37,887 new COVID cases, breaking record again

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320261

Israel set a new record for daily COVID diagnoses Monday, marking seven days in a row of record-breaking new case numbers.

A total of 37,887 new COVID cases were reported across Israel Monday, the Health Ministry said Tuesday morning.

The number of new reported cases is up from 31,208 on Sunday, itself a record-breaking day.

There are now 185,753 active known cases of the virus across Israel. Of those, 163,618 were diagnosed in the past week.

Palestine Deep Dive exemplifies the fantasy world of many on the left

 https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/all/palestine-deep-dive-exemplifies-the-fantasy-world-of-many-on-the-left-2XZ0X3NNxxDsdfJaNoxp6H

Investigating the online media platform Palestine Deep Dive, of which Labour MP Grahame Morris is a director, I was confronted with a fantasy world. A world where the Jewish state was responsible for another Holocaust, for spreading coronavirus and even for “weaponising time”. A world where accusations of antisemitism could be a "smear campaign", or originate from the Israeli government.

Jen Psaki lays waste to Peter Doocy's bogus vaccination talking points

 https://www.rawstory.com/jen-psaki-peter-doocy-2656329770/

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday easily shredded Fox News reporter Peter Doocy's criticisms of President Joe Biden for calling the COVID-19 pandemic a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."

At the start of his question, Doocy noted that both he and Psaki had come down with cases of COVID-19 even though both of them had received both vaccinations and booster shots against the virus.

"You’re triple-vaxed, still got COVID," said Doocy. "Why is the president still referring to this as a pandemic of the unvaccinated?"

"Well I think, Peter, that there's a significant difference," she said. "I had been triple-vaxxed. I had minor symptoms. There is a huge difference between that and being unvaccinated. You are 17 times more likely to go to the hospital if you're unvaccinated, 20 times more likely to die."

Indiana Republican backtracks after saying teachers should be 'impartial' when teaching about Nazism, fascism

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/10/politics/mike-rounds-2020-election-big-lie/index.html

State Sen. Scott Baldwin (R), during a state Senate committee hearing on Wednesday regarding a proposed bill that would prohibit “divisive concepts” in schools, said educators have gone “too far” when taking a position on Marxism, Nazism and fascism, arguing that they “need to be impartial.”

The Anti-Defamation League said “Baldwin’s apology doesn’t change the deep harms of using ‘impartiality’ or ‘neutrality’ as tools to sanitize history,” adding, “There’s nothing neutral about Nazism.”

Trump did not want to tweet 'stay peaceful' during January 6 riot, key former aide says

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/06/politics/trump-tweet-january-6/index.html

Aides are being asked about the days leading up to the insurrection at the Capitol, conversations among key officials, and minute-by-minute details about what was happening behind closed doors at the White House, the ex-official added.

The former official, who declined to be named out of fear of retaliation, described January 6 as "one of the darkest days in our nation's history."

Other Trump staffers described the then-President as enjoying the mob violence as he watched live TV coverage of the insurrection at the Capitol. Trump was "loving" it, a separate former senior White House official said.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who was working as the chief of staff to the first lady on January 6, 2021, told CNN Thursday that Trump was "gleefully" watching television coverage of the riot.

In a medical first, a man with terminal heart disease gets a transplant of genetically modified pig heart

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/10/health/genetically-modified-pig-heart-transplant/index.html

A 57-year-old Maryland man is doing well three days after receiving a genetically modified pig heart in a first-of-its-kind transplant surgery, University of Maryland Medicine said in a news release Monday.
David Bennett had terminal heart disease, and the pig heart was "the only currently available option," according to the release. Bennett was deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant or an artificial heart pump after reviews of his medical records.
"It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice," Bennett said before the surgery, according to the release.

KA Time to follow the masses regarding Chaim Walder

 I will try to put this carefully, but rationally-

The position of either the defenders of Walder, or the “I
don’t knows” are becoming less and less
tenable, and for a number of reasons. And objections that you keep bringing are
not convincing anyone but yourself.

