Austria: Antisemitic crimes hit record high in 2020

https://www.dw.com/en/austria-antisemitic-crimes-hit-record-high-in-2020/a-57343980 

Around 40% of the incidents had a right-wing political motivation (229), while 15% were tied to the left. The second largest category was "not possible to assign" with 195 incidents.

Immanence

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

Jewish mysticism gives explanations of greater depth and spirituality to the interconnected aspects of God's immanence and transcendence. The main expression of mysticism, the Kabbalah, began to be taught in 12th Century Europe, and reached a new systemisation in 16th Century Israel. The Kabbalah gives the full, subtle, traditional system of Jewish metaphysics. In the Medieval Kabbalah, new doctrines described the 10 Sephirot (divine emanations) through which the Infinite, unknowable divine essence reveals, emanates, and continuously creates existence. The Kabbalists identified the final, feminine Sefirah with the earlier, traditional Jewish concept of the Shekhinah (immanent divine presence). This gave great spirituality to earlier ideas in Jewish thought, such as the theological explanations of suffering (theodicy). In this example, the Kabbalists described the Shekhinah accompanying the children of Israel in their exile, being exiled alongside them, and yearning for Her redemption. Such a concept derives from the Kabbalistic theology that the physical World, and also the Upper spiritual Worlds, are continuously recreated from nothing by the Shefa (flow) of divine will, which emanates through the Sefirot. As a result, within all creations are divine sparks of vitality that sustain them. Medieval Kabbalah describes two forms of divine emanation, a "light that fills all worlds", representing this immanent divine creative power, and a "light that surrounds all worlds", representing transcendent expressions of Divinity.

The new doctrines of Isaac Luria in the 16th Century completed the Kabbalistic system of explanation. Lurianic Kabbalah describes the process of Tzimtzum (צמצום meaning "Contraction" or "Constriction") in the Kabbalistic theory of creation, where God "contracted" his infinite essence in order to allow for a "conceptual space" in which a finite, independent world could exist. This has received different later interpretations in Jewish mysticism, from the literal to the metaphorical. In this process, creation unfolds within the divine reality. Luria offered a daring cosmic theology that explained the reasons for the Tzimtzum, the primordial catastrophe of Shevirat Hakelim (the "Breaking of the Vessels" of the Sefirot in the first existence), and the messianic Tikkun ("Fixing") of this by every individual through their sanctification of physicality. The concept of Tzimtzum contains a built-in paradox, as it requires that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent:

Republicans Seem to Think Putting a Black Woman on the Supreme Court Is the Real Racism

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/biden-supreme-court-nominee-smear-campaign/621408/

Appeals to meritocracy in this context are not about merit; they are a means to diminish people whom these critics would see as undeserving no matter what they achieve. If the Republicans seeking to stoke resentment over this appointment can successfully turn the story of the first Black woman on the Supreme Court into another example of Black people getting free stuff they haven’t earned, they will be perfectly satisfied, even if she is confirmed. The important battles over the future of the Court have already taken place, and the right has already won them.

Amnesty to ToI: No double standard in accusing Israel, but not China, of apartheid

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/amnesty-to-toi-no-double-standard-in-accusing-israel-but-not-china-of-apartheid/

But it’s conceivable that Jews living in the Jewish Quarter are considered by the report [to be] illegally living there?

Luther: The reality in terms of what is considered occupied Palestinian territory is that, yes, the Old City is in East Jerusalem. Where do we have a problem, and this is something we put up, is where, for instance, Palestinians in the Old City have been evicted from their homes and, through the support of settler communities, you’ve managed to have a settlement inside a house that was previously a Palestinian house. Yes, that is an example…

It’s about the transfer. Within international law, it’s about the transfer, that is what you have to determine. Whether people, one, are being forcibly evicted from their homes, and then there’s transfer of the occupying country’s population in there.

Miracles, Nature and what Lies Between: Ramban on Hashgacha

 https://www.etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/issues-jewish-thought/issues-mussar-and-faith/miracles-nature-and-what-lies-between

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, RaMBaN or Nachmanides (1194-1270), offers us a way of thinking about this. The Ramban's theological point of departure is very different from that of the Rambam. For the Ramban, God's immanence, His presence in the world, is a given, and is testified to by the whole Bible. The question for him is how that reality can be understood in the context of the experienced reality of nature – of a world that consistently works in regular ways that are seemingly insensitive to people's moral and spiritual conditions.

