Elderly man suspected of sexual abuse is arrested

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320753

A Jerusalem resident in his 70s has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing two people, Maariv reported.

According to the report, the individual is suspected of sexually abusing minors in separate instances, which occurred several years ago.

The individual, who is well-respected and considered to be a hasidic leader, carried out sex crimes against a minor female family member, as well as against a minor male.

Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking

 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/01/omicron-mild-severity-immunity/621238/

For weeks, the watchword on Omicron in much of America has been some form of phew. A flurry of reports has encouraged a relatively rosy view of the variant, compared with some of its predecessors. Omicron appears to somewhat spare the lungs. Infected laboratory mice and hamsters seem to handily fight it off. Proportionally, fewer of the people who catch it wind up hospitalized or dead. All of this has allowed a deceptively reassuring narrative to take root and grow: Omicron is mild. The variant is docile, harmless, the cause of an #Omicold that’s no worse than a fleeting flu. It is so trivial, some have argued, that the world should simply “allow this mild infection to circulate,” and avoid slowing the spread. Omicron, as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky would have you believe, is “basically nature’s vaccine.”

In high-enough numbers, any Omicron infection can wreak havoc. Across the country, people are entering isolation in droves, closing schools and businesses, and hamstringing hospitals that can already ill-afford a staffing shortage. In many parts of the country, hospital capacities are already being reached and exceeded, making it difficult for people to seek care for any kind of illness. An overstretched system could also, ironically, mask the extent of Omicron’s tear: When hospitals are full, they cannot accept more patients, artificially deflating recorded rates of severe disease, even as total cases continue to rise. “Omicron may be more mild at the individual symptom level,” Duana Fullwiley, a medical anthropologist at Stanford who has studied how the term mild has affected people’s experience of sickle-cell anemia in Senegal, told me. “But we’re not talking about the severity of Omicron as it’s impacting the system.”

Smartmatic Sues Mike Lindell, Accusing Him of Spreading Election Lies to Sell More Pillows

 https://www.newsweek.com/smartmatic-sues-mike-lindell-accusing-him-spreading-election-lies-sell-more-pillows-1670599

Lindell, a conspiracy theorist who rose to prominence as a trusted friend of former President Donald Trump, became a lead voice pushing Trump's baseless claims that an unprecedented, nationwide conspiracy of voter fraud "stole" the 2020 election from Trump.

While Lindell has pushed numerous conspiracy theories to explain Trump's loss, he has mainly focused on voting machines from Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems. He has alleged that these machines switched votes from Trump to current President Joe Biden.

However, Smartmatic's voting machines were only used in one U.S. county during the 2020 election, Los Angeles County, Forbes reported. Neither Lindell nor anyone else has yet to produce concrete evidence proving that the machines flipped votes during the election.

Leading haredi rabbi: Father can report child's abuse to police

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320741

Kikar Hashabbat on Tuesday publicized a video of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi, in which he can be heard encouraging those whose children were molested to turn to the police.

In the video, which was filmed around twenty years ago, Rabbi Kanievsky is asked, "Unfortunately, I have a cousin in America, whose children were hurt by someone. What should he do? He wants to look into the matter and he is asking if he can involve the police."

In response, Rabbi Kanievsky can be heard asking, "What is the question?" to which the questioner responds, "Someone hurt an 11-year-old boy, and he is asking if he is permitted to turn to the police and complain that there is someone evil there."

"Obviously it is permitted for him to do this, in order to save others - in order to save others it is allowed," 

Rabbi Kanievsky responded.The questioner continued, "He doesn't need to go first to beit din (a Jewish court)?"

"Apparently. The assumption is that it is permitted to save others," Rabbi Kanievsky said.

https://www.kikar.co.il/410403.html

לפני כעשרים שנה, נשאל מרן שר התורה הגאון רבי חיים קנייבסקי, האם מותר לפנות למשטרה נגד אדם שפגע בילד? והשיב בנחרצות: "מותר, כדי להציל אחרים"; התיעוד מהפסק, נחשף כעת

POSEKIM - e judaica

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/posekim

POSEKIM, a Hebrew term for scholars whose intellectual efforts were concentrated on determining the halakhah in practice (for whom the word "decisors" is sometimes used) in contrast to those commentators who applied themselves to study for its own sake, and in order to facilitate the understanding of the subject under discussion and who are called mefarshim (expositors or commentators). This distinction was already recognized by early authorities who stressed, for instance, that halakhah should not be derived from *Rashi 's commentary on the Talmud – since Rashi did not introduce into his commentary various ancillary considerations without which no practical decision can be arrived at, except perhaps for those few instances where Rashi explicitly states that the halakhah is in accordance with his exposition.

