https://www.kikar.co.il/405962.html
Monday, November 22, 2021
Knesset confrontation: 'Abbas, condemn Jerusalem attack'
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317379
A confrontation took place in the Knesset plenum Monday evening between Religious Zionism party chairman Bezalel Smotrich and United Arab List (Ra'am) chairman Mansour Abbas.
In his speech, Smotrich addressed Abbas, who chaired the session as Deputy Knesset Speaker, and demanded that he condemn the deadly shooting attack by a Hamas terrorist in Jerusalem yesterday.
The Ra'am party condemned the attack on Sunday, but only in Hebrew, due to concerns over potential criticism from the Arab public should they issue a condemnation in Arabic as well.
No, Rabbi Cardozo, the Torah is Not Flawed
https://cross-currents.com/2016/10/30/no-rabbi-cardozo-the-torah-is-not-flawed/
I have friends who were profoundly impacted by Rabbi Cardozo in his early days as a master lecturer in hashkafah (Jewish philosophy) at a famous Jerusalem yeshiva. I think that all of us one way or another benefited from Rabbi Cardozo’s early writings, as an expositor par excellence of authentic Torah perspectives, using scholarly academic tools to reach the minds of those who otherwise would not appreciate the material. We are quite saddened by Rabbi Cardozo’s departure from this model and his embarkation on a path of subverting Torah teachings and Torah authority. We long for the previous Rabbi Cardozo to reemerge and again spread the light of genuine Torah wisdom.
Bodies pile up outside hospital morgue as Romania struggles with fourth wave of Covid
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/22/europe/romania-covid-19-vaccine-skepticism-intl-cmd/index.html
Romania has one of Europe's lowest vaccination rates.
Lawmaker catches COVID-19, must miss his anti-vaccine rally
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/lawmaker-catches-covid-19-miss-anti-vaccine-rally-81037631
A North Dakota lawmaker and an organizer of a rally Monday to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates is infected with the coronavirus and won’t attend the event.
Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson posted on Facebook
Sunday that he was “quarantining and each day is getting better.” The
Minot lawmaker said he is taking the deworming drug ivermectin as a
COVID-19 treatment, and has not checked into a hospital.
My Body, My Choice? The Paradox of Republican Anti-vaxxers
https://www.vogue.com/article/my-body-my-choice-the-paradox-of-republican-anti-vaxxers
The first time I saw a photo of an anti-vaxxer with a sign that read “My Body My Choice,” I was sort of puzzled. I thought perhaps the photo editor had used the wrong image to accompany the story—but then I saw that the sign also included a picture of a mask with a red line across it. No, these people weren’t protesting a government that was regulating uteruses, a government that was telling women when they could end a pregnancy that was going on in their own bodies. They were instead protesting a simple and painless public-health measure. They were mad at the idea of having to wear a piece of fabric on their faces. For this particular group, government regulation was fine unless it was regulating them—at which point it became a horrible infringement on their constitutional rights.
Italian anti-vax lawmaker refers to Holocaust survivor by number inked on her arm
A far-right anti-vaxxer Italian lawmaker provoked outrage when he referred to a prominent Holocaust survivor by the number tattooed on her arm by the Nazis.
Fabio Meroni, a councilor from Lissone in the northern Lombardia region, posted the remarks over the weekend about lifetime senator and survivor Liliana Segre, 91, who has publicly supported the country’s vaccination campaign.
The number was tattooed onto her skin at the Auschwitz concentration camp when she was a young teenager.
MK Ben Gvir asks for moment of silence in memory of terrorist victim, ejected from Knesset
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/317358
On Monday, the Knesset held a session on “Stopping settler violence,” an initiative of MKs Mossi Raz (Meretz), Ibtisam Mar’ana (Labor), and Osama Saadi (Joint List), along with the extreme left-wing organizations Yesh Din, Breaking the Silence, and Peace Now.
According to the organizers of the initiative, they were motivated by “record-high numbers of attacks by West Bank settlers in recent weeks.” They also alleged that, ”There have been 416 terrorist attacks perpetrated by Jews in the first half of the year alone.”
MK Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, made a sudden entrance to the Knesset during the special session, and suggested to those present that they stand for a moment’s silence in memory of Eli Kay, murdered in a terrorist attack on Sunday in Jerusalem. He then told his unwilling audience, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
The Soul by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
https://www.aish.com/jl/sp/bas/48942091.html
Details of immortality are not mentioned in the Torah since
revelation only deals with the present world. The prophet therefore says
when speaking of the World to Come, "Never has the ear heard it -- no
eye has seen it -- other than God: That which He will do for those who
hope in Him" (Isaiah 64:3). That is, not even the great prophets were
allowed to envision the reward of the righteous in the Ultimate future.
