What Does ‘Eye for an Eye’ Really Mean?

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/479511/jewish/What-Does-Eye-for-an-Eye-Really-Mean.htm

“An eye for an eye” may be an idiom, but the Torah always uses precise language, so why use this particular phrase? There is a purposeful subtext here: The perpetrator deserves to be injured or lose a limb in the same manner as the victim, but G‑d is compassionate, so the perpetrator makes financial restitution to the victim instead. It’s therefore important to bear in mind that, as is the case with all interpersonal transgressions, merely giving financial compensation should not be seen as having made amends for what was done, which can never fully be corrected; The best we can do is offer monetary compensation and beg forgiveness from the victim.

 

Fact check: False claims about George Soros

 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-false-george-soros-claims-idUSKBN23P2XJ

In a 1998 60 Minutes interview (youtu.be/AiqHiQYuoOs) Soros says his father forged his family’s identity to protect them. Soros, as a teenager, was placed under custody of a government official with the premise of being his godson. During this time, Soros witnessed (but did not actively participate in) the confiscation of Jewish property (here). In the interview, Soros says he doesn’t feel guilt looking back at these events, mentioning that he was a child at the time and that he was a “spectator” to something that would have happened regardless of his presence. 

 SOROS DOES NOT “OWN” ANTIFA AND BLACK LIVES MATTER

George Soros does not “own” ANTIFA or Black Lives Matter.

False. Conspiracy theories about George Soros visible in this post are unfounded.

Dozens of Ethiopians brought to Israel accused of scamming way onto airlift

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/dozens-of-ethiopians-brought-to-israel-accused-of-scamming-way-onto-airlift/

 Dozens of people smuggled in a secret operation from Ethiopia to Israel recently may have misrepresented their Jewish ancestry and exaggerated the level of danger they were in, according to reports Sunday.

An investigation by the Immigration and Population Authority raised “serious doubts” regarding the vast majority of a group of 61 Ethiopians brought to Israel over the last several months, who may have been part of a conspiracy involving a man who immigrated from Ethiopia over 20 years ago, Haaretz reported.

Members of the community involved in the effort denied the accusations, according to Channel 12 news, which also published an assessment from the National Security Council claiming that there was no urgency to airlift efforts.

Israelis rally behind teen brutally bullied at school for viral video

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1upmpbwt#autoplay

Hundreds gathered Sunday night in central Israel to show support for an eighth-grade student from the city of Rishon Lezion, who was filmed being brutally bullied by his classmates at a local school.

New Jersey GOP senator-elect Ed Durr apologizes for Islamophobic tweet

 https://www.inquirer.com/politics/new-jersey/ed-durr-twitter-racist-tweets-20211105.html

 In a 2019 tweet resurfaced by WNYC, Durr attacked the prophet Muhammad by name, denigrated Muslims as “fools,” and referred to Islam as a “false religion.”

Durr, 58, had made other incendiary claims on social media. He also downplayed the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and touted other right-wing conspiracy theories and referred to all undocumented immigrants as “criminals,” among other comments that have gained scrutiny.

In 1st for Conservative movement, women rabbis tie knot in same-sex wedding

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-1st-for-conservative-movement-women-rabbis-tie-knot-in-same-sex-wedding/

  You could call it bashert: 15 years after a landmark decision in Judaism’s Conservative movement that paved the way for gay and lesbian students to enter its rabbinical schools and for rabbis to perform same-sex weddings, it would seem like destiny that two Conservative rabbis would wed.

Of course, it happened at Camp Ramah.

Rabbi Ariella Rosen and Rabbi Becca Walker tied the knot at the Conservative movement’s camp in Palmer, Massachusetts, last month, with yet another queer woman rabbi, Megan GoldMarche, officiating. Rosen’s father, Rabbi Jim Rosen, also played a role.

4 cops hurt in Jerusalem riot over settler’s death in police chase last year

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/4-cops-hurt-in-jerusalem-riot-over-settlers-death-in-police-chase-last-year/

 Sandak, a resident of the Bat Ayin settlement, was fleeing Border Police in a car with three other so-called hilltop youth on December 21, 2020, when the car flipped over, killing him. According to police, Sandak’s group fled from police before losing control of their vehicle. Sandak’s defenders view his death as a police killing; they allege that the police car hit his vehicle from behind, causing it to run off the road.

COVID-19 vaccine for kids like Hitler Youth, child predators - pundit

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/covid-19-vaccine-for-kids-like-hitler-youth-child-predators-pundit-684236

Conservative political commentator Candace Ownes slammed the recent push in the US to vaccinate children aged five-11 against COVID-19 as being "sinister" and compared it to child predators and Nazi and Soviet youth programs.

Speaking to Fox News, Ownes directly responded to incentives recently pushed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who offered $100 for children getting their first vaccine dose at public schools or municipal-run sites.

Owens slammed it as "not a good incentive" and told the news outlet that "there's something about this that feels like a child predator."

Attacks on Jewish people rising on Instagram and Twitter, researchers say

 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/attacks-jewish-people-rising-instagram-twitter-researchers-say-n925086

 Researchers who study social media say that they are seeing an increase in anti-Semitic posts from far-right users of Instagram and Twitter and that the services aren't doing enough about it.

Separate researchers who were independently looking at the two social networks said attacks on Jewish people had spiked on both services ahead of the midterm elections on Nov. 6, similar to a rise in harassment before the 2016 presidential election.