In the early period, especially in Germany, the term posekim was identical with the teachers and leaders of the generation in every locality. It included the heads of the yeshivot, avot battei din, rabbis and talmudic scholars generally, on condition that their statements were made "by way of pesak," on actual cases which arose. The ruling of the posek was binding only upon those subject to his authority, since he laid down the halakhah in accordance with local tradition and for the people who accepted his authority. A ruling was never successfully imposed upon communities outside the area of the jurisdiction of the posek. The authority of the posek during this period depended on his being a competent talmudic scholar, possessing a comprehensive knowledge in every field on his subject, and on the fact that he continued the tradition of his locality and of his teachers transmitted to him while he studied under them. In the course of time this situation gradually changed, as a result of the dissemination of the codes, which afforded easy access to sources necessary for deciding the halakhah. From the second half of the 16th century with the beginning of the spread of the Shulhan Arukh, the character of the works by the posekim changed fundamentally. Henceforth the outstanding posekim hardly engaged at all in theoretical exposition, and to the extent that they did do so their commentaries were generally forgotten and ignored. The posek during this period won general recognition by virtue of the extensive practical experience he accumulated and by gaining the approbation of contemporary scholars, by devoting the whole of his intellectual and physical energy to this goal, and by virtue of "divine aid," the charisma with which he was endowed. For a survey of the posekim and their development see *Codification of Law .

Contempt of beis din - E Judaica

It appears that in talmudic times the administrative, and not the judicial, officers of the court were the main target of contempt of court – demonstrated both in words and violence – and detailed rules were worked out to facilitate the perilous tasks of court messengers assigned to serve summonses and to execute judgments (BK 112b–113a; Maim. ibid., 25:5–11; ḤM 11). The standard punishment for contempt of court messengers is anathema (niddui), after three prior warnings (ibid.); but admonitory lashes were also administered not only for insulting process-servers (Kid. 12b, 70b), but especially for failure to pay judgment debts (Ket. 86a–b). The source for the authority to proclaim anathema was taken to be Deborah's curse on those who did not come to the help of the Lord (Judg. 5:23). One scholar, invoking the wide authority given to Ezra by the Persian king for the punishment of offenders (Ezra 7:26), went so far as to authorize the infliction of imprisonment, shackling, and confiscation of goods (MK 16a), but in practice no such severe measures appear ever to have been adopted. No witnesses were required to prove such contempt: the complaint of the court official was accepted as conclusive – and expressly excluded from the applicability of the rules against slander (ibid., and Maim., and ḤM ibid.).

In post-talmudic times, obedience to the courts had to be enforced by more rigorous means: both admonitory lashes (cf., e.g., Resp. Rosh 8:2 and 11:4) and imprisonment (cf., e.g., Rema and ḤM 97:15; Resp. Ribash 484) were widely used against persons who willfully persisted in disobeying the court. However, such extreme sanctions were resorted to only where previous public admonitions (cf., e.g., Resp. Maharam Minz 38, 39, 101), the exclusion from religious and civic honors, the disqualification from suing and testifying, and similar measures (including the anathema) had been of no avail (S. Assaf, Battei Din… (1924), 118 and passim). It has been maintained that all these sanctions were not punitive in nature but solely designed to execute the judgment of the court or make the adjudged debtor pay his debt (Elon) – a modern distinction which in most cases is rather academic. The talmudic formula, "he shall be beaten until his soul departs" (Ket. 86b et al.), has an unmistakably punitive undertone: compelling the debtor to pay coincides with punishing him for his contempt.

Anti-vaxxer nonsense

PROVIDERS PAID BY FEDS TO MURDER COVID PATIENTS --PROOF HOSPITALS ARE BEING PAID TO KILL

CATHERINE AUSTIN FITTS | WE ARE HEADED FOR A DIGITAL CONCENTRATION CAMP - JAN 15, 2022

STEW PETERS: KAREN KINGSTON | FAUCI’S DEATH FUNNEL: HE FUNDED & CONTINUES TO FUND VIRUS ENHANCING RESEARCH

THE 7 US GOVERNMENT PAYOFFS TO KILL YOU IN HOSPITALS

COINCIDENCE? OR SOMETHING ELSE. COUNTRY LEADERS DEAD AFTER REFUSING THE VAX BE USED IN THEIR COUNTRIES

PRESIDENT OF GHANA GOES ON NATIONAL TV IN GHANA TO TELL THE ENTIRE COUNTRY ABOUT THE SATANIC PLAN

PFIZER WORLD HEADQUARTERS BUILDING IN NEW YORK CITY FILLED WITH STRANGE SYMBOLISM?

