https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-passes-first-budget-in-35-years-683981
The Knesset passed the 2021 state budget into law in a 61-59 vote at 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning, giving Israel a new budget for the first time since March 15, 2018.
https://60ribo.org.il/the-chafetz-chaim-hated-russian-communist-leaders/
It was told in the biography of Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman (in the English Artscroll edition, page 59) what the Chafetz Chaim (who usually has the final say on what is Jewish Law) did to the Communist, Trotsky.
A certain heretic who was in Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s neighborhood would upset him by incessantly challenging the legitimacy of verses. One day, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi took a rooster and placed it between the legs of the bed upon which he sat and looked at it. He thought: When the moment of God’s anger arrives, I will curse him and be rid of him. When the moment of God’s anger arrived, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi slept. When he woke up, he said to himself: Conclude from the fact that I nodded off that it is not proper conduct to do so, to curse people, even if they are wicked. “His mercy is over all His creations” (Psalms 145:9) is written even with regard to sinners.
Berachos (19a)
There were these hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you pray for the death of these hooligans? Do you base yourself on the verse, as it is written: “Let sins cease from the land” (Psalms 104:35), which you interpret to mean that the world would be better if the wicked were destroyed? But is it written, let sinners cease?” Let sins cease, is written. One should pray for an end to their transgressions, not for the demise of the transgressors themselves.
Moreover, go to the end of the verse, where it says: “And the wicked will be no more.” If, as you suggest, transgressions shall cease refers to the demise of the evildoers, how is it possible that the wicked will be no more, i.e., that they will no longer be evil? Rather, pray for God to have mercy on them, that they should repent, as if they repent, then the wicked will be no more, as they will have repented.
Rabbi Meir saw that Berurya was correct and he prayed for God to have mercy on them, and they repented.
GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin is facing allegations of antisemitism after accusing allies of Jewish philanthropist George Soros of a shadowy campaign to place secret political operatives onto Virginia school boards.
In an appearance Tuesday night at a rally at the Burke Volunteer Fire Department, Youngkin tried to link Soros, his Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe and cultural debates roiling some suburban Northern Virginia public school systems. In particular, some parents are protesting equity initiatives they associate with critical race theory, an intellectual movement that examines the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism.
https://www.vox.com/2021/11/3/22752593/virginia-governor-results-youngkin-wins
Many on the right and in the national media have framed Youngkin’s attacks on the purported use of “critical race theory” in Virginia’s public school system as crucial to his success. It isn’t so clear that was what made the difference, though, since conservative candidates focusing on that issue in local races in New Hampshire and Connecticut lost.
And while Youngkin used the specter of critical race theory to appeal to the base, his TV ads aimed at swing voters had a wider focus. In those, Youngkin conveyed concern about the state of the economy and the state’s education system more broadly. He falsely claimed McAuliffe planned to raise taxes by over $5,000 per family, and argued that the state’s public schools were increasingly poorly run and unsafe.
Republican Glenn Youngkin, a businessman, has defeated former governor Terry McAuliffe to become Virginia’s governor in a race that was fraught with charges of antisemitism.
Local and national media organizations called the race, which was widely viewed as a barometer for Republican electoral strategy in the post-Trump era, early Wednesday morning.
Youngkin embraced former US President Donald Trump in the primary but distanced himself from Trump in the general campaign, while still managing to retain the support of Trump’s core constituencies.
Nearly 25 years after his bar mitzvah tutor pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct, a 40-year-old New Jersey native has sued the former tutor as well as the synagogue and day school that employed him.
The tutor, Akiva Roth, pleaded guilty in 1997 to four counts of lewdness, and lost his jobs at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, the former Solomon Schechter School of Essex and Union counties and Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. But the plaintiff in the lawsuit and two other former students of Roth who were interviewed over the past month contend that the three institutions failed to properly inform their communities of the situation, allowing Roth to continue teaching in other Jewish organizations for years.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/lgbtq-activist-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-against-minors-683894
Just days after LGBTQ+ personality Gal Uchovsky was accused of sexual assault, prominent LGBTQ+ activist Etai Pinkas-Arad has been accused of sexual misconduct by two men who say they had relations with Pinkas-Arad over ten years ago when they were 17, Ynet reported on Wednesday.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316219
An antisemitic tirade at a school board meeting in suburban Phoenix last week has spurred an extensive response among local officials and Jewish leaders — some of whom say they were distressed that board members did not rebut the comment at the time.
During the public comment portion of the meeting of the Chandler Unified School District board, a woman who identified herself as Melanie Rettler spoke for over a minute about critical race theory and vaccines — topics not listed on the meeting agenda but at the center of heated public debate nationwide.
Her comment crescendoed with an antisemitic claim drenched in the language of right-wing conspiracy theories.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/11/02/us/election-news#election-takeaways
Mr. Youngkin had campaigned heavily on education and seized on Mr. McAuliffe’s remark that he didn’t “believe parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Mr. Youngkin used the comment, made during a debate, as an entryway to hammer his rival on issues like race and transgender rights in schools. The issues simultaneously motivated the G.O.P. base while casting the matter to moderates as an issue of parental rights.
“This is no longer a campaign,” Mr. Youngkin said. “It is a movement being led by Virginia’s parents.”
Republican strategists were downright gleeful about the possibility of repackaging Mr. Trump’s policies without his personality.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/patriot-purge-tucker-carlson-documentary/620589/
To comprehend the full scope of the conspiracy, viewers will have to watch all three episodes. But even in the first episode, the goals of this project are already clear. The point is to describe the events of January 6 as a false-flag operation cooked up inside the deepest layers of the American deep state—and thus to cast doubt on everything that will come out of Congress’s January 6 hearings, everything revealed by every Washington Post or network-television investigation, everything turned up by the FBI. For Fox viewers, this will come as an enormous relief. If all the disturbing facts can be ignored, then no lessons need be learned. Republicans in Congress and the Trump White House need never be blamed for their assault on the Constitution. The people who supported them need never question that support.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rye2poyvt
The Iran-linked Black Shadow hacking group on Tuesday night leaked what claimed was the full database of Machon Mor medical institute, including medical records of some 290,000 patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/disposable-plasticware-prices-soar-as-new-tax-introduced/
In a bid to drive down Israel’s plastic waste, the government on Monday introduced a new tax on disposable plasticware aimed at doubling the price of plastic cutlery and crockery for Israeli consumers.
The Environmental Protection Ministry said that the new tax — an increase of 11 shekels per kilogram of single-use plastics — would “double the final price for the consumer and thus reduce the consumption of these polluting products.”
The tax will apply to plastic plates, bowls, cups, and straws.
In the final days of the Virginia governor's race, Republican Glenn Youngkin did everything he could to suggest the contest was a referendum on what is being taught to the commonwealth's schoolchildren.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316184
MK Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) caused a stir in the political system last night when, prior to the opening of discussions on the state budget, he compared the coalition members to dogs.
"This is the first time I see dogs giving something to cats," Litzman said, referring to a section in the coalition funds that allocates NIS 12 million for neutering stray cats.
In the coalition, he was sharply criticized, but it turns out that
his colleagues in the haredi parties did not like the "unsuccessful"
wording to say the least.
