https://www.newsweek.com/primary-election-live-updates-1717735
Katie Britt is on track to win Alabama's Republican primary race for Senate, chalking up a win for Donald Trump who earlier endorsed her.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Trump dealt new setbacks in Georgia, as candidates he backed trounced in GOP primary runoff elections
Former President Donald Trump is still the most popular and influential politician in the Republican Party and his endorsement in the 2022 cycle remains the most coveted, but the former president suffered new stinging defeats in Georgia on Tuesday.
Four weeks after a trio of statewide candidates Trump had backed in Georgia’s Republican primaries were demolished, two more candidates endorsed and supported by the former president were trounced in GOP congressional primary runoff elections.
A Cri de Coeur for the Russian Army to Return to Its Moral Roots by Rabbi Shalom C. Spira
Some 77 years ago, on Pesach 5745, the Russian army (or, technically speaking, what was called at that time the Soviet Union army) liberated my paternal grandparents who had been hiding in the Czech mountains from the Holocaust. This was an exemplary moral achievement by the Russian army. More recently, 4 years ago, the Chief Rabbi of Russia (in a visit to Montreal documented at https://hamodia.com/2018/09/05/chief-rabbi-russia-rabbi-berel-lazar-visits-montreal/announced that the Russian army’s commander-in-chief, Vladimir Putin, gives respect to the Torah. This once again reflects to the moral credit of Russia’s army, given the Gemara, Chullin 92b that one of the commandments of the Noahide Code is to honour the Torah.
It is thus disturbing to see how, for the past four months, Russia’s army has potentially compromised its moral integrity with its attack on Ukraine. To that effect, many international governments – including that of Canada (where this writer presently resides) – have protested the Russian army’s action. See, for example,<https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/06/statement-by-minister-joly-on-the-100th-day-of-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine.html>. In the present article, I will argue that the invasion of Ukraine is inadvisable under the Noahide Code on account of three doubts to the side of stringency.
1) Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, Ha’amek Davar commentary to Genesis 9:5, allows Noahide governments to engage in offensive warfare, pursuant to the opinion of Shmuel in the Gemara, Shevu‘ot 35b which elucidates Song of Songs 8:12 to mean that a Jewish monarch may kill up to a sixth of humanity in a milchemet reshut (so-called “discretionary war”). Understood as such, Song of Songs 8:12 teaches us that just as a prudent farmer will eliminate a few diseased trees to protect the vineyard as a whole, so too a milchemet reshut may ethically target up to a sixth of humanity in order to better protect global security. Rabbi Berlin essentially argues that what is authorized for a Jewish monarch must perforce also be authorized for a Noahide government. This is also the view of Maharal of Prague, Gur Aryeh to Genesis 34:13.
However, Rabbi Berlin’s extrapolation is not necessarily as compelling as it may appear at first glance, be-mechilat Kevod Torato. A careful examination of Shevu‘ot 35b reveals that Shmuel’s opinion is based on the supposition that the Name in Song of Songs 8:12 is sacred. However, according to the countervailing view in the Gemara that the Name in Song of Songs 8:12 is secular, there is no license for Noahide governments to kill up to a sixth of humanity (or even one human being) in an offensive war. [And that which a Jewish monarch may engage in a milchemet reshut flows from a special Torah commandment (Deut. 20:10-15) that is directed only to the Jewish People, and even then, only when so authorized by a prophetic revelation via the urim ve-tumim, the latter notion being inoperative in our era until the messianic redemption.]
Rambam, Hilkhot Yesodei ha-Torah 6:9 rules that the Name in Song of Songs 8:12 is in fact secular, although is contested on this matter by Ran al ha-Rif. Shulchan Arukh does not adjudicate between these conflicting views. Accordingly, Rambam’s outstanding view presumably creates a legitimate safek that the halakhah may perhaps not follow Ha‘amek Davar, such that offensive war would actually be forbidden to Noahide governments.
Given this doubt, it is not surprising that – as documented by Rabbi J. David Bleich, Contemporary Halakhic Problems Vol. 3, p. 287 – both R. Avraham Dov Kahana-Shapiro, Teshuvot Dvar Avraham I, no. 11 and R. Menachem Zemba, Teshuvot Zera Avraham no. 24 forbid Noahides from engaging in offensive warfare. To that effect, the latter two scholars both invoke the Gemara, Sanhedrin 59a which declares that “Noahides are not included under the rubric of conquest” to explain why the license of milchemet reshut is denied to Noahide governments.