Letter from Chaim Walder proclaiming innocence of crimes
חיים וולדר: אני חף משפע!!!
Author Chaim Walder has published a response to recent defamatory attacks made on him in the media, first printed in the Haaretz newspaper and since published elsewhere, along with calls to boycott his dozens of books written over a decades-long career.
“I appeal to everyone who has been exposed to the serious allegations made against me and I cry the cry of Dreyfus who was degraded in the public square, stripped of his insignia, his sword broken before a huge crowd – I am innocent of all wrongdoing. I beg of you to do just one thing: Invest a small amount of time, a drop of logic, and question whether these terrible defamatory statements have any basis to them. Do not be hasty to pass judgment on someone who has worked all his life on behalf of children and their rights,” Walder said in his statement.
Walder stressed that he categorically denies the allegations made against him, accusing him of exploiting minors. “This is a tissue of lies for which there can be no forgiveness,” he said, “and the entire purpose of these claims is to make the bizarre claim that I acted in entire contradiction to everything that I have worked for – protecting children.”
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Rittenhouse Lawyer Slams GOP Reps, Donald Trump Jr Over Offers of Jobs, Free Gun
https://www.newsweek.com/rittenhouse-lawyer-slams-gop-congressman-trump-over-job-offers-1651671
Kyle Rittenhouse's attorney accused prominent Republicans of trying to profit off his client, calling it "disgusting."
Rittenhouse, 18, was charged with homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangering for killing two men and injuring a third with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle during a night of protests in August last year over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse traveled from his home in nearby Antioch, Illinois, to join other armed civilians on the streets, carrying a weapon that authorities said was illegally bought for him because he was underage.
Keeping SS Threatens Women
BS"D
November 21, '21 / 17 Kislev, 5782 / Parshas Vayaishev (v.2)
by Binyomin Feinberg, formerly, a contributor to The Jewish Press
On Thursday, November 18th, the ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator James Inhofe (R, OK), spoke vibrantly for about 20 minutes on the Senate floor about the NDAA, the yearly "must-pass" National Defense Authorization Act (https://www.c-span.org/video/
Additionally, a revealing number of Republicans are known to be positioned or even ensconced on the wrong side of the issue. Even in the Senate Armed Services Committee itself, reportedly 8 out of 13 REPUBLICANS voted to include women in a potential military draft. [This one fact says much about the actual orientation of the contemporary GOP.] Additionally, all but two REPUBLICAN Senate Committee members voted for the final package bill, despite it's inclusion of said female expansion - which, in any lucid legislature, would be a poison-pill (cf. https://www.rollcall.com/
In contrast, S.A. 4161 (sponsored by Sen. Wyden), clearly has a fighting chance. It is an amendment to repeal Selective Service altogether (akin to S. 1139, a stand-alone bill with bipartisan support). SS Repeal is a policy that has long had much Democratic support. Although this amendment too, at this moment, may not have enough openly-declared support yet, the very tangible potential for passage is clearly present - if the GOP would only get behind it.
So why promote losing legislation when there is an alternative that has a real fighting chance of passage? Specifically, why should a leading Republican push an amendment that requires swinging resistant Democrats - something quite impractical - when they could alternatively promote legislation that really just needs Republicans themselves to get their own act together, which is doable, provided willingness?
Conventional wisdom may answer that the senior Senator, who remembers the end of WWII, is more dedicated to preserving Selective Service than preventing the drafting of women [and the expansion of Selective Service to purposes other than replenishing troops lost in battle]. Some may also suspect that some Republicans may actually wish to fight to lose - in order to leverage the passage of including women in Selective Service - and the fear of any future female or "national emergency" draft - as a campaign issue to take back Congress next year. However, neither of those calculations would be seen by much of the Republican base as justifying laying the groundwork for forcing women into the exploitive military environment. How much more so is that the case in regard to the specter of forcing women into actual combat, facing violent male enemy troops, and the possibility of capture, with all the unspeakable abuse that entails.
"The freedom-fighters ("Mujadeen" - Ed.) in Afghanistan, who are striving for the liberation of their country, deserve the admiration of the entire world, and their courage and persistence in fighting for freedom is the greatest single deterrent to the Soviet aggression being successful."
