Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Halacha and Science
Michtav M'Eliyahu (4:355): When Rav Dessler was asked concerning certain halachos that the reason that had been given for them is not in accord with modern science... for example This that it is permitted to kill lice because they don't reproduce sexually. Rav Dessler stated that concerning this matter and those like them the Halacha never changes even though the reason doesn't make sense to us. We are to hold on to the Halacha with two hands whether to be strict or lenient [not like the Pachad Yitzchok]. The reason for this is that the Halacha was known to Chazal by tradition through the generations and they also knew things through experience.... The important point is that the reasoning they gave did not create the Halacha but rather the reverse was true, the Halacha created the reasoning. The reasoning given in the gemora is not the only possible explanation. If they happened to give explanations on occasion which were only true according to the science of their day, we have an obligation to search out alternative explanations that will justify the Halacha according to modern science.... Even if one cannot find a convincing explanation, we must still believe with perfect faith that the Halacha is still true and we hope that G d will enlighten us with an appropriate explanation.
Pesachim (94b) The Sages of Israel maintain: The sun travels beneath the sky by day and above the sky at night; while the Sages of the nations of the world maintain: It travels beneath the sky by day and below the earth at night. Said Rabbi: And their view is preferable to ours, for the wells are cold by day but warm at night.
Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin
Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and interviews with three people familiar with the event. The oligarch paid to rent out one of the private islands, where a reception was held and where guests slept. He also covered other big-ticket items, like the fireworks show, and his team helped plan the event. Kremlev is the head of the International Boxing Association, a scandal-plagued sports group that has been financed by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. The wedding payments came from an IBA-affiliated entity in Dubai that the boxing association uses for financial transactions.
Kremlev’s previously unreported relationship with Trump Jr. represents an extraordinary development: a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting the president’s son and gaining intimate access to the Trump family. For a decade, Putin’s government, regarded as a chief adversary of the U.S., has been accused of efforts to influence American elections. Attempts by Russia to make inroads with the Trumps before the 2016 election exploded into controversy that dogged much of the president’s first term.
“If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something,” said Frank Montoya Jr., a retired career FBI official who held senior counterintelligence roles. Oligarchs like Kremlev often act in coordination with the Russian government. While it’s unclear if that happened here, Trump Jr. put himself in a precarious position, Montoya said. “This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.”
The revelations come as Trump Jr. has emerged as a political power center in his own right. Beloved by the MAGA base, he reportedly played an active role in vetting White House cabinet picks for Trump’s second term and was dubbed his father’s “most essential political adviser” by The Wall Street Journal. “I certainly don’t think I’d be sitting here as the VP nominee without Don’s help,” Vice President JD Vance told the outlet in late 2024.
Bettina Trump defends letting Putin-linked Russian oligarch pay for Don Jr. wedding celebration
First daughter-in-law Bettina Trump claimed Monday that a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin was acting as a “close friend” when he footed the bill for the celebration of her May wedding to Donald Trump Jr.
Umar Kremlev shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars for several items related to the couple’s May 21 nuptials on a private island in the Bahamas, including paying for an additional private island to host the reception as well as a fireworks show, ProPublica reported.
Days before attending the wedding, Kremlev was in China as part of a delegation accompanying Putin on a state visit, according to Beijing’s official media. The 43-year-old is best known as head of the International Boxing Association, a position he has held since 2020. During that period, the International Olympic Committee revoked its recognition of the IBA due to a purported lack of progress in dealing with alleged corruption. Kremlev and Don Jr., a devotee of combat sports like his father, participated in an IBA panel event in Istanbul last year.
Kremlev is also tied to an organization called Healthy Fatherland, which is run by his wife’s twin sister. The group is under Ukrainian sanctions for allegedly helping abduct children from occupied territories and relocating them in Russia. Melania Trump has worked to reunite kidnapped Ukrainian children with their families.
Why Republicans struggle to prove the danger of socialism
When the GOP embraces big government, it’s harder to champion free markets.
When one party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress, the midterm elections are a referendum on the party in power. With President Donald Trump’s approval ratings falling into the 30s and affordability remaining a top issue for voters, it is rational for Republicans to direct attention to how much worse the economic pain will be under Democrats. Fortunately for congressional Republicans, the Democratic base is obliging them by nominating candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, whose platform includes defunding the police and abolishing the U.S. Senate.
Unfortunately, the socialist attack would be more potent if the GOP offered a clear contrast. Instead, the last two years of Republican rule have ushered more government intrusion into the marketplace than a socialist congressional caucus could ever deliver.
The problem for Republicans this November is that they are not presenting a clear contrast between the failures of socialism and the blessings of free markets. Rather, they are increasingly adopting big-government policies and flexing federal power, while muddying the waters between their competing visions for the country’s future.
A Republican convention about fear collides with a midterm about prices
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/6087693-trump-midterm-affordability-gap/
In a Reuters-Ipsos poll last week, 47 percent of voters said that the cost of living would be the single biggest factor in how they vote this November. Thus, when Republicans gathered in Dallas last week for their first-ever midterm convention, they had an important opportunity to show voters how the party would ease the affordability crisis.
Indeed, the Republicans had billed their convention as a showcase for its affordability agenda — no tax on tips or overtime, tax cuts and an economy they insist is finally turning the corner. However, the message that actually filled the American Airlines Center was not that Republicans would make life cheaper. It was that Democrats are too extreme to be trusted with power.
So, lacking an appealing economic message, Republicans are betting that they can make November an election about fear of Democratic extremism.
Democratic voters driven more by opposition to Trump than party platform in fight for the House, poll finds
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/13/democratic-voters-trump-opposition-midterms-poll-01073868
Democratic voters are more motivated to get to the polls by their widespread dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump rather than the policies their candidates are putting forward, according to a CBS News poll released Sunday.
