https://academictimes.com/studying-science-isnt-what-makes-students-less-religious/
Saturday, May 15, 2021
Adultery: Kosher style? Defense of Kotzker Rebbe
Alshich (Tehilim 51:7): Behold in sin I was formed – From the time it decreed that I should be born by means of the sin of Lot’s daughter who had an incestual relation with her father which is disgusting and terrible sin – but that is how I was formed. As it says in Bereishis Rabbah (50:16), “I found Dovid My servant” where was he found? In Sedom. And in sin my mother conceived me - that is referring to Ruth who is referred to as mother as it says in Bava Basra (91b)... she was the mother of the Davidic monarchy. From the time when she got the idea of lying at the feet of Boaz which was the sin of chilul Hashem as we see in Ruth Rabbah (6:1) that Boaz prayed that no one would know that she came to the threshing floor. And You G‑d did not consider it bad since You knew the motivation was good....
Devarim (05:17): You shall not kill. Nor shall you commit adultery. Nor shall you steal. Nor shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
Bamidbar Rabbah (09:43): Our Rabbis said: When a woman is secluded with her husband and is engaged in intercourse with him, and at the same time her heart is with another man whom she has seen on the road, there is no adultery greater than this.\
Chazon Ish (Igros Kodesh #01): It is important to note that our Sages are not saying to love one's wife with the natural love that man is attracted to a woman but rather to love her with the love that friends have for each other - as someone he knows and has a covenant with him and that they are partners in many things and each one helps and receives help from the other. In addition the love he feels for her should also come from gratitude. He needs to have the clear image in his mind that if he had not gotten a wife and would have remained alone and isolated - how much suffering and pain he would have from this. But now that he has a wife his life is in place and functioning. The significance of gratitude is immeasurably important. This type of love is what our Sages say a man is obligated to have towards his wife. And again this love does not come from the lust a man has for a woman at all but from one of the good attributes which he is obligated to have. He needs to have this type of love and feeling towards her when he strives to cause her rejoicing at the time of intercourse and well as before and afterwards. Such a relationship is not disgusting – chas v'shalom – but rather it is a mitzva. In fact he should conduct himself in this manner even if he were not obligated by the Torah and surely now that the Torah does obligated it - as we mentioned before.
Kotzker Rebbe (Emes v’Emuna p635):The biblical prohibition on adultery included relations with one’s own wife if they involved sexual desire.
Rambam (Yesodei HaTorah 5:9): A man who lusts after a particular woman and is dying because of this lust and the doctors say that there is no other cure except for him to have intercourse with her – it is better to let him die even if she is unmarried. Even to speak with her when she is behind a fence is not something we tell him to do. He should die rather than speak to her from behind a fence. Jewish girls should not be freely available because this will lead to a licentious attitude to sex.
Rashi (Tehilim 51:7): Behold I was formed in transgression – So how could I not sin. The basis of my being formed was my parents sexual intercourse and through intercourse it is possible to be involved in a number of transgression. And alternative explanation, my principle formation was from male and female – both of them are full of sins. However there are other interpretive readings to this verse and they do not conform to the subject matter of the verse.
Rashi (Mishlei 9:17): Stolen water is sweet – The pleasure from intercourse with an unmarried woman is not the same as adultery with a married woman.
Shulchan Aruch (E.H. 25:10): A man should not have intercourse with his wife and be thinking about another woman – even if both are his wives
Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 157:2) A person who has strong desire to commit adultery it is better to have intercourse with his own wife and imagine it is the other woman – nevertheless he needs to repent for his desire to sin (Taz)
Taz (Y.D. 157:10) Rema states that a person who has strong desire to commit adultery it is better to have intercourse with his own wife and imagine it is the other woman – this is obvious nevertheless he needs to repent this act since he had intention to sin as we see in Kiddushin 81) that Rav Chiya repented this for the rest of his life.
Tehilim (051:07):. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Vayikra (20:10): And the man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Vayikra Rabbah (14:05) In sin I was formed (Tehilim 51:7)… Dovid said before G-d, did my father actually have intent to have me or was he was he focused on his own pleasure? Obviously it was for pleasure because when they finished, my father and mother both turned their faces away from each other.
