Texas Democrats leave state to try to stop GOP voting bill

 https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-texas-voting-voting-rights-7d9f2da74fb647b40214fa88ccdbcebb

 The cross-country exodus was the second time that Democratic lawmakers have staged a walkout on the voting overhaul, a measure of their fierce opposition to proposals they say will make it harder for young people, people of color and people with disabilities to vote. But like last month’s effort, there remains no clear path for Democrats to permanently block the voting measures, or a list of other contentious GOP-backed proposals up for debate.

In Israel, activists and families push for stiffer sentences for child sex abusers

 https://forward.com/news/472617/in-israel-activists-and-families-push-for-stiffer-sentences-for-child-sex/

 “The Israeli public still looks at child abuse as something that happens to others,” said Anat Ofir, director of the Child Abuse Prevention Initiative at the Haruv Institute, which launched a media campaign five years ago to raise awareness of the issue.

MK Miri Regev: 'Writing is on the wall' for Temple Mount bridge collapse

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/mk-miri-regev-writing-is-on-the-wall-for-temple-mount-bridge-collapse-673572

 The bridge was constructed in 2007 and was intended to remain in place for several months until a more permanent solution was built. Due to claims from the Wakf Islamic religious trust, instituted by Jordan after the War of Independence, that Israel was trying to destabilize the Temple Mount, a more permanent solution was never found, and the wooden bridge remained in place.

In 2011, the Jerusalem city engineer issued an order to close the bridge due to safety concerns, but it has remained open for public use.

Earlier this year, experts from the Western Wall Heritage Foundation warned that the bridge’s wood was extremely dry and cracked, attempts to treat it had failed, and replacing it was the only option.

Lord George Gordon

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_George_Gordon

 

 In 1787, at the age of 36, Lord George Gordon converted to Judaism in Birmingham,^{[dubious – discuss]} and underwent brit milah (ritual circumcision; circumcision was rare in the England of his day) at the synagogue in Severn Street now next door to Singers Hill Synagogue. He took the name of Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon ("Israel son of Abraham" Gordon—since Judaism regards a convert as the spiritual "son" of the Biblical Abraham). Gordon thus became what Judaism regards as, and Jews call, a "Ger Tsedek"—a righteous convert.

 

50 Shades of Gay: How Views on Homosexuality Are Splitting the Orthodox World

 https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-how-homosexuality-splits-the-orthodox-world-1.5383363

 As liberal as they become, Katz does not believe that Orthodox rabbis will ever agree to perform same-sex marriages, though Sperber thinks there may be a way around this. “The problem is with the word ‘marriage,’” he notes. “Perhaps they can call it something else like a ‘partnership.’”

What Happens After Death?

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/282508/jewish/What-Happens-After-Death.htm

While there are numerous stations in a soul’s journey, these can generally be grouped into four general phases:

1. the wholly spiritual existence of the soul before it enters the body;
2. physical life;
3. post-physical life in Gan Eden (the “Garden of Eden,” also called “Heaven” and “Paradise”);
4. the “world to come” (olam haba) that follows the resurrection of the dead.

What are these four phases, and why are all four necessary?

 

The Two Watchmen

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/352254/jewish/The-Two-Watchmen.htm

Talmud, Sanhedrin 91a–b

Antoninus said to Rabbi Judah HaNassi: The body and the soul can each absolve themselves from judgment. The body can say: “It is the soul who has sinned. Why, from the day it left me, I lie like a dumb stone in the grave!” And the soul can say: “It’s the body who transgressed. From the day I departed from it, I fly about in the air like a bird!”

"Orthodox" gay marriage and the path to destruction

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25249

(We cannot fail to note an Israeli Open Orthodox rabbi (Benny Lau) who attended a gay wedding with his well wishes, Rabbi Avi Weiss who, while rejecting Orthodox gay “marriage”, takes a very soft stance on going public on homosexuality, and Open Orthodox Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber, who sanctions the idea of “Orthodox” gay marriage, so long as another word, such as “partnership”, is used for it.)

