But many of the more normative haredi rabbis, especially those living in Israel, are reticent to directly challenge Sternbuch and Edah Haredit’s top rabbi, Moshe Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, for butting into their business, in large part because Edah Haredit followers are notoriously violent and neither of Edah Haredit’s two top rabbis – especially Weiss – has done much to limit that bad behavior, and Weiss is even thought to encourage it.
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Supreme Court declines to block Maine vaccine mandate
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/29/supreme-court-maine-vaccine-mandate-block-517746
Dozens of health care workers have opted to quit, and a hospital in Maine’s second-largest city already curtailed some admissions because of an “acute shortage” of nurses.
But most health workers have complied, and Maine residents in general have been supportive of the vaccine. The Maine Hospital Association and other health care groups support the requirement.
Dutch Reform rabbi says COVID-19 policies remind her of Nazi Germany
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dutch-reform-rabbi-says-covid-19-policies-remind-her-of-nazi-germany/
Those involved in enforcing COVID-19 public health measures “have the best intentions,” Benima added. “But as a Jew, what happened in Nazi Germany is a warning to me. Those in power all had the best of intentions. Also when they declared Jews a danger to ‘public health.’ Also when they declared a war against the ‘virus’ of those times. So don’t play with fire by setting aside people in our society as ‘a danger to public health,’ as Health Minister Hugo De Jonge regularly does.”
Shaked apologizes to Gantz over leaked recordings
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315986
In the recordings of Shaked, published on Channel 12 News this week, she was heard criticizing Alternate Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, and saying that "Lapid is a superficial person - every week he carries out an attack and Naftali rescues [him], and no one knows [about it].
Democratic lawmakers ask Biden to stop Jerusalem consulate move
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316013
So far, efforts to prevent the consulate from opening have only been on the Republican side. Last week, 35 senators from the rival party initiated a law to ban the administration from opening a consulate in Jerusalem. Their attempt to recruit Democrats to support the law have failed. This will be the first time senior members of the president's party have spoken out against the opening of the consulate.
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Latest Fact-checks of Tucker Carlson
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/tucker-carlson/
"In Texas, the power companies have automatically raised the temperature of people's thermostats in the middle of a heatwave without their permission."
Tucker Carlson Goes Full 1/6 Truther in New Fox Doc
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/tucker-carlson-january-6-truthe
Tucker Carlson faced widespread condemnation from media figures, Republican lawmakers, and even one of his own Fox News colleagues after airing a trailer for his upcoming project that seemingly portrays the January 6 Capitol riot as a “false flag” operation orchestrated by the government. The promo for Carlson’s documentary series, titled Patriot Purge and airing next week on the Fox Nation streaming service, features one voice suggesting the U.S. government is waging a “domestic war on terror” against “half of the country.”
The trailer, which opens with onscreen text that reads, “The true story behind 1/6” and “The War on Terror 2.0 and the plot against the people,” includes interviews with a man who claims “the left is hunting the right” and “sticking [American citizens] in Guantanamo Bay…leaving them there to rot.” Later in the promo, a woman asserts that “false flags have happened in this country. One of which may have been January 6.” A man is then shown firing a rifle at a shooting range as a narrator states “We are dealing with an insurgency in the United States," before the ad cuts to Joe Biden giving a speech in which he describes white supremacy as “the most lethal threat” in America.
Tucker Carlson condemned over ‘false flag’ claim about deadly Capitol attack
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/oct/30/tucker-carlson-condemned-capitol-attack-liz-cheney
The conservative Republican Liz Cheney and the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League led condemnation of Fox News and Tucker Carlson, after the primetime host announced a series about the supposed “true story” of the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.
They denounced Carlson for spreading dangerous conspiracy theories in the latest scandal to engulf a man whose popularity belies his record of racist and untrue statements on issues from immigration to racial justice.
“Fox News is giving Tucker Carlson a platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on 6 January,” tweeted Cheney, a Wyoming representative on the dwindling anti-Trump wing of the Republican party.
Jonathan Greenblatt, of the ADL, wrote to Lachlan Murdoch, chief executive of Fox Corporation, to demand the series be shelved.
“Clearly Carlson has the right to make outrageous claims,” Greenblatt wrote. “But freedom of speech is not freedom of reach. You have no obligation to validate his views with airtime on your platform and, I would argue, a moral responsibility not to do so.”