Yalkut HaMakiri Tehilim (118 28): Tehilim (51:7) Behold I was born in sin. Yishai was separated from his wife for three years. After three years he had a pretty maid servant that he lusted for. He said to the slave, ”My daughter; I prepared myself for you tonight to free you.” The slave went to his wife, “ “Save yourself and the soul of your husband from Hell. ”She replied, “What is happening? ”The slave told her everything. She replied, “My daughter what can I do since he hasn’t touched me for three years?. Go prepare yourself and so will I” And she did. That evening, the slave got up and extinguished the candle. and closed the door. The wife entered and the slave left. The wife was with her husband the whole night and became pregnant with Dovid. Because of his strong passion for the slave Dovid was born very ruddy compared to his brothers. His brothers wanted to kill him seeing that he was red {a sign of adultery]. However their father told them to leave him alone so instead of killing him they treated him instead as a slave and shepherd.
Zohar (01:8a) Domeh ascended before the Creator, and said: “Master of the world, 'Master of the universe, in the Torah it says of "the man that commits adultery with another man's wife...the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death"' (Vayikra 20:10). Furthermore, it is written, "Moreover, you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her" (Vayikra 18:20). So what is to become of David, who has profaned his organ (of the holy covenant by committing a sexually immoral act)? G-d said to him, "David is righteous! And the holy covenant remains intact, because it is known to Me that Bathsheba was assigned to him since the day the world was created
Friday, May 14, 2021
Israel must prove it has freedom to defend itself - opinion
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israel-must-prove-it-has-freedom-to-defend-itself-opinion-668124
The demand for ‘proportionality’ in military conflict seems to be a nonsensical special law cynically applied only to Israel, as if Israel were in a sportsmanlike joust with Hamas
Israel works to build int’l support for Operation Guardians of the Walls
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-works-to-build-intl-support-for-operation-668150
The Foreign Ministry had a positive view on world responses to Operation Guardians of the Walls, as it worked to preserve Israel’s international legitimacy to continue fighting against Hamas.
The
assessment came a day after a security cabinet source said that Israel
has not faced significant pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.
Several senior Israeli sources have said in recent days that the US is
not pushing for a ceasefire.
Israel-Gaza: Conflict stalls Arab-Israeli rapprochement
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57105583
The much-trumpeted Abraham Accords - that saw the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan all sign agreements with Israel - were always going to be hostage to events on the ground. Now those events have descended into deadly violence, any further public warming of relations between the Arab states and Israel has been put on hold.
Elise Stefanik's leadership rise stirs up GOP drama over identity politics
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/13/politics/elise-stefanik-gop-leadership/index.html
In
a column posted shortly after Cheney was removed from her post on
Wednesday, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin contended that the "most
obvious reason" Republicans had settled on Stefanik, whose voting
record has raised eyebrows among the party's most conservative members,
"is because the party -- though it supposedly abhors identity politics
-- needs a skirt to hide behind as it jettisons a strong,
independent-minded female colleague."
Biden says he doesn’t think Israel overreacting in response to Gaza rockets
US President Joe Biden on Thursday said he did not think Israel has
overreacted in its response to rocket fire from Gaza as Washington
worked to block the UN Security Council from holding an open meeting on
the matter.
“One of the things I’ve seen thus far is that there has not been a
significant overreaction [by Israel],” Biden said when asked at a press
conference whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing enough
to prevent an escalation.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Kedushas Tzion Fourth Annual Convention
היום בערב הועידה השנתית הרביעית של אגודת קדושת ציון - בירושלים,
הערב בין 7:00-11:15 (התכנסות ב-6:30), באולם שירת ירושלים.
בין הנואמים: הרב שלמה משה עמר שליט"א, הרב זאב לף שליט"א, הר' ישראל גליס, הר' ישראל גולדווסר ועוד.
אם ממש לא תוכל לבוא, הנה קישור לשידור, (כמובן זה לא תחליף...)
