https://www.verywellhealth.com/face-mask-effectiveness-covid-5214491
Sunday, January 30, 2022
How Effective Is a Face Mask Against COVID-19 if You're the Only One Wearing It?
An evidence review of face masks against COVID-19
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118#sec-22
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Fact Check-No reliable evidence that Rife machines cure cancer
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-rife-cancer-idUSL1N2OZ166
An American scientist did not create a machine that cures all cancers, Cancer Research UK told Reuters.
Rumours that Doctor Raymond Rife created a device in the early 20th century that could cure “over 5,000 diseases including all cancers” popped up online this month via a meme that asked: “WHY AREN’T WE USING THIS?” (here).
Similar statements appeared on Twitter (here) and the same image can be found on Instagram as far back as 2019 (here).
Do mitzvos evolve? - Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky
Ch-i_As_Heresy
BS"D
They imagine that the force(s) that "energy healers" (and others) ostensibly manipulate in their "energy-channelling" practices is/are (1) a single universal force, (2) a vital-life-force which animates the entire universe, & (3) THE Source of all being, R"L.
THAT conception erroneously attributes corporeality (physicality) to The Source of All Being, i.e. G-d. In other words, Ch-i refers to his'gamshmus HaBorei. Thus, the notion of Ch-i is a form of Kefirah B'Ikkar (Heresy). It is HaShem (G-d) who is The Exclusive Source of all, and He has no connection to physicality (see Rambam, M.T., Hilchos Yedosei HaTorah, 1:1, 5,6,7,11; Hil. Teshuva 3:7). To assert that the Source of All Being, meaning G-d, can be channeled or manipulated, or is subject to change, location or movement is absolutely heretical (kefirah)(Rambam, YH"T, 1:11).
(4) Many new agers ALSO clearly attribute independent will to this force as well, R"L, and therefore ask it permission if it's "ready and willing" for the practitioner to perform a muscle test, or dowse, especially in Health Kinesiology. THAT conception of Ch-i is clearly heresy on an additional count (see Ikkar #5, Chazon Ish Y.D. 62:19, for example.)
Thus, the New-Age TERM Ch-i refers to a kefirah CONCEPT. If some frum Ch-i advocates opt to use the term differently, that doesn't change the fact that the TERM is a Shaim-Kefira/Avoda Zorah.
Moreover, even IF the Ch-i propagandists could establish that "the force" that the "energy-practitioners" are manipulating in their "energy-work" is a real entity, it's an entirely different entity than fictitious notion to which the NAM term "Ch-i" refers. Referring to THAT existing entity as "Ch-i" doesn't render the TERM "Ch-i" something other than what it is: a heretical term (shaim AZ/ Kefirah).
If said Ch-i advocates truly wanted to avoid promoting heresy-related concepts, they would simply use different terminology. And they would benefit greatly by sidestepping much of the controversy. But they refuse. Clearly, they're intent on promoting Ch-i ideology, which, as evidenced from the above, is actually New Age heresy.
Accordingly, said Ch-i advocates need to be avoided altogether, with their never-ending stream of propaganda, as per the published Psak signed by Rav Dovid Feinstein, Rav Yisroel Belsky, et.al., OB"M, published at the end of the Sefer "Rav Belsky on Alternative Medicine" et. al (Judaica Press). It is this endless propaganda that's instrumental in ensuring that many very confused people never understand the foundational concepts relevant here, or the monumental objections to Ch-i theology and the practices attributed to it.
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Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
NathanAdvisors@gmail.com / personal account
USA: 845-642-1679* «»
* for calls and texts, but not WhatsApp
Rife with Therapies- anti -esatblishment advice?!
https://mishpacha.com/rife-with-therapies/
Turning the lens inward, our community seems to have its own rather complex relationship with the dichotomy of establishment consensus versus skeptical minority opinion. Some people who don’t fit in to all the neat communal boxes, for example, feel disenfranchised by what they see as elitist condescension in areas like school admissions, shidduchim, and other areas.