Fox News' Tucker Carlson problem
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/30/media/reliable-sources-fox-news-carlson-trutherism/index.html
Fox News is not officially commenting on the record, but it seems the right-wing talk network is quietly trying to distance itself from Tucker Carlson's 1/6 trutherism.
That's
the takeaway from this story by Daily Dot's David Covucci. He wrote on
Friday that after his outlet published a story on Carlson's 1/6 special
series, titled "Patriot Purge," the Fox News PR department reached out.
Terry McAuliffe Seeks to Turn Virginia Governor Election Into Vote on Trump
Youngkin has appeared to keep his distance from Trump. The former president hasn't campaigned with the Republican candidate and Youngkin didn't attend a "Take Back Virginia" rally on October 13 where Trump phoned in.
At that rally, attendees recited the Pledge of Allegiance in front of a U.S. flag that the hosts said had been carried during a Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6. The action was condemned by McAuliffe and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat.
Youngkin issued a statement saying he had "no role" in the event.
"It is weird and wrong to pledge allegiance to a flag connected to January 6. As I have said many times before, the violence that occurred on January 6 was sickening and wrong," Youngkin said.
A Fox News poll conducted from October 10 -13 showed 53 percent of likely Virginia voters had an unfavorable opinion of Trump, while 44 percent took a favorable view of the former president.
Angels? Abarbanel to Bereishis 6:2
אברבנאל פרשת בראשית
(א) ויהי כי החל האדם לרוב וגומר עד וירא ה' כי רבה רעת האדם בארץ. כבר ידעת מה שכתבו במדרש ושנו בפרקי רבי אליעזר ומשולש בגמרא בענין בני האלהים שהיו מלאכים ואם באנו למלות הכתוב אין ספק שיתישב בו הדעת הזה היטב אבל לא יתיחס לענין הפרשה כלה שאמר וירא ה' כי רבה רעת האדם בארץ וינחם ה' כי עשה את האדם ויאמר ה' אמחה את האדם שכל זה א"א שיתישב במלאכים גם כי הדעת ההוא מהנמנע שיש להם טבע קיים רוצה לומר שישוב טבע הנבדל להיות חמרי. ודברי חכמינו זכרונם לברכה באמת יש להם סוד ואינן כמשמעותן כמו שלקחום האומות. ולכן ראוי שיפורשו הפסוקים האלו באופן מסכים עם המושכל לא באופן אחר.
The Abarbanel says thes verses can not be talking about fallen angels - despite citing three sources from Chazal that say it does mean angels
Most of the classic commentators also say it is taking about man not angels. However Non Jewish sources strongly claim this is about fallen angels also this is also the view of the Zohar even though the medrash quotes the Rashbi as cursing those who say these verses are not referring to man
Bereishis Rabbah (26:5) 5. THAT THE SONS OF GOD (BENE ELOHIM) SAW THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN, etc. (VI, 2). R. Simeon b.Yohai called them the sons of nobles; [furthermore], R. Simeon b. Yohai cursed all who called them the sons of God. R. Simeon b. Yohai said: If demoralisation does not proceed from the leaders, it is not real demoralisation.
Devarim Rabbah (10:11) Thereupon the soul replied: ‘Master of the Universe, two angels, Uzah and Azael, came down from near Thy divine Presence and coveted the daughters of the earth and they corrupted their way upon the earth until Thou didst suspend them between earth and heaven.
Yoma (67b) Another [Baraitha] taught: Azazel, i.e., the hardest of mountains, thus also does it say: And the mighty [ele] of the land he took away. The School of R. Ishmael taught: Azazel — [it was so called] because it obtains atonement for the affair of Uza and13 Aza'el.[(13) This is a reference to the legend of fallen angels, based partly on Gen. VI, 4 and also on foreign lore. V. Jung, L. ‘Fallen Angels in Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan literature’.]
Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer (22:4-9) Rabbi said: The angels who fell from their holy place in heaven saw the daughters of the generations of Cain walking about naked, with their eyes painted like harlots, and they went astray after them, and took wives from amongst them, as it is said, "And the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose" (Gen. 6:2). Rabbi Joshua said: The angels are flaming fire, as it is said, "His servants are a flaming fire" (Ps. 104:4), and fire came with the coition of flesh and blood, but did not burn the body; but when they fell from heaven, from their holy place, their strength and stature (became) like that of the sons of men, and their frame was (made of) clods of dust, as it is said, "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust" (Job 7:5). Rabbi Zadok said: From them were born the giants (Anakim), who walked with pride in their heart, and who stretched forth their hand to all (kinds of) robbery and violence, and shedding of blood, as it is said, "And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak" (Num. 13:33); and it says, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days" (Gen. 6:4). Rabbi Joshua said: || The Israelites are called "Sons of God," as it is said, "Ye are the sons of the Lord your God" (Deut. 14:1). The angels are called "Sons of God," as it is said, "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7); and whilst they were still in their holy place in heaven, these were called "Sons of God," as it is said, "And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them; the same became the mighty men, which were of old, men of renown" (Gen. 6:4). Rabbi Levi said: They bare their sons and increased and multiplied like a great reptile, six children at each birth. In that very hour they stood on their feet, and spoke the holy language, and danced before them like sheep, as it is said, "They cast their young like sheep, and their children danced" (Job 21:11). Noah said to them: Turn from your ways and evil deeds, so that He bring not upon you the waters of the Flood, and destroy all the seed of the children of men. They said to him: Behold, we will restrain ourselves from multiplying and increasing, so as not to produce the offspring of the children of men. What did they do? When they came to their wives they spilled the issue of their seed upon the earth so as not to produce offspring of the children of men, as it is said, "And God saw the earth, and behold it was spilled" (Gen. 6:12). They said: If He bring from heaven the waters of the Flood upon us, behold, we are of high stature, and the waters will not reach || up to our necks; and if He bring the waters of the depths against us, behold, the soles of our feet can close up all the depths. What did they do? They put forth the soles of their feet, and closed up all the depths. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He heated the waters of the deep, and they arose and burnt their flesh, and peeled off their skin from them, as it is said, "What time they wax warm, they vanish; when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place" (Job 6:17). Do not read thus ("When it is hot," בחֻמו), but (read) "in his hot waters" (בחמימיו).
Getting rid of Bennet through vetoing buget
The Knesset Finance Committee approved on Wednesday night the 2021
and 2022 Budget Laws for the second and third readings in Knesset.
After
6 hours of marathon debates, which included several hundred objections
out of about 30,000 objections submitted by United Torah Judaism, Shas,
the Joint List, the Religious Zionist Party and the Likud, a motion was
made by committee chairman MK Alex Kushnir to reach a compromise with
the opposition parties.
The
compromise included about NIS 70 million in additional funds allocated
for projects supported by the opposition, including funding for
yeshivot, NIS 5m. to renovate hospitals in the periphery and NIS 3m. for
development in the Galilee and Negev. There was also an agreement to
amend legislation to reduce National Insurance payments for Israeli
students studying at institutions abroad.
All of this infighting comes as the coalition nears the deadline to
pass a state budget. The legislation needs to pass by the middle of
November otherwise, the government falls and Israel heads to another
election. In the background is of course Netanyahu and his Likud Party
which are actively trying to disrupt the government’s work and peel away
defectors to prevent the budget from passing.
Friday, October 29, 2021
ADL Asks Lachlan Murdoch to Cancel Tucker Carlson's Jan. 6 Documentary on Fox Nation
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is the latest entity to slam Tucker Carlson's new Fox Nation series Patriot Purge for statements made in the documentary.
The documentary series, which is available for streaming on November 1, focuses on the January 6 Capitol Riot. In an October 28 letter to Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the ADL, encouraged Murdoch to cancel the show over claims about the insurrection.
The letter argues that Carlson and a number of other "disinformation artists" who were interviewed for the piece made suggestions that the insurrection was a "false flag" and that the "Left is hunting the Right, sticking them in Guantanamo Bay ... leaving them there to rot."
Israel's President asks forgiveness
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315964
On Friday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the Arab-Israeli village of Kafr Qassem and addressed a memorial to the victims of the Kafr Qassem Massacre.
In that event, which took place on October 29, 1956, on the first day of the Suez Campaign, forty-nine people were killed.
Speaking at the memorial ceremony, Herzog said, "I am standing here before you today with my head bowed and my heart pained, on the sixty-fifth anniversary of one of the saddest events in the history of our country - an event whose gravity has never been in question. For it is clear to all of us: the killing and injury of innocents are absolutely forbidden. They must remain beyond all political arguments!"
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