Jared and Ivanka are poised to return to a Manhattan social scene that no longer welcomes them

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/14/politics/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-post-white-house/index.html

If the celebrations that spilled into the streets of New York City in the wake of Joe Biden's victory made one thing clear, it's that the Trumps aren't welcome here.

For the President, who changed his primary residency last year to Florida, that's perhaps no major loss, but for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the block parties celebrating the demise of the Trump administration may provide a glimpse of what awaits them once they exit the White House.

Now that their political lives in Washington are over -- the question for this once-golden power couple is what their time in the political spotlight has meant for their brand, particularly in their old Manhattan stomping grounds.

U.S. COVID-19 Numbers Hit New Daily High With More Than 184,000 Cases

 https://time.com/5912184/u-s-covid-19-numbers-hit-new-daily-high-with-more-than-184000-cases/

 The number of people testing positive for the coronavirus has soared to a new daily high in the United States.

Data from Johns Hopkins University indicates the number of confirmed cases reached 184,514 on Friday, as the number of people infected continues to surge.

The Johns Hopkins data shows the seven-day rolling average for virus-related deaths reported daily in the U.S. rose over the past two weeks from about 828 on Oct. 30 to 1,047 on Friday, an increase of about 26%

The seven-day rolling positivity rate also rose over the past two weeks from 6.4 to 9.6, an increase of about 50%, even as the number of tests performed has grown.

Trump's Voter Fraud Claims Are Now Being Debunked by His Own Government

 https://time.com/5912049/trumps-voter-fraud-claims-are-now-being-debunked-by-his-own-government/

In the most direct refutation yet of President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud, his own government declared on Thursday that “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”

The joint statement by a group of federal, state and industry election officials was released Thursday evening by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Prophets claiming virus would disappear after the election were clearly wrong!

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/14/us/coronavirus-deaths.html

For weeks, as coronavirus cases spiked across the United States, deaths rose far more slowly, staying significantly lower than in the early, deadliest weeks of the nation’s outbreak in the spring. New treatments, many hoped, might slow a new wave of funerals.

But now, signs are shifting: More than 1,000 Americans are dying of the coronavirus every day on average, a 50 percent increase in the last month. Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Tennessee and Wisconsin have recorded more deaths over the last seven days than in any other week of the pandemic. Twice this past week, there have been more than 1,400 deaths reported in a single day.

“It’s getting bad and it’s potentially going to get a lot worse,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “

 

 

Did Eliezar do something wrong?

תלמוד בבלי מסכת חולין דף צה עמוד

והאמר רב: כל נחש שאינו כאליעזר עבד אברהם וכיונתן בן שאול אינו נחש!  שולחן ערוך יורה דעה הלכות מעונן ומכשף סימן קעט סעיף ד

בתלמוד בבלי מסכת תענית דף ד עמוד א
אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יונתן: שלשה שאלו שלא כהוגן, לשנים השיבוהו כהוגן, לאחד השיבוהו שלא כהוגן. ואלו הן: אליעזר עבד אברהם, ושאול בן קיש, ויפתח הגלעדי. אליעזר עבד אברהם - דכתיב והיה הנערה אשר אמר אליה הטי נא כדך וגו', יכול אפילו חיגרת אפילו סומא - השיבו כהוגן, ונזדמנה לו רבקה. 

R. Samuel b. Nahmani said in the name of R. Jonathan: Three [men] made haphazard requests, two of them were fortunate in the reply they received and one was not, namely, Eliezer, the servant of Abraham; Saul, the son of Kish; and Jephtha the Gileadite. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, as it is written, So let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, ‘Let down thy pitcher etc.’ She might have been lame or blind, but he was fortunate in the answer given to him in that Rebecca chanced to meet him.

-
הגה: ט] י"א דאדם מותר לעשות לו סימן בדבר שיבוא לעתיד, כמו שעשה אליעזר עבד אברהם או יהונתן (טור והר"ד קמחי), ו ויש אוסרין (רמב"ם וסמ"ג). יב] וההולך בתום ובוטח בה', חסד יסובבנו (תהילים לב, י).

Trump had a very bad Friday in court with his election cases. They're headed for more action next week

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/14/politics/trump-election-cases-status/index.html

 Legal experts have been saying for a week now that President Donald Trump's court cases to throw out ballots and turn around his election loss were bound to fail.

Throughout Friday, the failures piled up.

In one day, nine cases meant to attack President-elect Joe Biden's win in key states were denied or dropped, adding up to a brutal series of losses for the President, who's already lost and refuses to let go. Many of the cases are built upon a foundational idea that absentee voting and slight mismanagement of elections invite widespread fraud, which is not proven and state leaders have overwhelming said did not happen in 2020.