WE WILL PREVAIL - BY EJ PRODUCTIONS41

TRANS-VAX OR "V" !

KAREN KINGSTON PHD. PROOF THE 'VACCINES' WERE CREATED TO KILL CHILDREN!!!

AUSSIE: 5-11 YEAR OLD VACCINATIONS BEGAN TODAY - 3 DEATHS ALREADY

FOUR HUNDRED ATHLETES COLLAPSING AND DYING IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS

PROJECT CAMELOT AND BILL RYAN - TALKING ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TODAY RECORDED BACK IN 2010? !!

PROOF: DOCS KNOW THEY'RE KILLING: FAUCI'S DEADLY REMDESIVIR HAD 50% KILL RATE IN EBOLA TRI

PILOTS EXPOSE THE MANDATED ILLNESS RAMPANT AMONG THE MAJOR AIRLINES

STEW PETERS: KAREN KINGSTON | FAUCI’S DEATH FUNNEL: HE FUNDED & CONTINUES TO FUND GAIN OF FUNCTION VIRUS RESEARCH?

KAREN KINGSTON | PROOF THE 'VACCINES' WERE CREATED TO KILL CHILDREN!!!

THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO TO US!

DR. ZELENKO | EXPOSING THE SATANIC DEPOPULATION AGENDA - REAWAKEN AMERICA

DR. ROBERT MALONE: 18 NARRATIVE-CHANGING HIGHLIGHTS FROM HIS 3-HOUR INTERVIEW W/ JOE ROGAN

Hong Kong to cull 2,000 hamsters following COVID outbreak

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320703

Authorities in Hong Kong are to cull around 2,000 small animals such as hamsters after several hamsters tested positive for COVID-19 at a pet store.

The discovery was made after one of the store’s workers tested positive for coronavirus; the infected animals were imported from the Netherlands and now all imports of small animals to Hong Kong have been banned until further notice.

“We cannot exclude the possibility that the shopkeeper was actually infected from the hamsters,” said Edwin Tsui, a controller at the Centre for Health Protection.

Stephanie Seneff - Fox News anti- vaxxer "expert"

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320629

MIT scientist points to possible link between COVID vaccine and Parkinson's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Seneff

In 2011, Seneff began publishing articles on topics related to biology and medicine in low-impact, open access journals, such as Interdisciplinary Toxicology and eight papers in the journal Entropy between 2011 and 2015.[2][8] According to food columnist Ari LeVaux, Seneff's work in this area has made her "a controversial figure in the scientific community" and she has received "heated objections from experts in most every field she's delved into".[2] In 2013, she coauthored a paper that associated the herbicide glyphosate with a wide variety of diseases such as cancer and disorders such as autism.[9] Discover magazine writer Keith Kloor criticized the uncritical republication of the study's results by other media outlets.[10] Jerry Steiner, the executive vice president of sustainability at Monsanto, said in an interview regarding the study that "We are very confident in the long track record that glyphosate has. It has been very, very extensively studied."[11] Seneff's claim that glyphosate is a major cause of autism and that, "At today's rates, by 2025, half the kids born will be diagnosed with autism," has also been criticized. For example, Pacific Standard noted that, contrary to Seneff's claims, many scientific reviews have found that the rise in autism rates over the past 20 years is due to changes in diagnostic practices, and that a number of studies, including a 2012 review in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, have found little evidence that glyphosate is associated with adverse development outcomes.[12]

Seneff and her MIT colleagues have also published on the health impacts of fat and cholesterol consumption in America. Based on this work, Seneff claimed that Americans are suffering from a cholesterol deficiency, not an excess.[13][14] In 2014–2016 Seneff was proposed as an expert witness for litigators seeking damages from Pfizer associated with their cholesterol drug Lipitor,[15] but the court dismissed the claim largely because Seneff lacked expert status and failed to provide credible evidence linking Lipitor to any specific harm.[16]

Response from scientists and academics[edit]

Clinical neurologist and skeptic Steven Novella criticized Seneff's Entropy publication for making "correlation is causation" assumptions using broad statistical extrapolations from limited data, saying "she has published only speculations and gives many presentations, but has not created any new data".[17] Scientists and scholars such as Derek Lowe, a medicinal chemist, and Jeffrey Beall, a library scientist known for his criticism of predatory open access publishers, have separately criticized Seneff's paper for misrepresenting the results and conclusions of other researchers' work. Lowe and Beall also noted that Entropy and its publisher, MDPI, have a known history of publishing studies without merit.[18][8]