Concluding Shiur: On Immanence and Transcendence

 https://www.etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/issues-jewish-thought/issues-mussar-and-faith/concluding-shiur-immanence-and

The basic tension that has recurred over and over in our attempts to grasp how God relates to the world is between immanence and transcendence. An immanent God is part of the world and a character in history. He is apprehended by prophets, He reveals Himself to human beings, is enraged and by their betrayals and satisfied and joyous when they successfully conform to His will. He punishes the wicked, rewards the faithful and responds to prayers. All of these, however, are aspects of a theological imagination that conceives of God as a person, who as such must be limited in His knowledge and power, bound by time and space, part of the universe rather than the Author or source of it. The alternative is a transcendent God who is quite frankly beyond our imagination, beyond our capacities to describe or understand, utterly mysterious and utterly inaccessible. At best, and even this is debatable, we can describe Him with vague abstractions, as if we are, so to speak, reading His CV rather than meeting him.

Reuniting Beth with Her Sons

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/reunitingbeth/permalink/456795402573641/?sfnsn=scwspmo&ref=share

Adina BV

To reassure anyone who is a deep thinker and has similar questions, I want to share some thoughts, rationale, and digging I've done.

The first I heard about this case in 2012 when a petition circulated. At that time, I did not know Beth but knew both Graeme and Adrian personally and well enough to know they were good guys and menschlich. It wasn't immediately clear to me whether to sign the petition or not as I wanted to believe there was some independence and fairness to the courts or some reason we were unaware of. I asked a very trusted friend who knew Beth personally and had very good judgement and observed Rabbis getting on board having investigated the case, and felt confident that signing the petition was the right thing to do.

I can also share that I was told at that time by the same mutual friend/community organiser that Michael had become increasingly controlling and abusive over the course of the marriage. So, the allegations currently being made online by the "Daniel Cohen" profile that these reports were fabricated later are entirely false; Beth has been consistent in her testimony throughout. I believe survivors and I believe Beth's testimony personally and encourage you to. Here's why: This "Cohen" character states it is reasonable to be suspicious of reports of domestic violence without external verification. However, research and statistics about intimate partner violence indicates that false allegations are rare whereas attrition rates (reports not making it to court or conviction) are incredibly high. Victim testimony is admissable as evidence in court and it's known that abusers hide their abusing - therefore, we ought reasonably be far more suspicious of those individuals who are bending over backwards to point out there is no "independent" evidence (there never is) and trying so hard to clear Michael's name and invent a new narrative suggesting this consistent claim is new. Moreover, Jewish Women's Aid, an organisation with a huge amount of expertise, has examined the case and come out in support of Beth. An organisation with therapists and professionals with a huge amount of experience believe Beth's testimony.

Over the years, I got to know Beth Alexander . I don't know Beth especially well but I know she is honest and shares her truth and her pain, she is kind, generous, caring.

The case is impossible to make sense of.

There are essentially only two possibilities:

1. There is another side to this story which Beth is not sharing - something so extreme and severe that a fair court in a modern democratic country was justified in removing very young children from their primary care-giver mother, placing them in the custody of their alleged abuser father, and ordering supervised contact in a contact centre.

2. Beth is correct that there has been a miscarriage of justice and the community, Rabbis, and Esra are complicit in this.

Neither of these are things we would want to be true. Nothing about this case is something we would want to be true.

Having worked with children including Looked-After children for many many years as an SEMH teacher, volunteer Childline counsellor, and at an advocacy charity with local authority commissioned contracts for children in care, I am not unfamiliar with the reasons for supervised contact and removal of children from mother's. I have worked with children having court ordered contact with parents with serious issues.

What would this need to be? A parent who is unfit for custody might have incapacitating mental illness, serious substance and alcohol misuse, etc. Anyone who has ever met Beth can tell she isn't hiding an IV drug addiction, let alone for over a decade. Beth has a stable life and career. Not just this, but a parent who knew deep in their heart that they were hiding something terrible wouldn't be actively and publicly fighting this. The Chief Rabbi's delegation and JWA would simply have been told the truth, once, by the other 'side' and ceased intervening in support of Beth.

So, we can pretty much rule this out. But, to set my mind at ease, I actually asked two Jewish people in Vienna. One knew only very little but confirmed there was no "missing piece" known there and not here - indeed offered to help Beth! The other had known Beth at the time and said they fully support her fight. They described her as a loving parent who did everything for the boys with little support.

This leaves us with only really option 2 - miscarriage of justice not in the boys' best interests at the hands of a partial judge influenced by a senior colleague who is a personal friend of the father. Custody to the father, who then requests supervised contact - without indication of it actually being needed - as a way of continuing to perpetrate coercive control. When this is declined, he blocks and declines enough calls and letters to convince the children.