 

 

The Evangelicalization of Orthodoxy

 https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/evangelicalization-orthodox-jews

 But more important, both camps of Orthodoxy have followed parts of evangelical Christianity in coalescing around an ethnonationalist identity, one that views the political right and its ultranationalist worldview, in America and in Israel, as a religious foundation united against the threat of the cultural left. For these swaths of the Orthodox world, support for Trump and the right generally is no longer a political choice separate from Torah. For many, Orthodoxy has fused with a Christianity that is now less a faith tradition than a nationalist civil religion, deeply connected with the Republican Party in general and now Donald Trump in particular.

 

US security officials: No evidence of deleted or changed votes

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/291144

 The Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other groups on Thursday rejected claims of voter fraud in last week’s election, saying in a statement “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

The members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee, which includes CISA’s Assistant Director Bob Kolasky as well as leaders from the independent US Election Assistance Commission and from the National Association of Secretaries of State, the National Association of State Election Directors, and others, pushed back against claims by US President Donald Trump that voting machines had been tampered with to steer votes from Joe Biden to Trump.

 

 

Evidence undermines Trump campaign's claims of dead people voting in Georgia

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/12/politics/trump-campaign-georgia-dead-voters-fact-check/index.html

 With CNN and other media outlets including Fox News having called the election for former Vice President Joe Biden, President Donald Trump and his allies continue to argue the results were somehow fraudulent.

On Wednesday, the Trump campaign claimed that the identities of four deceased people were used to vote in Georgia.

The campaign tweeted out the names of the four deceased former residents of Georgia, claiming that a ballot was cast in each one's name in the 2020 election. The campaign also put out a news release that day with the same allegations, which were repeated later that evening on Fox News by host Tucker Carlson.

Facts First: County officials debunked two of these allegations, telling CNN that ballots for two of the named individuals were not cast in 2020. Officials are aware of the two other allegations and are looking into those names.

Trump floating multiple unlikely survival scenarios as he weighs political future: report

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-floating-multiple-unlikely-survival-scenarios-as-he-weighs-political-future-report

President Trump has floated multiple unlikely scenarios of political survival to his advisers as he refuses to concede the presidential election to former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a report.

Following a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Trump reportedly pressed his advisers on whether Republican-controlled state legislatures in states that went for Biden could pick pro-Trump electors in order to sway the vote and give Trump the votes he needs for a second term, people briefed on the discussion told The New York Times.

The sources noted that the conversation was not detailed, serious or reflective of any obsessive desire for Trump to remain in the White House.

“He knows it’s over,” one source told the Times.

John Bolton: Republicans ‘Shouldn’t Care What Donald Trump Thinks’ | MTP Daily | MSNBC

Rabbi Weinberg’s Agony

 https://www.firstthings.com/article/2001/06/rabbi-weinbergs-agony

   Weinberg’s leadership role at the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary was cruelly tested during the Nazi era. Shapiro offers the shocking revelation that Weinberg acted as an apologist for Hitler in the period immediately following his appointment as chancellor. In March 1933, Weinberg gave an interview to a newspaper in which, as Shapiro summarizes it, “[Weinberg] played down the anti“Semitic nature of the new regime, denied that Jewish political rights or livelihoods were at risk, and expressed optimism for the Jewish future in Germany, a country based on the rule of law.” Shapiro adds tellingly that “Weinberg’s comments differed from those of other Jewish figures in Germany in that he was not subjected to governmental pressure to portray the regime in a positive light. On the contrary, his opinion was expressed voluntarily.” Shapiro is completely baffled by this, and can only attribute Weinberg’s behavior to extraordinary political naiveté. In any case, as the Nazi assault on German Jewry grew in intensity, Weinberg sobered up and acted responsibly in dealing with a host of matters”from trying to preserve some form of kosher slaughter in the country to finding places of refuge for the scholars and students affiliated with the Seminary. Weinberg himself remained in Germany throughout the decade, turning down an offer to become head of the rabbinical court in London.

 

Is Trump viewed as so infallible that even posting critical comments destroys my crediblity?!

Ever since I have been posting articles about Trump - in particular his blatant lies - I have received comments that this inappropriate. There are two explanation give.1) Because the topic is viewed as irrelevant to a Jew and thus I am wasting energy to do so. 2) Because criticism of Trump is mistaken since he is fighting the evil of Obama and the Clintons and therefore there is something wrong with my understanding of truth and reality if I dare suggest he is a liar and buffoon.

I have not taken these comments too seriously. I have noted that Trump propensity to lie is causing real damage - not just to America  - but to the world. That he is bringing about an unhealthy change in the relationship to truth and democracy. While there can be legitimate differences in how to govern or what programs are viewed as legitimate - but that there should be no argument about the importance of truth. There is no question that Trump makes up "alternative facts' such as that 3 million illegal voters cast votes for Clinton. That he makes false accusations such as that his phone was tapped by Obama - without any proof. Etc etc etc.

This week I received a new claim. My correspondent - who has a solid reputation - wrote the following. Up until I started posting about Trump I was viewed by many as the source of truth dealing with things such as child abuse, halacha, rabbinic scandals (e.g, Tropper) and the incredible perversion of halacha and rabbinic leadership - the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter.