That the Sephardi BD is not competent – that is nonsense,
and nobody is buying such a line. Rav Eliyahu is a Talmid Chacham, and he knows halacha very
well. To point where someone who is Brisk and totally rejects Zionism, was praising
him.

Your view of Rav Eliyahu is generous and irrelevant. It is simply bizarre that he should be the go to person for a bnei brak case not involving Sephardim. Bnei Brak would use Rav Silman or Rav Rosenberg. Rav Silman has been specifically involved with abuse cases for many years

That they did not follow correct procedure – the halacha is
out in the open, even Rav Silman writes that with such cases, we no longer
follow strict Torah requirements for witnesses, can rely even on recordings, photographs, intermediaries
etc.

If you bothered reading the Shoel imeishiv - procedure is modified to stop abuse not to decide guilt!

Rav Eliyahu was very quick to announce guilt WHERE ARE THE LETTERS FROM Bnei Brak regarding guilt? 

That we don’t know the dikduk of the letter from Rav
Sternbuch – there is already sufficient information in the ether – explicit statements
have been made of a history of bad name of Walder, that he was chashud of not keeping all
issurim in the Torah including the gimmel chamurot.

Rav Sternbuch is not shy about expressing his views but you say rely on the ether.
nope that is not the way serious people act.

That there was a Daas Torah statement from Ponovezh Rosh

Yeshiva - the first statement had more
holes than swiss cheese, and was retracted for a more measured statement. The 2nd and authoritative statement
emphasised more the damage to the nifgaim, and the need to go to
authorities.

neither statement said he was guilty as charged. Something you view as insignificant

That the suicide was either murder from the loshon hara, or
from extreme stress and hence not culpable.
One Rav said suicide is never
excusable. And you cannot send a message out that suicide is Ok under stress.
Perhaps everything is permissible, perhaps homosexuality, perhaps chillul
shabbes, etc perhaps even annulling gittin.

Wow so you found one rav - so what that is not the accepted view today

That those who speak out and rise up against the Rebbetzin

were chilonim, This is grasping at
straws – there are many alumni of the Seminary where she teaches, who follow her.
Do you think chilonim are interested or even know about her? This is much bigger than you realize – it is
bigger than Watergate. Unitl now there
has not been an uprising against Rabbonim, against rebbetzen. And that is by frum people. Maybe the haskalah,
there were reformists, but this is about frum people, rejecting their leaders en masse. 

Here we go again follow the mob. 

You are again fantasizing about a mass rebellion of the masses against their teachers -a common theme amongst secular observers

The Rabbis are afraid of this – they don’t
realise the depth of the revulsion, or protecting abusers. Parents are sick of
this – they want an end to such whitewashing.
That is why the statements that have come out, have then been retracted
and a more palatable version given.

That Rav Tau and Rav Aviner wanted to bury this – they are
both peripheral figures in RZ world

Nope neither are minor figures and both acknowledged the possibility of guilt

. Rav Tau broke away from Mercaz haRav, I’m

not sure how widely he is accepted – Mercaz HaRav is still mainstream RZ and
has many satellite yeshivas, and hesder yeshivas. Aviner was more prominent 30 years ago, but
again is marginalised. In any case,
there are individuals who are in denial about many things, about covid, vaccines
etc. The majority of the DL and also 99%
of the sephardi world all back Rav
Eliyahu.

Again follow the mob!

That we can continue as we always have done – this is no
longer an option. Today, information is spread in seconds to everyone’s
computer. Even with restrictions, there
are many frum blogs, and the biggest topic is sexual abuse. What is at risk is a fracture in chareidi
society , where people will just walk out, and no longer accept Daas Torah of
their gedolim. In fact, the process has already started.

I don’t know if this claim has been made on this particular
blog, but the claim has been made by individual commentors as well as Roshei
yeshiva, that the process of dayanim involved is corrupted, and they have
arrived at false conclusions. This was
actually what Walder himself claimed in his suicide note. He invited 2 Dayanim to see him in the great
BD in the sky! This is pure evil – it is
alleging that even the greatest dayanim across the board, and orthodox spectrum
are corrupt, and that the “tikkun” is by way of the bullet. This is
lawlessness, chaos, and madness combined.