It's important to listen, carefully and analytically, to the entire speech of Senator Inhofe. Ironically, his speech is one of the strongest arguments to end Selective Service (which he apparently very strongly supports) - from a strictly military perspective. His dramatized description of looming military threats from powerful adversaries (Russia) and belligerent enemies (e.g. North Korea), even if partially overblown (particularly regarding Russia, which is quite apparently not interested in a hot war with the U.S.), is all the more reason to end Selective Service now.
That's because, if Congress fails to eliminate Selective Service now, the NDAA will pass, as is, including women. That itself will erode the taboo of forcing women into the Armed Forces, and even into combat. It will also contribute to robbing military women of their cherished status as deserving the dignity reserved for women for thousands of years, by men of all walks of life. The natural consequences of degraded attitude is degraded conduct. That will translate into normalization of mistreatment of women who volunteer to enlist. Americans will thus be stuck with the escalation of exploitation of women in the U.S. Armed Forces, even before any draft is invoked, G-d forbid. Those skeptical of this gloomy projection are invited to learn what is already happening in the U.S. military, by reviewing the extensive materials posted at the site of the Center for Military Readiness (a conservative advocacy organization specializing in military and social issues), e.g. https://www.cmrlink.org/
"The commission’s debate followed testimony from instructorsfrom the Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape (SERE) program, an intense Air Force course that trains potential prisoners of war. The instructors told the Commission that gender integration in the combat arms could succeed, but only if the nation became “desensitized” to the reality of combat abuse and violence against women. [13]
"That disturbing argument proved too much for most commissioners. “Good men,” said commissioner Kate O’Beirne, “protect and defend women.” [end of quote]
In the merit of opposition to this Hellenistic proposal to register women for Selective Service, perhaps we'll avert the specter of needing a draft (see VaYikra / Leviticus 18). Allowing passage of the cruel mandate to force women into the exploitative military environment - and into brutally "unequally" deadly combat scenarios - will - without a shadow of a doubt - not bode well for meriting the Divine Protection that America truly needs. When those who seek to save women from this manifestly faulty Republican battle-plan inform the GOP that they will score them accordingly, based on their actions, not their patriotic rhetoric or staged fencing bouts (http://daattorah.blogspot.
Orthodox Rabbi Teaching Halakha Beyond the Shulkhan Arukh, Judaism Beyond the Commandments
NLC: I am of the opinion that Abraham, by being prepared to do so, to sacrifice his son, failed the test. I think that the reading of the binding of Isaac should be different from the conventional approach as some chassidic texts indeed seem to suggest . For an excellent overview read: The Fear, the Trembling and the Fire by my dear friend, Professor Jerome (Yehudah) I. Gellman, published by University Press of America in 1994.
Today’s Chief rabbis are not like the famous Rav Avraham Yitschak Kook, Rav Ben Zion Uziel or Rav Isaac Yitschak Herzog. I think that in the Ashkenazi Rabbinate the last person of greatness was Rav Shlomo Goren. He had the knowledge and he had the creativity. Afterwards this whole Institution disintegrated.
Both the Shulkhan Arukh and earlier Maimonides' famous codification of Jewish Law, the Mishneh Torah ("Repetition of the Torah", a code of Jewish religious law compiled between 1170 and 1180) are tremendous scholarly achievements. But what Maimonides did was extremely dangerous. By writing down the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides finalized the halakha. He basically said, this is the halakha and nothing else. He even wrote in the forward to this masterpiece, that there is no longer any need to study the Talmud because he had put it all in front of us. Here it is! For once and for all. He provides no minority opinions, he acts precisely as what he probably he was, as the greatest talmudic genius of his time and possibly of all time, and we - after a period of resistance when his books were burned in some communities - have turned him into an halachic idol: If Maimonides says so, then there's nothing left to discuss. We canonized him.
Rabbi Goren Says Halacha Behind Times -(or how not to be supported by Orthodoxy)
https://www.jta.org/archive/rabbi-goren-says-halacha-behind-times
Addressing members of the Guild for Religion and Spirit of B’nai B’rith, Rabbi Goren, who holds the rank of general, said that halacha in this generation had not advanced hand-in-hand with the times and technology nor did it incorporate any innovations. He said halacha was powerless to solve the intricate problems of the modern Israeli nation and expressed regret that the present generation found no courage to make innovations–in spite of technological possibilities–which would have made it easier to observe the injunctions of the Torah. including keeping the Sabbath.