Ra'am MK Mazen Ghainem: If Israel fires on Gaza, I'll topple the government

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309629

MK Walid Taha of the United Arab List has informed the government that his four-MK-strong party will no longer be voting in the Knesset, nor will it be participating in Knesset committee discussions, “until further notice.”

It appears that the United Arab List (UAL) has been offended by overtures made by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz to the predominantly Arab Joint List party, in attempt to garner their support in key Knesset votes and thus to free the coalition of dependency on the UAL and possibly eject the UAL from the government entirely.

Earlier on Sunday, Radio Mekan reporter Amit Segal quoted UAL MK Mazen Ghainem in threats he made on the government. “There’s no love lost between [UAL head] Mansour Abbas and the new government,” Ghainem said. “Bennett and Netanyahu? They’re both bad.”

 

 

As Israel’s biblical farming sabbatical nears, medical cannabis is budding issue

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-israels-biblical-farming-sabbatical-nears-medical-cannabis-is-budding-issue/

As many Israelis prepare to “rest the land” during the upcoming agricultural sabbatical year as commanded in the Book of Exodus, a debate has been sparked among rabbinical authorities as to whether locally grown cannabis will be subject to a complex set of guidelines. Will religious Jews be permitted to benefit from the plant in any way while observing the biblical laws of shmita that were set from on high?

The debate stems from the biblical commandment that residents of the Holy Land observe seven-year cycles culminating in a Jubilee every 50th year, with specific laws dictating matters such as loan forgiveness and the return of property titles. Most of the laws, however, deal with agriculture, and include restrictions on planting, tending, harvesting or even claiming ownership of crops that grew in one’s own field.

Scientists Identify Specific Human Brain Circuit for Spirituality

 https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-identify-specific-human-brain-circuit-for-spirituality/

 A new study led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital takes a new approach to mapping spirituality and religiosity and finds that spiritual acceptance can be localized to a specific brain circuit. This brain circuit is centered in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a brainstem region that has been implicated in numerous functions, including fear conditioning, pain modulation, altruistic behaviors and unconditional love. The team’s findings are published in Biological Psychiatry.

“Our results suggest that spirituality and religiosity are rooted in fundamental, neurobiological dynamics and deeply woven into our neuro-fabric,” said corresponding author Michael Ferguson, PhD, a principal investigator in the Brigham’s Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics. “We were astonished to find that this brain circuit for spirituality is centered in one of the most evolutionarily preserved structures in the brain.”

MK Hendel: 'We won't cease demolishing terrorists' homes to placate US'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309593

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel (Derech Eretz) has promised that the Israeli government will not cease demolishing terrorists' homes to placate the US government.

"We do what is good for the State of Israel," he told Kan 11. "The new government's policy is clear when it comes to violations of sovereignty and the management of terror. Sometimes we may disagree with he US government, but most of the time we will go hand in hand."

Hendel added that the first dispute between the Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government was with regards to the demolition of a terrorist's home, and that the dispute is not a rift in relations.

'The home of a family should not be demolished for the actions of one individual'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309538

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised concerns with Israeli officials over the demolition of the home of the family of a terrorist, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday.

"The secretary and other senior officials here at the State Department in recent days have raised these concerns directly with senior Israeli officials, and we will continue to do so as long as this practice continues," Price told reporters.

"As we've said numerous times now, the home of an entire family should not be demolished for the actions of one individual," Price added.

 

Private panel of rabbis annuls marriage of abused wife who sought divorce -the Kaminetsky heter

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/private-panel-of-rabbis-annuls-marriage-of-abused-wife-who-sought-divorce/

The private court, headed by Rabbi Daniel Sperber and convened by the Center for Women’s Justice organization, dissolved the marriage on the grounds that the woman would not have agreed to the nuptials had she known of her husband’s criminal record, which included time in prison for assaulting his first wife.

 Sperber said that his ruling did not conflict with the state-approved Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which has a monopoly on marriages and divorces, as he was not granting a divorce but rather invalidating the marriage in the first place.

However, Kobi Alter, the spokesperson from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, told The Times of Israel that the dissolution was not recognized by the rabbinate and that the woman would not be allowed to remarry via state authorities as she is still considered married.