Yet in the hot-button political and medical debates of recent years, parts of the community have also manifested a paranoiac distrust of mainstream institutions and expert consensus. And strangely, there often seems to be a simultaneous adoption of both of these extremes, applied selectively depending on the issue.
Ross Douthat’s advice to American society — to open-mindedly consider alternative wisdom, yet not descend into paranoid suspicion of mainstream thinking either — seems like good counsel for us, too.
No Fourth Vaccine for Me - nonsensense from Mispacha Magazine's resident "godol"
https://mishpacha.com/no-fourth-vaccine-for-me/
I decided against a fourth Covid vaccine when Israel made them available to those over 60 a few months ago. For one thing, despite the above-the-fold headlines every day about the dramatic increase in cases due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, the numbers of those requiring hospitalization were by no means commensurate. Most of my children and grandchildren have tested positive, and not one had more than a bad cold or flu-like symptoms for a few days.
And though I qualified for the vaccine by age, I’m healthy.
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I decided to post the above after receiving a glowing review from a friend
His claims regarding safetyism reminds me about a brief conversation I had with Rav Noach Weinberg. He told me a Jew should not use seat belts or get vaccinated because by showing a lack of bitachon. It will bring about that which he fears.
I see many frum people who feel like Rosenbaum that the danger of Covid are exaggerated in order to give government and the medical establishment authoritarian powers and thus the proposed methods are ignored or openly transgressed as well as ridiculed.
While Rosenbaum apparently got three vaccine doses and is not an anti-vaxxer. His arguments are largely those found among Republicans and right wing media and anti-vaxxers.
Contrary to Rosenbaum's screed The fourth shot has been shown beneficial.
from cdc
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/01/booster-shots-needed-against-omicron.html
from the Israel Health Ministry
https://corona.health.gov.il/en/vaccine-for-covid/4th-dose/
Fourth Vaccine Dose
In light of the extensive infection rate and the enormity of infection cases, hospitalization cases and severe illness cases, it was decided to allow the fourth vaccination of anyone aged 18 and older who has pre-existing conditions and risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness, for their caregivers and for anyone else at high risk for exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 patient in their line of work.
Studies show that those vaccinated with the fourth vaccine are twice as protected against infection than those vaccinated with three doses, and 3 to 5 times better protected from severe illness compared to those vaccinated with three doses.
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan - A Living Torah
https://mishpacha.com/a-living-torah/
Rabbi Kaplan wrote ten highly-popular and influential books for NCSY, and they remain as relevant today as they were back in the 1970s. Some addressed the foundational principles of Jewish faith (Love Means Reaching Out, The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith, Jerusalem: Eye of the Universe) while others explored such central mitzvos as Shabbos, mikveh (The Waters of Eden), tefillin and tzitzis (G-d, Man, and Tefillin). At the behest of NCSY, he also authored a series of booklets, later combined into one volume entitled The Real Messiah, which debunked the claims of Christian missionaries who had become a real and growing threat as part of a well-funded, aggressive nationwide campaign to ensnare Jewish souls in messianic “Judaism.”
Friday, January 28, 2022
Wife of rabbi with COVID-19 sues NY hospital for not using Ivermectin - report
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-694875
MK Yaakov Litzman to sign plea bargain
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/321250
How to think about boosters in light of this week's Pfizer and Moderna news
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/27/health/omicron-booster-wait-wen-wellness/index.html
About 50% of eligible Americans have received abooster shot, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the Pfizer and Moderna news might raise questions regardless. For those who have yet to get inoculated, should they wait until there is an Omicron-specific vaccine? What if someone has already had Covid-19 during the Omicron surge, do they still need a booster? And what does this mean for people who've already gotten a booster, or those who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and then subsequently got a dose of another kind?
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Remembering Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan: NCSY Republishes Collection Of His Selected Works
https://matzav.com/remembering-rabbi-aryeh-kaplan-ncsy-republishes-collection-of-his-selected-works/