Israel across Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US, tracked over 23,000 antisemitic incidents in 2025 alone. While total incidents dipped slightly in a few nations compared to record highs in 2024, overall figures remain up 136%, and violent incidents up 97%, compared to the baseline year of 2022.

Words have lost their meaning in the Trump era, and Israel is now paying the price

 https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/hyro4wvhfx

After weeks of strikes, none of the war’s central objectives has been achieved, Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz and Washington is searching for a diplomatic success, yet Trump continues to speak as though the campaign ended in triumph

It is doubtful Trump understands that the entire Middle East, not only Israel, is at stake.

When it comes to words, Trump is indeed a superhero.

Senate confirms Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5995382-senate-confirms-jay-clayton-as-intel-chief/

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence (DNI) in a 51-47 party-line vote, potentially reviving a stalled battle over renewing the nation’s warrantless spy powers.

Clayton, currently a U.S. attorney who served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission under the first Trump administration, does not have the broad foreign policy and intelligence background of others who have led the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

“When the position of the DNI was created by Congress after the 9/11 attacks, the law laid out a simple qualification for the position: that the DNI ‘shall have extensive national security expertise.’ Jay Clayton fails that foundational, statutory test,” Schiff wrote.

Limit to Testing

 I have heard these words many times " G-d never gives a person a test greater than what he can deal with"

What is the source for this claim? It is a widespread Christian belief

Bereishis Rabbah (34:02) A potter does not test defective vessels, because he cannot give them a single blow without breaking them. Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not test the wicked but only the righteous: thus,  The Lord trieth the righteous.’ R. Jose b. R. Hanina said: When a flax worker knows that his flax is of good quality, the more he beats it the more it improves and the more it glistens; but if it is of inferior quality, he cannot give it one knock but it splits. Similarly, the Lord does not test the wicked but only the righteous, as it says: ' The Lord trieth the righteous. R. Eleazar said: When a man possesses two cows, one strong and the other feeble, upon which does he put the yoke? Surely upon the strong one. Similarly, the Lord tests none but the righteous; hence, ' The Lord trieth the righteous.

 Bereishis Rabbah (56:11)AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD CALLED UNTO ABRAHAM A SECOND TIME OUT OF HEAVEN, AND SAID: BY MYSELF HAVE I SWORN What was the need of this oath? He had begged Him: Swear to me not to try me again henceforth, nor my son Isaac. R. Levi in the name of R. Hama b. R. Hanina gave another reason for this oath: He had begged: ' Swear to me not to test me again henceforth. This may be likened to a king who was married to a noble lady. She gave birth to her first son by him, and he divorced her; a second, and he divorced her; a third, and he divorced her. When she had given birth to a tenth son by him, they all assembled and demanded of him: ‘Swear to us not to divorce our mother again.’ Similarly, when Abraham had been tried for the tenth time, he said to Him: Swear to me not to test me again. R. Hanan commented: BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS THING it was the tenth trial, yet you say, BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS THING! The fact, however, is that this was the last trial, which was as weighty as all the rest together, and had he not submitted to it, all would have been lost.

How vaccine skeptics use storytelling to create powerful and medically inaccurate messaging

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2026/07/27/how-vaccine-skeptics-use-storytelling-effectively-to-create-powerful-but-medically-inaccurate-messaging/

Researchers generally refer to people who do not follow the standard advice of health professionals about vaccines, by either refusing or delaying some or all vaccines, as vaccine hesitant. Today, vaccine hesitancy is most famously associated with the Make America Healthy Again movement and its standard-bearer, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

But vaccine-hesitant groups are particularly adept at using narrative to craft compelling, nerve-wracking or highly emotion-driven stories of doctors ignoring patient concerns and children developing devastating health conditions after getting vaccinated.

What makes these stories the secret weapons of vaccine hesitancy is that they often are not actually about vaccines at all. When vaccines become detached from medicine, they can function like a symbol or a metaphor in a story, reflecting a worldview that encompasses much more than medicine and is fueled by nonmedical anxieties. These stories use narrative strategies, including some drawn from film and literature, to undermine vaccine confidence.

Measles Cases in the U.S. Are at a 35-Year High

 https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/measles-cases-us-35-year-high/

Measles is an old scourge that’s rapidly re-emerging as a new one. According to numbers released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 24, there have been 2,318 cases of measles reported nationwide so far in this year, already exceeding the 2,289 cases reported in all of 2025. The current figure is the highest incidence of measles in 35 years, a record set back in 1991 when there were 9,643 U.S. cases.