The conclusion, then, is clear. #helpbeth

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No need for doctors -Ramban

Ramban (Vayikra 26:11)  In general then, when Israel is in perfect [accord with G-d], constituting a large number, their affairs are not conducted at all by the natural order of things, neither in connection with themselves, nor with reference to their Land, neither collectively nor individually, for G-d blesses their bread and their water, and removes sickness from their midst, so that they do not need a physician and do not have to observe any of the rules of medicine, just as He said, for I am the Eternal that healeth thee.⁵⁶Exodus 15:26. And so did the righteous ones act at the time when prophecy [existed], so that even if a mishap of iniquity overtook them, causing them sickness, they did not turn to the physicians, but only to the prophets, as was the case with Hezekiah when he was sick.⁵⁷See Isaiah Chapter 38. And Scripture states [of Asa, king of Judah, by way of rebuke], Yet in his disease he sought not to the Eternal, but to the physicians.⁵⁸II Chronicles 16:12. Now had the practice of [consulting] physicians been customary among them, why should the verse mention [as a sinful act Asa’s consulting] the physicians, since his guilt was only because he did not [also] seek G-d? But the verse can be compared to someone saying: “That person did not eat unleavened bread on the Festival of Passover, but instead [ate] leavened bread.”⁵⁹The intent of this statement is that the transgressor has committed two sins: not only has he failed to fulfill the positive commandment of eating unleavened bread (see “The Commandments,” Vol. I, pp. 168-169), but he has also eaten chametz during Passover, which is forbidden by a negative commandment (ibid., Vol. II, pp. 194-195). In the same way Scripture states that Asa committed two sins: he failed to seek G-d, and he consulted the physicians. This shows that consulting the physicians was not customary. For he who seeks the Eternal through a prophet, will not consult the physicians. And what part do the physicians have in the house of those who do the will of G-d, after He has assured us, and He will bless thy bread, and thy water, and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee,³⁹Exodus 23:25. whereas the physicians are concerned [mostly] with food and drink, warning [the patient] against [eating] certain foods and commanding him [to eat] others.⁶⁰Rambam writes in a similar vein: “Most maladies that afflict people are the result of bad food, or of overeating even wholesome food” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchoth Dei’oth 4:15). Thus also the Rabbis said:⁶¹Horayoth 14 a. To understand the full significance of this Talmudic statement about Rav Yoseph, and especially about Rabbah’s connection with it [“During all the twenty-two years that Rabbah reigned …”] it is necessary to know the background of a certain event that transpired in their lives. When the post of chief of the Academy of Pumbeditha became vacant the Rabbis of Babylon were in doubt as to whom they should appoint — Rabbah or Rav Yoseph. Rabbah’s distinction was that he was the outstanding dialectician of his generation, while that of Rav Yoseph was that he was the greatest erudite scholar. When an inquiry was made of the Rabbis in the Land of Israel the answer came back: “An erudite scholar is preferable.” It was thus Rav Yoseph’s turn to become the head of the Academy. Yet in his humility Rav Yoseph refused to accept the post and insisted that Rabbah should reign. And thus for twenty-two years Rabbah continued to rule over the Academy of Pumbeditha. In recompense for his humility, the Talmudic story continues, Heaven rewarded Rav Yoseph that “During all the twenty-two years that Rabbah reigned Rav Yoseph did not call even a bloodletter to his house,” as was customary in those days, for his health was in such perfect condition. — See in Ein Ya’akov at end of Horayoth, in the commentary Hakotheiv, at end, for source of this beautiful interpretation. It expresses no doubt the intent of Ramban’s words here before us. “During all the twenty-two years that Rabbah reigned [as head of the Academy at Pumbeditha], Rav Yoseph did not call even a blood letter to his house” [as he, being a righteous person, was protected directly by G-d and needed no physicians], and they also say by way of proverb:⁶²Shir Hashirim Rabbah 6:17. “A gate which is not open for the commandments [i.e., a house wherein the commandments are not observed] is open for the physician.” This is also the meaning of their saying:⁶³Berachoth 60 a. “People should not have to take medicaments, but they have become accustomed to do so.” [That is to say]: had they not accustomed themselves to [taking] medicines, people would become sick according to the degree of punishment corresponding to their sin, and would be healed by the will of G-d, but since they accustomed themselves to medicaments, G-d has left them to natural happenings. This is also the intent of the Rabbis’ interpretation:⁶⁴Baba Kamma 85 a. “And he shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.⁶⁵Exodus 21:19. From here [you deduce the principle] that permission has been given to the physician to heal.” They did not say that “permission was given to the sick to be healed” [by the physician], but instead they stated [by implication] that since the person who became sick comes [to the physician] to be healed, because he has accustomed himself to seeking medical help and he was not of the congregation of the Eternal whose portion is in this life,⁶⁶See Numbers 27:3; Psalms 17:14. the physician should not refrain from healing him; whether because of fear that he might die under his hand, since he is qualified in this profession, or because he says that it is G-d alone Who is the Healer of all flesh, since [after all] people have already accustomed themselves [to seeking such help]. Therefore when men contend and one smites the other with a stone or his fist⁶⁷Exodus 21:18. the one who smote must pay for the healing,⁶⁵Exodus 21:19. for the Torah does not base its laws upon miracles, just as it said, for the poor shall never cease out of the Land,⁶⁸Deuteronomy 15:11. knowing [beforehand] that such will be the case. But when a man’s ways please the Eternal,⁶⁹Proverbs 16:7. he need have no concern with physicians.

