Saturday, June 11, 2022

What did Miriam do wrong?

 The story in the Torah is described as lashon harah br Chofetz Chaim but is it

According to the sources Miriam was concerned about Moshe being an abusive husband. She mentioned this in private to her brother without intent to degrade Moshe. What should she or could she do differently? The Torah does not say it was lashon harah but simplt indicates she mistakenly thought all prophets were the same

(1) And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.

(1) (Devarim 24:9): "Remember what the Lrd your Gd did to Miriam on the way when you went out of Egypt." The Torah exhorted us hereby that we mention verbally, always, the great punishment [leprosy] that the Blessed Lrd brought upon the tzadeketh, Miriam the prophetess — who spoke only about her brother, whom she loved as her soul...she did not speak in denigration of him, but only compared him to other prophets. And she did not speak so to his face to shame him, and not in public, but only to her brother Aaron, privately. And he [Moses] was not offended by all this, but in spite of which all her good deeds did not avail her and she was punished with leprosy for this. How much more so will other people, the fools, who are prolix in speaking "great and awesome things" against their friends, be severely punished for this.

(NaN) (2) And he [the speaker of lashon hara] also transgresses (Vayikra 19:18): "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself," whereby we have been commanded to be as solicitous for our friend's money as we are for our own, and to be solicitous of his honor, and to speak in his praise, as we are solicitous for our own honor. And if one speaks or receives lashon hara and rechiluth against his friend, though it be true, it is apparent that he does not love him at all — how much more so is he in violation of "as yourself!"

Trump 'Failed in Duty' on Jan. 6, 'Reveled in' Riot, Says GOP Rep. Tom Rice

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-failed-duty-jan-6-reveled-riot-says-gop-rep-tom-rice-1714957

Rep. Tom Rice, a South Carolina Republican who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot, is standing firm in his stance that the former president "failed in his duty" to stop the assault.

Rice made his latest comments in a Friday interview with The New York Times just days before facing a high-stakes primary race on Tuesday. The South Carolina Republican is up against State Representative Russell Fry, whom Trump has endorsed as part of an ongoing effort to unseat those who oppose him.

AP FACT CHECK: Yes, Trump lost election despite what he says

 https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-michael-pence-electoral-college-elections-health-2d9bd47a8bd3561682ac46c6b3873a10

Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, found no evidence of widespread election fraud. Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud also have been dismissed by a succession of judges and refuted by state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department.

No case has established irregularities of a scale that would have changed the outcome.

Trump's election lies are not even a minority legal view - they are simply lies

 Someone claimed Trump's stolen election claims   have the status of a valid minority view

That is false! There is no evidence supporting the possibility,

It is thus a claim like saying any laws which cause suffering to an individual are not legitimate it is merely an assertion but not  a legitimate view


Please distinguish between assertions  and views!

'Checked out': Trump rebukes Ivanka over Jan. 6 testimony

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/10/donald-ivanka-trump-jan-6-testimony-00038783

Former President Donald Trump on Friday discounted his own daughter’s testimony that the 2020 presidential election results were not fraudulent.

“Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!),” Trump posted on Truth Social, the social media platform he helped found.

Friday, June 10, 2022

Trump Lashes Out at Jan. 6 Committee Ahead of Hearing

 https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2022-06-09/trump-lashes-out-at-jan-6-committee-ahead-of-hearing

Trump wrote on his social media platform that Jan. 6 represents “the greatest movement in the history of our country to Make America Great Again.” And in what has become a common refrain, he again called the 2020 election “rigged.”



Ivanka Trump Testimony 'Sinks Daddy': Donald Trump Critics React

 https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-testimony-sinks-daddy-donald-trump-critics-react-1714530

Ivanka Trump, one of his most trusted supporters and advisers, appeared in a previously unseen video clip saying that she didn't believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Following a video clip of Attorney General William Barr testifying that he told Trump at the time that the claims the election had been stolen were "complete nonsense," "crazy stuff" and "bulls***," as his team had not found evidence of voter fraud, Ivanka Trump said she accepted what Barr said.

Takeaways from the prime-time January 6 committee hearing

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/09/politics/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-thursday/index.html

Pence called for help -- not Trump
The committee also showed new video from its interview with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley saying it Pence was the one who ordered National Guard troops to respond to the violence on January 6, but that he was told by the White House to say it was Trump.
"Vice President Pence -- there were two or three calls with Vice President Pence. He was very animated, and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that," Milley says in the video.
"He was very animated, very direct, very firm to Secretary Miller. 'Get the military down here, get the guard down here. Put down this situation, et cetera,'" he added, referring to Pence.
Milley also described his interactions with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that day, drawing a stark contrast between those conversations with Pence.
"He said: We have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect," Milley says in the video, referring to what Meadows told him.

How to Seek Inspiration in the Torah

 https://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/dailywisdom_cdo/aid/2955561/jewish/Tuesday-How-to-Seek-Inspiration-in-the-Torah.htm

Therefore, when today’s rabbinic authorities apply the Torah’s teachings in innovative ways, we cannot try to live in the past, complaining that the leadership of previous generations did not see the need for such innovations. On the contrary: only by reading the Torah through the eyes of our “Joshua” – today’s Moses – can we be certain that the Torah will provide us with the inspiration to fulfill our Divine mission and live our lives to the fullest.1

Thursday, June 9, 2022

'החתן המתחזה' הגיע להוכיח יהדות; זה מה שענה בית הדין

 https://www.kikar.co.il/420671.html

יותר מחצי שנה לאחר הפרסום על החתן המתחזה מלבנון, הופיע עלי חאוויליה בפני הרבנות בישראל וביקש: "הכירו ביהדותי" • חאליוואה המשיך להתעקש כי היה יהודי - ובבית הדין הציעו פשרה 

Seeking Inspiration- It can't be true if it doesn't inspire

 I recently had a long discussion with someone I know and respect regarding hashkofa issues

Over and over the issue was "well that approach doesn't inspire me."

In other words truth and facts are not so important because if it inspires it must be true!

In fact for many of the issues that I find are important today - the course of action is largely decided - both by the masses and gedolim - by whether the path is inspiring or will cause a loss of inspiration.



Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Trump reacted with approval to 'hang Mike Pence' chants from rioters on January 6

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/donald-trump-january-6-mike-pence-chants/index.html

A former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the House January 6 committee that then-President Donald Trump had suggested to Meadows he approved of the "hang Mike Pence" chants from rioters who stormed the US Capitol, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide, also testified that Trump complained about his then-vice president being hustled to safety while Trump supporters breached the Capitol, the sources said.

EU foreign policy chief condemns Russian missile strike on Ukrainian grain terminal

 https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-06-07-22/index.html

The European Union's High Representative, Josep Borrell, condemned a Russian missile strike this weekend that destroyed a large grain storage terminal in the southern port city of Mykolaiv.

Borrell said the strike was at odds with recent pledges by Russian President Vladimir Putin to offer safe passage through the Black Sea from Ukrainian ports for merchant shipping.

Sunday, June 5, 2022

Trump’s Lawyers Stun Senate by Claiming Jared Made Him Do It

 https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trumps-lawyers-stun-senate-by-claiming-jared-made-him-do-it

The Senate listened in astonished silence as Trump’s lawyers coldly and methodically hurled Kushner under the bus.

According to Davis Logsdon, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, the lawyers’ new argument could be persuasive “because it fits into a larger pattern of everything Jared Kushner doing or saying turning into crap.”