My correspondent said he personally knows many people - including rabbis - who view me a credbile source of information and especially for the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter I am the only source. He therefore expressed pain that he had gotten feedback from various people including rabbonim - that what they perceived as my irrational obsession with Trump - had destroyed my crediblity on all the other issues.

In other words, despite my full documentation of the Kamientsky-Greenblatt heter - these people have decided that since I am a nut there is no reason to be concerned about the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter or anything else that I might discuss.

My understandings is that rabbis who will dismiss all the documentation solely because it has been reported by someone who is critical of Trump - means simply they are looking for any excuse to duck responsiblity for the matter. However my correspondent disagreed.

Out of the respect I have for this individual, I decided to make a poll to ascertain what is the dominant view there. There are 2 issues that have two alternatives. Thus there are four question and everyone should check two boxes.

1) Do the posting about Trump in fact destroy my credibility about the Kaminetsky-Greenblatt Heter and other matters and 2) Is this an important question.

Infallibility - Are our religious leaders infallible?

In order to make any advance in the discussion of Chabad - we need to get a clarity of a single point - the doctrine of infallibility. Was the Lubavitcher Rebbe infallible? Was his father-in-law? Did they ever make this claim? Is there any source that the Baal HaTanya made such a claim? My citation of a Chabad discussion group that this is mainstream Chabad theology has been question by:

Anonymous wrote: chabad.fm is NOT sanctioned by the organized Chabad movement. Full stop.

Where does one learn what is and has been acceptable in Chabad chassidus? Any discussion with Chabad seems to be predicated on the axiom that they have an infallible doctrine and by definition anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. Consequently Chabad does not engage in genuine dialogue but rather views it as an opportunity to educate their opponents of the error of their ways. This is in fact the reason that the Baal HaTanya said the Gra did not want to meet with him. There is obviously no discussion possible. It also means that any one who questions this doctrine is being disrespectful to Chabad in general and to their rebbbe's in particular. I am interested in the origin of this doctrine of infallibility. The "proofs" that Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver offers on his blog seem to indicate that only the Chabad rebbes are infallible and we know they were infallible because they made decisions without giving explanations - they just knew the right answer. Do any other chassidic groups claim infallibility for their leaders? Regarding the non-Chabad chaasidic world - Daas Torah is often cited as an meaning infallibity. However R' Avi Shafram - spokesman for the Agudah of America stated unequivocally

Da'at Torah is not some Jewish equivalent to the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility. Not only can rabbis make mistakes of judgment, there is an entire tractate of the Talmud, Horiut, predicated on the assumption that they can, that even the Sanhedrin is capable of erring, even in halachic matters. What Da'at Torah means, simply put, those most imbued with Torah-knowledge and who have internalized a large degree of the perfection of values and refinement of character that the Torah idealizes are thereby rendered particularly, indeed extraordinarily, qualified to offer an authentic Jewish perspective on matters of import to Jews - just as expert doctors are those most qualified (though still fallible, to be sure) to offer medical advice.^[1]

Similarly I cited the Shocachover Rebbe that Jewish leaders are not infallible.

אגלי טל (מעינה של תורה חלק ד' עמוד יז) ד"ה ואלה שמות בני אהרן הבכר נדב...אלה שמות בני אהרן הכהנים המשחים (ג- ב,ג) כפילת לשון זו למה? ברם, בידוע שכהני הדתות של אומות העולם נחשבים לברואים על אנושיים, שלעולם אינם עלולים לבוא לידי טעות. לפיכך משמתמנה אדם מהם לכהונה, מיד נותנים לו שם אחר, להודיע בזה שכלל איננו אותו אדם שמלפני כן וכי ניתן לו עתה גוף אחר לגמרי, ואילו אצל בני ישראל שונה הדבר תכלית שינוי, אפילו האדם היותר גדול נחשב בם הוא לבשר ודם העלול לבא לידי טעות, "אין אדם צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא" וכן: "הן בקדושיו לא יאמין". אף כי מחוייבים אנו לנהוג כבוד בתלמידי חכמים, הרי זה רק בזכות התורה שהם לומדים ומקיימים, כשם שאנו נוהגים כבוד רב בספר התורה, אף על פי שאין היא אלא קלף רגיל, מפני שעל הקלף הזה כתובים דברי התורה הקדושה: אולם אין אנו גורסים כל עיקר כי החומר גופו שונה מהחומר של שאר בני אדם. הילכך, אחר שמנה כבר הכתוב את שמותיהם של בני אהרן, הריהו חוזר ואומר: אלה בני אהרן הכהנים המשוחים" - שאפילו אחרי המשחם ככהנים לא ניתנו להם שמות אחרים, כי אם נחשבו לנבי אדם כמקודם

The Agudah does represent Chasdim as well as Litvaks - and yet their spokesman is rejecting the idea of rabbinic leaders being infallible.

In sum. I am interested in respectful discussion with and about Chabad. But they also have to accept that their leaders and doctrine are not viewed as infallible by the rest of the Jewish world.