GOP to Tucker Carlson: We’re the decision-makers on Ukraine, not you

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/01/gop-tucker-carlson-ukraine-00004370

GOP lawmakers argue that supporting Ukraine now and working to deter a Russian invasion reduces the likelihood that U.S. troops would need to engage in combat with Russian forces down the line. GOP lawmakers have emphasized that they agree with Carlson that U.S. troops should not be sent to Ukraine.

But Carlson has shocked his fellow conservatives with statements that some have likened to Putin-esque propaganda. Those sentiments have apparently started trickling through GOP primaries, with some candidates embracing Carlson’s views.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Green Beret, attributed much of the public wrangling to confusion surrounding the U.S. position on sending troops to Ukraine to engage in combat with Russian forces — a possibility that the Biden administration has ruled out.

But he said there would be consequences for the U.S. and the West if Ukraine is left to fend for itself.

Over 500 dead from COVID-19 in January: 'This was preventable'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/321593

"We needed to push more people to receive the fourth vaccine," she added. "Anyone who needs it and is worried - should go get vaccinated. That's very important. We see a drop in the level of immunity and protection from the booster, and so it would have been worthwhile to encourage more people at high risk to get vaccinated, because we see that the fourth dose of the vaccine did help protect the public."

"Unfortunately, in all of these points, there was not enough push from the public. In my opinion, there wasn't even a discussion on the question of whether to take this path or to make more efforts to protect those whose health is less good. They just went with what was happening in a kind of indecision. Here, by the way, things can still be done, and we need in my opinion, to take action even today, and we need to wake up on this matter. The approach of, 'there's nothing we can do, and that's it,' is problematic, because there is what to do, and there was what to do, and even now we can do it."

Republican legislative leaders denounce neo-Nazi demonstrations in Central Florida

 https://floridapolitics.com/archives/491669-chris-sprowls-denounces-neo-nazi-demonstrations-in-central-florida/

The Palm Harbor Republican’s words stood in stark contrast to a message from Christina Pushaw, Gov. DeSantis’ Press Secretary. Sunday night, Pushaw tweeted — and quickly deleted — assertions the neo-Nazi demonstration may in fact have been the work of Democratic staffers.

AN APPRECIATION OF RABBI ARYEH KAPLAN + VIDEO

 https://60.ncsy.org/appreciation-rabbi-aryeh-kaplan/

In a sense, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was a meteor, a dazzling light that illuminated the darkened skies of post-Holocaust Torah learning, but burned out far too soon. With his scientific background, Rabbi Kaplan might have pointed out the inaccuracy of this comparison; more likely, his modesty and unassuming demeanor would have led him to deflect this much-deserved praise. And that, in a nutshell, is the life-story of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.

Few, if any, have had greater impact on the Jewish spiritual awakening often called “the teshuva movement.” Although other religious leaders sent out emissaries and still others opened yeshivot, Rabbi Kaplan directly and personally impacted an almost unfathomable number of Jews, primarily through NCSY, but also through his prolific writing. Rabbi Kaplan saw the teshuva phenomenon not so much as a movement, but as a perfectly natural, even inevitable return of Jews to their heritage.

Conversations In The Spirit: Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

 http://www.nyspirit.com/spirit-readings/in-the-spirit/conversations-spirit-part-8-rabbi-aryeh-kaplan/

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan: Let me just elaborate on that. As anybody who’s familiar with the Jewish community knows, the Orthodox Jew prays three times a day, and the central part of that prayer is a prayer known as the Amidah [or Standing Prayer]. If one says that prayer correctly, with intense concentration, one gently pushes away all outside thoughts and is drawn close to the Divine.

We never thought of this as meditation. When people come to me and say, “I’m a religious Jew, I pray every day. How should I meditate?” Now, I say, “Make your daily prayer into a meditation.” There are other meditations a person could do, but the major meditation that a Jew does can be part of the service. And this whole methodology was part of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings in Hasidism. Although many other schools of Jewish meditation had existed, what the Baal Shem Tov did was to make the normal prayer service the integral part of Jewish meditation.

I might add that in Kabbalah, one of the important teachings is that every act that a person does throughout the day can and does become a meditation; that every act that a person does throughout the day can create a unification.

An Open Letter to Buddhist Jews