כט"ס,
יואל ברמן
Kedushas Tzion Fourth Annual ConventionThursday evening, 2 Sivan (May 13)7:00PM-11:15PM Israel Time(Thursday afternoon, 12:00PM-4:15PM New York Time)Speakers include Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar shlita, Rav Zev Leff shlita, R' Yisroel Gellis, and more.
This option is meant only for those not physically able to attend, namely Jews currently in the Diaspora. To come to the original, off-line event, see the Hebrew invitation here.
Andrew Yang apologizes for pro-Israel tweet after criticism from the left
https://nypost.com/2021/05/12/andrew-yang-apologizes-for-pro-israel-tweet/
Local Jewish leaders were largely unfazed by Yang’s revisions.
“It’s definitely not going to hurt him,” said Brooklyn government relations consultant Ezra Friedlander, who is backing Yang’s opponent Scott Stringer.
“He expressed his support [for Israel] and I think people appreciate that,” Friedlander said.
David Greenfield, who runs the Manhattan-based Jewish charity Met Council, said the criticism of Yang was unfair.
But his clarification that he cares about Palestinians while also supporting the State of Israel is “the viewpoint of most people of good conscience,” said Greenfield, who hasn’t made an endorsement for the June 22 election.
Yang has received backing of key leaders in the city’s politically powerful orthodox Jewish community including Brooklyn pols Councilman Kalman Yeger and state Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein.
AOC criticizes Biden statement of support for Israel as siding with 'occupation'
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., criticized President Biden over his Wednesday statement of support for Israel amid escalating violence with Hamas, claiming he gave little context for what stoked the tensions and was consequently "siding with occupation."
Biden told reporters Israel has a right to defend itself "when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory."
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Biden had failed to mention the pending evictions of dozens of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem in favor of Israelis and the Israeli police raid of the Al-Aqsa mosque that left hundreds of worshippers hurt as an instigator to Hamas’ rocket attacks.
She said statements that don’t recognize Israel’s role in the violence "dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. It’s wrong."
"By only stepping in to name Hamas’ actions - which are condemnable - & refusing to acknowledge the rights of Palestinians, Biden reinforces the false idea that Palestinians instigated this cycle of violence," she wrote. "This is not neutral language. It takes a side - the side of occupation."
Biden calls Netanyahu after criticism he was silent on Israeli-Palestinian violence
Asked about the proportionality of Israel's response Wednesday, Blinken said there was a "very clear and absolute distinction" between Hamas "targeting civilians and Israel's response defending itself." But he added that civilian casualties in Gaza have "a powerful impact, and I think Israel has an extra burden in trying to do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties."
In defense of Israel's 'disproportionate' response in Gaza
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2009/0109/p09s01-coop.html
It seems that whenever Israel responds to violent overtures from groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, leaders of the international community are quick to assign equal condemnation to Israelis and Palestinians regardless of whether one is legitimately acting in self-defense.
This is a particularly puzzling criticism of Israel. Would the international community truly prefer a proportionate or equal response? If Hamas launches three crudely-fashioned rockets into Israel, should the Israeli government respond with three equally-crude rockets? If three Israeli Defense Forces are kidnapped by Hezbollah, should the IDF respond by kidnapping an equal number of Hezbollah foot-soldiers?
Hamas should garner no international sympathy simply because it made the poor decision of engaging an enemy of far-superior military might. The international community must further realize that both belligerents do not always need equal blame placed upon them.
The myth of disproportionate Israeli response
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306133
Unfortunately, the term “disproportionate response” has been intentionally used to negate Israel’s right to defend itself. Suddenly, Israel’s right of self-defense becomes contingent upon a low number of civilian casualties. If those casualties seem too high, Israel is called upon to show restraint and to cease eliminating the threat. Furthermore, the term also seems to ignore any Hamas responsibility for those civilian casualties.
But it is not axiomatic that a high civilian casualty rate points to a disproportionate use of force. It might or it might not. It is necessary to examine the facts.
And what are the facts?
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