It is also sheker of the most fundamental nature. I have never been taken to a BD , although I was
once falsely accused in a business
matter – I was confident that I could present my case if I was invited. If a
man of so many words, so articulate, with great lawyers, and more learning than
the kids and women accusing him, claimed his innocence, could he not prove it
in a BD?

Wow! What a profound fantasy I can imagine being able to fly- so what?

And finally, the scale is simply tipping away from the denialist

Again follow the mob! 

You simply can't believe there are still skeptics - no one is a denier

position. Every day, there is a new Rav, a new Rosh Yeshiva, a new posek coming
out against Walder. They chareidim,
MO, American, Israeli, Brisk,
Lubavitch, RZ etc. The pro-Walder cult
is drying out, they find themselves in
the same position as Walder himself – they have no case, no argument, and they are also following his lead in
committing moral suicide.

Again follow the mob!

The doctor who sees you now may have Covid

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/10/doctors-covid-staff-shortage-526842

Hospitals and long-term care facilities are so short staffed that many are compelling Covid-positive doctors and nurses to return to work, arguing that bringing back asymptomatic or even symptomatic staff is the only way they can keep their doors open amid a spike in hospitalizations.

The practice, allowed by the most recent federal guidance, underscores the dire situation in which many facilities find themselves as more than 120,000 people nationwide are now hospitalized with the virus — almost three times the total from Thanksgiving when Omicron was first detected.

Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade Tells Donald Trump: 'Learn To Lose'

 https://www.newsweek.com/brian-kilmeade-learn-lose-donald-trump-fox-1667391

Kilmeade said that Trump has still not proven his claims more than 14 months since the last election took place.

"If you did, in fact, get screwed out of this election, put together an A-team list of lawyers, not the ones we witnessed, show us the districts and show us how," Kilmeade said.

Suicide in Judaism

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4372311/jewish/Suicide-in-Judaism.htm 

Rabbi Yechiel Epstein, one of the renowned halachic experts (poskim) of the 19th century, elaborates on this definition of suicide in his classic work Aruch HaShulchan. Rabbi Epstein writes that essentially only one who kills himself while being of clear and sound mind, free from internal or external coercion, is considered to have committed suicide. If, however, it’s possible that there is another factor at play, such as extremes of fear, pain, distress or mental illness, then it’s almost as though this person were “coerced” into suicide, and it’s not considered a suicide of clear and sound mind. This does not mean that misery is a valid excuse for suicide, only that, post facto, we do not treat the deceased as a suicide.

What arises from the writings of Rabbi Epstein and others is that essentially we latch onto any rationale we can to avoid considering it a deliberate suicide in the halachic sense. In other words, it is not considered a true halachic suicide as far as mourning and burial are concerned unless there is no other theoretical alternative.

Rav Sternbuch's Opaque letter

 

This letter is apparently a continuation of the war against secular influences and makes no reference to the allegations of abuse or that the author committed suicide. It simply says his books are a bad influence apparently because he supposedly didn't get a proper yeshiva education. He says that rabbis have already prohibited them - but there is no mention of which rabbis I assume he is referring to the Eidah's ban. [see letter below which appeared in the summer.] 

Israel rolls out fourth jab for over 60s as cases reach 10,000 a day

 https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/israel-rolls-out-fourth-jab-for-over-60s-as-cases-reach-10-000-a-day-4kj8Pd2WWxrRuEI80JiUiC

Israel has become the first country in the world to widely distribute a fourth dose of the vaccine as it grapples with a surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant. It was also one of the first countries to officially recommend a third dose, a policy that has been adopted by countries all over the world this winter in response to the new, highly transmissible variant.

Child Abuse-Rav Aaron Feldman

 

Fake news from Tucker Carlson