Rabbi Bleich also cites R. Moshe Sofer, Teshuvot Chatam Sofer, Yoreh De‘ah no. 19 as prohibiting Noahides from engaging in offensive warfare. Actually, this appears to be an oversimplification, be-mechilat Kevod Torato. A closer reading of Chatam Sofer reveals that he considers the question to be one that is “tzarikh iyun gadol” (requires great investigation). Nevertheless, even that should presumably be sufficient to prevent the Russian army from relying on Ha‘amek Davar and Gur Aryeh to engage in offensive warfare. After all, the principle “why do you see that your blood is redder, perhaps the blood of your fellow is redder” (Sanhedrin 74a) indicates that even doubtful murder must be eschewed.
2) Rabbi Bleich, ibid., pp. 9-10, observes that even according to the aforementioned Ha‘amek Davar, license for Noahide governments to engage in offensive warfare is limited to killing up to a sixth of humanity. Now, since it is tactically certain that a nuclear war would annihilate more than a sixth of humanity, Rabbi Bleich concludes that nuclear warfare is forbidden for Noahides. Yet, in our present situation, the Russian army has threatened to employ nuclear weapons against any nation that tries to defend Ukraine. Arguably, this threat may itself cloud the moral legitimacy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, even according to Ha‘amek Davar. [Admittedly, Rabbi Bleich continues that Noahide governments are allowed to passively maintain a nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against attack by foreign nations. However, it seems to this student that one might question whether the deterrent justification only holds true for purposes of passive self-defense, as distinct from purposes of actively invading a neighbouring country (the latter representing Russia’s current strategy). In the latter instance, humanity would risk destroying itself through nuclear bullying, thereby running afoul of Rambam, Hilkhot Melakhim 10:11 (viz. the concept “that the world should not be destroyed”). See Rabbi Bleich, Be-Netivot ha-Hahalakhah Vol. 1, pp. 98-101 for an elaboration of the latter Rambam].
3) As explained by Shalom C. Spira and Mark A. Wainberg “HIV Vaccine Triage: Halakhic Considerations,” Jewish Law Annual Vol. 20 (2013), Noahide societies are commanded to implement programs that prevent the spread of infectious disease, pursuant to the Mishnah, Bava Batra 7b, which authorizes citizens of a town to compel one another to erect fortifications for protection against possible attack by marauders. As of the present date, the COVID pandemic continues (as evident, for example, by the fact that the present writer is still required to don a mask at his place of work and on public transit when travelling to-and-from his work). By waging a war at this time, the Russian army is jeopardizing its ability to protect its soldiers from preventing the spread of COVID. Arguably, this itself may erode the moral legitimacy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Given the aforementioned three doubts, I appeal to the conscience of Russian soldiers to consider the following Gemara, Shabbat 30b. To justify why a candle should be extinguished on the Sabbath in order to allow a dangerously ill patient much-needed sleep in order to recover, the Talmud posits: “A regular candle is called a candle, and a human soul is also called a candle [i.e. the candle of G-d, in Proverbs 20:27]. It is better to extinguish a regular candle created by flesh-and-blood for the sake of saving the candle of the Holy One, Blessed Be He.” We can infer from this Talmudic lesson that human inventions and firepower should play second-fiddle to the saving of human life. Now is the time for the Russian army to return to its moral roots by aborting its invasion, and indeed a recent proclamation of Agudath Israel (at
<https://agudah.org/agudath-israel-statement-on-ongoing-invasion-of-ukraine/>) concludes likewise. Perhaps Agudath Israel was excessive to term the Russian invasion (definite) “murder,” but – as before – even doubtful murder must be avoided, and so Agudath Israel’s practical conclusion remains advisable.
Rabbi Spira works as Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute of Medical Research [a Pavillion of the Jewish General Hospital] in Montreal, Canada.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Nobel sold for Ukrainian kids shatters record at $103.5M
Muratov, who was awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mo Brooks faces a monstrous climb in Alabama runoff against Trump-backed Katie Britt
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/20/politics/mo-brooks-katie-britt-trump-alabama-senate/index.html
While Trump's endorsement of Britt came as a shock to some Brooks allies who spent months working to convince the former President that she would be a MAGA adversary in the Senate, others saw it as a long time coming.