A 2017 Review Article written by Kings College of London researchers and published by Frontiers in Public Health called Seneff's glyphosate health-risk research claims "a deductive reasoning approach based on syllogism" and "at best unsubstantiated theories, speculations or simply incorrect."[19] Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen characterized Seneff and her glyphosate claims as "nutty", "truly unhinged", and "dangerous".[20]

Inaccurate claims about 'rabbinical court' opposing Covid-19 vaccination spread online

 https://factcheck.afp.com/http%253A%252F%252Fdoc.afp.com%252F9RK34P-1

In theory, three people can get together and form a 'rabbinical court' to perform certain rabbinical court functions," he said.

"But when the term 'rabbinical court' is used to connote a body that has the authority to rule on a matter of communal importance, the court really derives its authority by widespread communal acceptance," Weissmann said.

"If an actual rabbinical court (which meets regularly and is organized under the auspices of a sizable community) were to issue a proclamation, that might be newsworthy and it might even possess some degree of authority under Jewish law, depending on the circumstances. But when three unknown individuals sign a document, purportedly as a 'rabbinical court,' the term 'rabbinical court' becomes somewhat meaningless," he added.

Is there a concept of appeals in the Bais Din system?

 https://www.thehalachacenter.org/journal-links/5777/bamidbar/shelach/appealing-beis-din-decision2.php

• The Gemara comments that one beis din does not investigate the conclusions of another. It is unclear whether this is a descriptive statement, or a halakhically binding one that must be followed. Many commentaries feel that it is indeed instructive. If so, two reasons are offered for it:
• The right of the victorious one not to have to reargue his case
• Respect for the first dayan
• The Gemara writes elsewhere that the losing litigant may ask the beis din in writing for an explanation of why they judged him in the manner that they did. The acharonim explain that this may be due to the right he has to appeal the decision. Some commentaries held that this is only allowed where he was forced to appear before that local beis din that issued the decision, while the first passage in the Gemara is where both willingly appear.
• The consensus opinion is that in principle, the rule of lo dayki, not reviewing a case in another beis din, does apply, even if the dayanim are not great Talmidei chachamim, though some, such as the Radbaz, disagreed.
• Some poskim held that if the halacha in question was complex and not well-known, we may suspect a decision in error, and review the case. Rav Ovadia felt today that everyone would agree with this assessment, as we are on a very low level of Torah knowledge.
• Many modern poskim argued that even if we accept that the rule of lo dayki applies in all cases, this is only true where no universally accepted system of appeals exists, and only ad hoc review takes place. However, if the community and its leaders establish a system, takana, enactment, or minhag, custom, to introduce this system, and everyone participates and enter with full understanding of how the system works, then many (though not all) argue that this is completely permitted. No degradation to the beis din exists, and it does not violate the rights of the litigant. Finally, as noted by the Tzitz Eliezer and Yabia Omer, this system has already been in place in Israel for a while, many gedolim even sat on it, and it is the common custom today.

Lara Logan dropped by talent agency after comparing Fauci to Nazi doctor

 https://nypost.com/2022/01/18/lara-logan-dropped-by-agency-after-comparing-fauci-to-nazi-doctor/

Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan has been dropped by her talent agency over a recent TV interview in which she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

But she acknowledged that it’s “absolutely true” that she has not appeared on Fox News since November.

Matt Gaetz Confident He'll Be Vindicated for Backing Far-Right Allegation of FBI 1/6 'Role'

 https://www.newsweek.com/matt-gaetz-confident-hell-vindicated-backing-far-right-allegation-fbi-1-6-role-1668912

Republican Florida Representative Matt Gaetz has expressed confidence that he'll be vindicated for supporting the far-right allegation that the FBI helped plot the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol after infiltrating far-right groups.

In a Gettr message published on Wednesday evening, Gaetz posted a screenshot of a CNN broadcast. The broadcast showed him alongside other legislators who have pushed the same far-right claim, which included Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie.

Pig Heart Surgeon Responds to Patient's Prison Sentence

 https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-pig-heart-surgeon-responds-patients-prison-sentence-1669593

David Bennett Sr., who received the pig heart, was convicted in 1988 of stabbing a man seven times and the victim's family said they wished the heart went to a more "deserving recipient." Criminal history isn't a factor in deciding who receives what medical attention and Bennett's incarceration didn't enter into the discussion when considering him for the transplant, according to Griffith.

"I knew nothing about his arrest so I didn't ask him about it," Griffith said in an essay for Newsweek. "We don't look at incarceration history and things like that, I think that's unethical."