It wasn’t long ago that measles cases were extremely rare in the U.S. In 1963, the first measles vaccine was introduced in the U.S., and decades of steady administration of the shot eventually led to the country being declared measles-free in 2000. There were some scattered infections in the ensuing years—56 cases in 2003, 55 in 2012, 13 in 2020. But this year and last year, the numbers have exploded

The surge has come amid a backdrop of drastic changes to childhood vaccinations.  In January 2026, the CDC changed the childhood vaccine schedule—despite experts and organizations saying there had been no change in the science—after President Donald Trump directed the agency and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine skeptic, to review how other developed countries issue vaccine recommendations. The new guidelines reduced the number of recommended vaccines for children from 17 to 11. Though the measles vaccine is still on the “recommended” list, recent research published in Science showed that changes in the CDC's vaccine messaging under the Trump Administration reduced the public's trust in the agency and in vaccines, while increasing perceptions that vaccines are not safe.

Torah makes you appear Wise

 Devarim (04:06)  Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the is nations, who, when they shall hear all these statutes, shall say, Surely this great nation a wise and understanding people.

Rashi Devarim (04:06) FOR THIS IS YOUR WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING IN THE EYES OF THE PEOPLES — i.e. through this ye will be accounted wise and understanding men in the eyes of the peoples.

Sforno (04:06) Observance of the laws of the Torah is your true wisdom and will enable you to resist the lures and challenges by the heretics.

 Rabbeinu Bachya (Devarim (04:06) Nations perceive as your wisdom and discernment.” The verse teaches first and foremost that all the commandments only come into their own when being performed. Their integrity has to be safeguarded and their substance has to be carried out or performed by not violating them. All the worthwhile activities in the world are automatically part of one or more of the Torah’s commandments. The discipline of healing is part of a commandment seeing the Torah tells us that if we listen carefully to its commandments and perform all its statutes and refrain from violating them we will not experience disease, etc., “seeing the Lord is your Healer.” The message is clear: Torah observance=preventive medicine. The same applies to all other scientific disciplines.

Trump holds off major Iran escalation after Pentagon warns of interceptor shortage

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r111brtghmg

The US president had weighed a multistage bombing campaign against Iranian military, energy and nuclear targets, but advisers warned that heavier fighting could drain Patriot stocks, expose Gulf bases to retaliation and deepen the region’s energy and refugee crises

U.S. President Donald Trump has put aside, at least for now, plans to sharply intensify the U.S. military campaign against Iran after senior advisers warned that a broader war could dangerously deplete American air defense stocks in the Middle East.

Trump and his advisers were also weighing the possibility of a wider regional war, damage to relations with vulnerable Gulf allies, further pressure on the global economy and worsening energy and refugee crises.

Mind Blown

 https://mishpacha.com/mind-blown/

In the last few years, the world of mental health treatment has seen a quiet but powerful shift: psychedelic assisted therapy. For people who have struggled with deep-seated trauma or intractable emotional pain, psychedelic therapy with drugs such as psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, and ayahuasca, can open the door to sudden, almost miraculous healing. For some, psychedelic-assisted therapy has accomplished in one or two sessions what would have taken conventional talk therapy months or years to achieve.

But along with its incredible capacity to bring healing results, psychedelic drugs hold the potential to wreak untold psychological, mental, and physical harm. They are the Jekyll and Hyde of therapy: credited with both facilitating stunning emotional breakthroughs unheard of in conventional therapy, and with triggering devastating outcomes like psychosis and suicide. This duality has generated a worldwide ban on the illicit use of these potent drugs.

What are these “miracle drugs” that have mesmerized so many in our community? What power do they hold to better people’s lives? What motivates an otherwise law-abiding person to ignore the ramifications of ingesting a powerful, illegal, and unregulated substance? And where is this cultural trend heading?

Rav Moshe Rotberg, a Toms River posek heavily involved in mental health issues and a licensed therapist, doesn’t deny the potential for psychedelic therapy to effect profound healing. He believes that in the future, psychedelics will figure significantly in trauma treatment.  He has seen firsthand how psychedelic therapy administered once or twice, and entrusted to qualified practitioners with vast experience, who maintain rigorous screening standards, has produced remarkable results.

However, at the same time, he’s observed a psychedelic community that has sprung up with practitioners, prescribers, and even rabbis involved — but shockingly devoid of real, responsible oversight.