Among likely Democratic voters, 54% said they primarily wanted to stop Trump and the GOP from advancing their agenda, while 46% wanted to help Democrats enact theirs. By contrast, 57% of Republicans said they were seeking to help Trump and the GOP advance their policies, while 43% wanted to stop Democrats.
Voters gave Trump an overall approval rating of 39%, with 61% disapproving of his performance, per the poll. And his endorsement could actually serve as a liability for Republican candidates — with 48% of likely voters saying a Trump endorsement would make them less likely to support a candidate, compared with 21% who said it would make them more likely.
Avodas HaShem
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz (Sichos Mussar #33 5731): Everyone is required to thoroughly examine his deeds especially before Rosh HaShanna - the Day of Judgment. This obligation is not just to discover transgressions and lapses in observance of the commands. It also includes the evaluation whether one's path in serving G d is the correct one for him since everyone has a unique path. The issue of Avodas HaShem is such that a person could keep all the mitzvos yet have a completely false approach to serving G-d. The problem is compounded by the fact that he might have incorrectly assumed that what he was doing would be pleasing to G d. Nevertheless all his efforts would have been to accomplish a mistaken goal. Consequently if he has not carefully evaluated the correctness of his plan then all his efforts and sacrifices are wasted. Furthermore he is punished according to the degree of effort he made to accomplish this wrong plan. This can be seen from the fact that Rav Yochanon ben Zakkai who was not only the leading Torah scholar of his time but also had succeeded in saving Torah for all future generations was frightened before his death. He cried before his students and said "I see before me two paths - one to Gan Eden and the other to Gehinom and I don't know where they are taking me. Shouldn't I cry?" His fear was not because of failing to keep the whole Torah. His fear was solely because he might have failed to properly have done his Avodas HaShem. There is the additional problem with Avodas HaShem - that one simply can't repent for doing it incorrectly since it is easy to be mistaken and assume that you are doing the right thing.
Why 3 years after Oct. 7, antisemitism in Canada remains at an alarming high
Amid a spate of attacks against Jewish targets in Toronto and Montreal, many Canadian Jews and their allies question whether the government is doing enough
Aveira Lishma-Transgressing for a Mitzva
Keser Rosh(132) An aveira Leshma has not been permitted at all from the time of the giving of the Torah otherwise why have the 613 Mitzvos
Horayos (10b) A transgression with good intent is more meritorious than the performance of a commandment with no intent; for it is said, Blessed above women Jael be, the wife of Heber the Kenite, above women in the tent shall she be blessed. Who are the women in the tent? Sarah, Rebeka, Rachel and Leah.
Nazir (23b): A transgression performed with good intention is better than a precept performed with evil intention.
https://minchasasher.com/shiur/parsha-shiurim/aveira-good-intentions-5776/
It would have seemed from this Gemara that one has an open license to commit an Aveira if one has a good intention in mind. However, Rav Chaim Volozhiner[5] flatly rejects such an interpretation. He says that if that were the case then there is no need for 613 Mitzvos. All one would need is good intentions; there would be no need for a structured list. He therefore says that once Torah was given that is the absolute rule. Only before Torah was given, and during our time to the B’nei Noach, there is permission to act in accordance to what seems to be correct, even if it’s an Aveira. What about Ya’el? To that he has two answers. Firstly that she knew and perceived deep Kabbalistic secrets pertaining to this relation. But none of us nowadays have such knowledge. Secondly, it was done to save all of Klal Yisrael.
The Ramchal[6] has a similar opinion to Rav Chaim Volozhiner. These Gemarahs play no practical role nowadays. Ya’el’s actions were a specific ruling due to deep Kabbalistic reasoning.
Kappores
Rashba (1:295) Mar, the Master already wrote: I have found that this custom of kappores was widespread in our town, that they would slaughter an old chicken for the sake of atonement over a young man, they would cut its head and hang it by its feathers at the door with garlic. And this is nonsense in my eyes like the ways of the Ammorites. I've pushed this custom out and by the grace of Heaven, they listened to my word and none of these practices remain anymore in our city.I have heard from different people from Ashkenaz who sit with us in the beit midrash (house of study) that all of the rabbis of their land do this on erev Yom Kippur...I still withheld this from our town.
Shulchan Aruch(Orach Chayim 605:1)That which people are accustomed to perform kapparah before Yom Kippur by slaughtering a rooster for each male and to say verses over it, you should prevent the custom.
Tzarich Iyun: Tashlich
This custom was soon adopted by many Ashkenazic communities, albeit with variations. Tashlich is mentioned by the Rema (OC 583:2); since the Arizal also approved of the practice, a kabbalistic component was added, and it soon spread to Sephardic communities as well, although not to Yemen.
It is hard to believe that such a widespread custom originated in the fifteenth century without an earlier basis. The Rashban (OC 210) thus suggests that tashlich is based on a Biblical precedent. He cites the anointing of King Solomon (mentioned earlier) as well as Ezra gathering the people at the “water gate,” the nearest gate to the water source, on Rosh Hashanah for a public reading of the Torah (Nechemiah 8:1).
It is interesting to note that there were those who did not practice tashlich at all. The Gra reportedly did not perform tashlich, nor did his star pupil Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin.[17] The Chayei Adam fails to record the custom. From the Aruch Hashulchan (OC 583:4) it seems that tashlich was far from a universal custom; furthermore, the Aruch Hashulchan has an ancillary problem with the custom. He advises women not go to tashlich so as not to create a mixed scene. If they do go, he suggests the men should stay home.[18] Evidently, the custom was not very important to him.[19]