Many but not all of the posts mention billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, the researchers said. Soros is frequently the subject of unfounded conspiracy theories, and his home was among the targets in a series of attempted bombings this month.

Which Jews are criticizing Jewish philanthropist George Soros?

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/the-jews-who-are-openly-criticizing-jewish-philanthropist-george-soros-641565

 It’s not just people in power who are calling attention to Soros: This spring, there were half a million negative tweets about him in one day, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which says the Soros theories “can serve as a gateway to the antisemitic subculture that blames Jews” for unrest in the US Many of the tweets, according to the ADL, blamed Soros for fomenting violence in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

This all creates a dilemma for Jews who oppose Soros’ actual activism but feel uneasy about the antisemitism against him. How can you criticize his billions of dollars in international philanthropy, for example, without the criticism fueling those who accuse him of masterminding a global conspiracy to destroy the American government? If you believe Soros is fundamentally opposed to what you believe are Jewish interests, such as support for Israel, what do you do when he’s the victim of Jew-hatred?

 

Blinding is alternative to capitol punishment

Sanhedrin (27a) ] in the case of Bar Hama, who committed murder. The Resh Galutha said to R. Abba b. Jacob: Go and investigate the matter, if he is definitely the murderer, dim his eyes.[ Perhaps, ‘blind him,’ ‘put out his eyes.’] 

So Glenn Beck Calls George Soros a Nazi Collaborator? Marty Peretz Said It First

 https://forward.com/opinion/133132/so-glenn-beck-calls-george-soros-a-nazi-collaborat/

The part that’s gotten the most attention is a reference, repeated several times, to Soros’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Budapest, when Soros’s father hid him and his siblings with Christian families as their “godchildren.” As Soros describes in his own 2003 authorized biography, he went out at times with his godfather-protector to deliver Nazi orders to Jewish residents and — once, apparently — to inventory some property confiscated from Jews. Here’s how Beck tells it:

 

So when George Soros was 14, his father basically bribed a government official to take his son in and let him pretend to be a Christian. His father was just trying to keep him alive. He even had to go around confiscating property of Jewish people.Now, imagine you are Jewish and you have to go and confiscate the property of your fellow Jews. And you are pretending to not be a Jew and if anybody finds out, you’re dead. He actually had to endure watching people send off to their eventual murders, watching people gathering their stuff, sending them off knowing that they were going to go to their death.

 

As Beck tells it, Soros

used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.When he had to go over and take the lands from the people, his fellow Jewish friends and neighbors who were being sent to the gas chambers, I can’t imagine what that would do to a teenager, or anybody, to an adult. Well what did it do to George Soros?In an interview with Steve Croft, Soros was asked if he felt guilt at all about taking the property from the Jews as a teenager. He responded — no. He also said, quote, I don’t deny the Jews their national existence but I don’t want to be a part of it.

Congressman: Holocaust Survivor Is a Nazi Collaborator Who Organized Charlottesville Rallies

 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/10/congressman-george-soros-is-a-nazi-collaborator-organized-the-charlottesville-rallies.html

“George Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary, and he has spent his life supporting efforts to ensure that such terrifying authoritarianism never takes root again,” his foundation said in a statement to Vice. “He was 14 years old when the war ended. He did not collaborate with the Nazis. He did not help round up people. He did not confiscate anybody’s property.”

“Such baseless allegations are insulting to the victims of the Holocaust, to all Jewish people, and to anyone who honors the truth. It is an affront to Mr. Soros and his family, who against the odds managed to survive one of the darkest moments in our history. He abhors violence in any form and has never funded it. Never has. Never will.” 

Why did Yitzchok want to give the berachos to Esav?

 אמת ליעקב בראשית פרק כז פסוק ד
(ד) בעבור תברכך נפשי בטרם אמות.
עיין במלבי"ם כאן שביאר בטוב טעם שכוונת יצחק בזה היתה לעשות מעין שותפות יששכר וזבולון בין יעקב ועשו, והינו שיעקב יקדיש את חייו לעבודת ה' ועשו ימציא לו מזונו, ועיי"ש32.
ועוד נראה בביאור ענין זה שרצה יצחק שהברכות יהיו לעשו, דהנה סוד הברכות שנתברכו בו האבות בעולם הזה - במעין עולם הבא - הוא משום שחייהם היו חיי קדוש השם והמלכת הבורא גם בארץ, וכמו שהביא רש"י [לעיל כ"ד פ"ז] בשם רז"ל וז"ל: עכשיו הוא אלקי השמים ואלקי הארץ שהרגלתיו בפי הבריות אבל כשלקחני מבית אבי היה אלקי השמים ולא אלקי הארץ שלא היו באי עולם מכירים בו ושמו לא היה רגיל בארץ עכ"ל. ולפיכך יצחק אבינו, בראותו כי יעקב איש תם יושב אהלים חשב כי הנהו כולו לד' ולא בזה בחר ה', כי לא למלאכים ניתנה התורה, וכן ארץ ישראל שנבחרה למדינה שעל ידי עבודתה יקיימו חלקים חשובים שבתורה כחיי עם שכולו עובד ד', ולא בזה חלק יעקב שאין לו הכשרה להיות עוסק בישובו של עולם, ולפיכך בחר לברך את עשו ולמסור לו טל השמים ומשמני הארץ33, כי משם תצא תורה ואורה לעולם כולו וליושביו, אבל מכיון שזכה בברכת משמני הארץ34 נתן לו כבר ברכת אברהם כי הוא כבר המושל בארץ, ודו"ק