https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/327380
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/22/florida-examples-prohibited-topics-math-textbooks
“Those examples were given with no context and were not even elementary-level material,” Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association that represents more than 150,000 educators, said. “So it seems like it’s more about smoke and mirrors of trying to accomplish a political agenda than really about what we are teaching our kids.”
“What educators and parents are concerned about is if we don’t have teachers in our classrooms, or bus drivers to get kids to school on time, then our kids aren’t learning math or any other subject,” Spar said.
“We’re expecting over 9,000 teacher vacancies by the end of the year, according to the state board that he appoints, and we have a massive bus driver, paraprofessional, cafeteria worker, custodian shortage in addition. We’ve heard the governor say or do nothing about it.
“These kinds of antics and political theater going on over these textbooks is exactly what’s driving people out of the profession.”
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-706387
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/327326
The Harvard Crimson’s recent endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement has attracted far more wide-ranging attention than a typical student paper’s editorial page, as faculty and alumni of the Ivy League institution have lined up to denounce the student paper’s op-ed and condemn the shift in Israel discussion on college campuses.
In an open letter, more than 100 Harvard faculty members objected to the paper endorsing an academic and financial boycott of the state of Israel, including the school’s former president Larry Summers; prominent psychologist and author Steven Pinker; endowed law professor Gabriella Blum; former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey Flier; and emeritus law professor and longtime pro-Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz.
“We believe that many well-meaning people with no hate in their hearts, including those at Harvard, gravitate to this movement believing that it offers a means for advancing Palestinian rights and peace in the Middle East,” the letter reads. “But the reality is that BDS merely coarsens the discourse on campus and contributes to antisemitism.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nebraska-trump-herbster-primary-governor-lindstrom
Mazel Tov on your bar mitzva
Don't know if you realize its wider implication - in Jewish law that means it is now your responsibility to keep the religious and ethical principles of Judaism
One of the most important of these being to honor and respect both your father and mother
You are in a very difficult position in this area. Never the less you are still obligated
As a minimum you need to ensure that your mother is invited to the bar mitzva
As a psychologist I will simply note that if you can't deal properly with this issue it is very unlikely you will have a good marriage or be a good parent. Not a threat or curse - just a dose of reality
Daniel Eidensohn PhD.
Transcription of the words of Rabbi Dovid Greenblatt by Rabbi Spira
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/05/daas-torah-and-legacy-of-rabbi-joshua-h.html
My father was matir a woman a year or two ago. He was only matir two women in 60 years. The rest of them, for the other thirty thousand, he travelled on buses and planes, and spent the night, and went to South America, all on his own cheshbon, everything, for thirty thousand. But there were two women he was matir. The last time he was matir a woman, he got tremendous flack. Big Jews criticized him. What happens to us when we get criticized? What happens to a person who’s not a gadol? ‘Ah, you’re criticizing me. You don’t know me. You don’t know why I did it. You should have called me. Do you know who I am? You didn’t let me explain it to you.’ We’re all… We’re all defending… We’re all defending our negi’os. It makes us defend ourselves. ‘What an insult to me.’ But my father said to me, literally in my ear, he said ‘Dovid,’ he said, ‘you understand the problem.’ He said: ‘Now, if a woman needs a heter, a Rav is not going to give her a heter no matter what, because he’s not going to want to take the flack. We’ve now made it hard for a woman who deserves a heter to get a heter.’ He didn’t think one second about himself. This was only about what is this going to do to nebach to the woman that deserves a heter and has a gadol who’s going to say ‘I don’t want to end up with that flack.’ I think it’s a small story but I think it’s the difference between gadlus and… and… and… and… and… and being one of… and being me… being the rest of us.
Moreh Nevuchim (3:29) You know from the repeated declarations in the Law that the principal purpose of the whole Law was the removal and utter destruction of idolatry, and all that is connected therewith, even its name, and everything that might lead to any such practices The law prohibits us to imitate the heathen in any of these deeds, and a fortiori to adopt them entirely. It is distinctly said in the Law that everything which idolaters consider as service to their gods, and a means of approaching them, is rejected and despised by God; comp. "for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:3 1). In the books which I shall name to you later on, it is stated that on certain occasions they offered to the sun, their greatest god, seven beetles, and seven mice, and seven bats. This alone suffices to show how disgusting their practice must be to human nature. Thus all precepts cautioning against idolatry, or against that which is connected therewith, leads to it, or is related to it, are evidently useful. They all tend to save us from the evil doctrines that deprive us of everything useful for the acquisition of the twofold perfection of man, by leading to those absurd practices in which our fathers and ancestors have been brought up. It is in reference to these idolatrous ideas that the true prophets exclaim, "They walked after vain things, which do not profit." How great is the usefulness of every precept that delivers us from this great error, and leads us back to the true faith: that God, the Creator of all things, rules the Universe: that He must be served, loved, and feared, and not those imaginary deities. According to this faith we approach the true God, and obtain His favour without having recourse to burdensome means: for nothing else is required but to love and fear Him; this is the aim in serving God, as will be shown. Comp. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord"? etc. (Deut. 10:12). I shall complete this subject later on: now let us return to the theme [of this chapter]. I say that my knowledge of the belief, practice, and worship of the Sabeans has given me an insight into many of the divine precepts, and has led me to know their reason. You will confirm it when I shall give the reason of commandments which are seemingly purposeless. I will mention to you the works from which you may learn all that I know of the religion and the opinions of the Sabeans; you will thereby obtain a true knowledge of my theory as regards the purpose of the divine precepts. The great book on this subject is the book On the Nabatean Agriculture,
Moreh Nevuchim (3:37)
It is the object and centre of the whole Law to abolish idolatry and
utterly uproot it, and to overthrow the opinion that any of the stars could
interfere for good or evil in human matters, because it leads to the worship of
stars.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/327268
Rabbi David Yosef, a member of the Council of Torah Sages, has urged Israelis to avoid traveling to Meron during the upcoming Lag Ba'omer holiday, Kikar Hashabbat reported.
During a weekly Torah class in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef said, "I really request the entire public not travel to Meron this year. I repeat and reiterate: I ask that each and every person in Israel, please, this year, do not travel to Meron."
"You know very well that my father and teacher, of blessed memory, never believed in this idea of traveling to Meron in our generation. The trip to Meron has a very holy foundation, there is no doubt....but it's a whole generation already that we know that tens of thousands travel there.