Transgender Swimming Ban Praised by Former Olympic Athletes
https://www.newsweek.com/transgender-swimming-ban-praised-former-olympic-athletes-1717300
Former Olympic decathlete Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender woman, also praised the new policy.
"It worked! I took a lot of heat - but what's fair is fair! If you go through male puberty you should not be able to take medals away from females. Period," Jenner tweeted.
A year out of power, Haredim hail government’s downfall, credit divine intervention
Ultra-Orthodox leaders and newspapers rejoiced at the impending dissolution of the Knesset and government — the latter being one of the few in recent memory that didn’t include Haredi parties — and many attributed its downfall to divine intervention.
“His name is praised in the world!” said Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, which represents Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. “A government that harmed and tried to destroy Judaism and the sanctity of Israel and harmed the weak has been driven from the world. The holy one, blessed be he, has had mercy on the people of Israel.”
Cohen, 91, made his pronouncement from his hospital room on Monday night shortly after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced his plans to call for the dissolution of the Knesset, which will send the country back to elections for the fifth time in less than four years.
Monday, June 20, 2022
No, Texas can’t legally secede from the U.S., despite popular myth
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/29/texas-secession/
In June 2022, the Texas State Republican Convention adopted a resolution urging the Legislature in 2023 to put a referendum before the people of Texas “to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Texas Seceding From U.S. 'Would Mean War,' Law Expert Says
At its convention over the weekend, the Republican Party of Texas voted on several measures for possible inclusion into the party's official platform, including one seeking a 2023 referendum on whether the Lone Star State should break away from the United States. The results of that vote are not yet known.
Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump to visit Israel this week
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-709850
Former senior advisers to former US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump – the former president's son-in-law and daughter – will land in Israel on Monday morning, Israeli media reported Sunday evening.
The reason for their visit is not publicly known.
Kushner and Trump were seen boarding an El Al flight from Miami. According to reports, Tourism Minister Yoel Razbozov was on the same flight to Tel Aviv.
Israel leader to dissolve Knesset as coalition fails and new elections planned
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/20/israel-knesset-coalition-dissolve-bennett/
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced on Monday that they plan to dissolve the Knesset next week, triggering the path for a fifth round of general Israeli elections in less than four years.
Texas Republicans just proved (again) that this is Donald Trump's party
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/20/politics/texas-republican-convention-platform-trump/index.html
As for Crenshaw, he has refused to go along with unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and has been a staunch supporter of providing aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia (which first spurred Fox's Tucker Carlson to call Crenshaw "eye patch McCain"). The GOP base is also upset with his willingness to criticize some of the stars of the Trumpified Republican Party.
What this weekend's festivities in Texas make clear is that there is an active and ongoing effort to purge the Republican Party of anyone and everyone who a) criticizes Donald Trump or his congressional allies in any way or b) seeks to break from rigid party orthodoxy on issues like guns.
Idolatry defined
Rambam (Avoda Zara 2:1) The primary warning concerning worship of stars is, not to reverence any among all creatures, no angel, no planet, no star, none of the four elements nor any of their offspring, though the worshiper be conscious that the Lord is God and, he be worshiping a given being as at the inception of the worship of Enosh and the people of his generation, behold him, he worships idolatry.
Rambam (Avoda Zara 2:4) The precept concerning idolatry balances all other commandments, for it is said: "And when ye shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses" (Num. 15.22), which was traditionally instructed that the Verse speaks of idolatry. Herefrom you deduct that whosoever admits idolatry denies the whole Torah, all of the prophets, and all in that which the prophets were instructed since Adam even till the end of time, as it is said: But whosoever denies idolatry admits the whole Torah, all of the prophets, and all in that which the prophets were instructed since Adam even till the end of time. Thus it is the outstanding commandment of them all.
In the US, some fading Reform and Conservative synagogues go Orthodox to stay afloat
The story isn’t unique to Howard Beach. As Reform and Conservative synagogue memberships decline nationwide, some synagogue boards are reaching out to Orthodox congregations, primarily those affiliated with the Chabad movement.
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