Magic Demons and Astrology real?

 Rav S. R. Hirsch (Letter to R. Hile Wechsler,published by Mordechai Breuer in Hama’ayan 16:2 (Tevet 5736/1976) p. 6) A related topic is the question of the nature of magic, astrology, demons, and suchlike... Who dares get involved in a dispute between Rambam and Ramban, following whom the camp of Israel is split in two on such matters? ...And if so, every intelligent person is entitled to adopt either view in the absence of either being ruled out. Alternatively—and in my view, this is the more correct approach—he can admit that he has no clarity in the matters. And I will admit without shame that I have never bothered to investigate and analyze the nature of these things, just as I have never been curious to investigate and inquire as to the nature of the World-to-Come, the world of the resurrection, and so on. For the truth of these things is concealed from everyone, and it is impossible to attain clarity on these things with decisive proofs... What difference does it make if with regard to matters of witchcraft and suchlike, the truth lies with Rambam or Ramban? Either way, we have to distance ourselves from such things, whether they are genuine or nonsensical. (

Israeli researchers say magnetic fields provide way to securely date biblical events

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-researchers-say-magnetic-fields-provide-way-to-securely-date-biblical-events/

An interdisciplinary team of Israeli scientists and archaeologists may have come one step closer to “proving” the historical veracity of the Bible.

Through archaeomagnetic dating, archaeologists can now combine the holy trinity of modern biblical archaeology — the biblical text’s account, extrabiblical historical sources and scientifically excavated artifacts — to do precise dating of destruction layers from military conquests described in the Bible.

The method utilizes excavation layers that have already been reliably dated to create baseline anchors for the archaeomagnetic data, which can then be applied to other sites that until now had been impossible to confidently date. The more anchors are created, the researchers say, the more finely calibrated the dating method will become.

Agada must accept as true?

 Rashbam (Shemos 4:10): It is inconceivable that a prophet who spoke with G d face to face and received the Torah from Him should have a speech impediment. Such an assertion is not found in the words of the Tanayim and Amoraim. We don’t concern ourselves with what is written in books outside the canon [The assertion found in Shemos Rabbah 1:26 that Moshe stuttered]. 

Ramban (Dispute): We have three types of books. The first is the Bible and everyone believes in it with perfect faith. The second is called Talmud and it is a commentary on the mitzvos of the Torah. The Bible has 613 commandments and there is not one which is not explained in the Talmud. We believe in it concerning the explanations of the mitzvos. There is a third type of book which is called medrash i.e., sermons. It is comparable to a preacher getting up and giving a sermon and some listening liked it and recorded it. Concerning medrash - it is fine if one wishes to believe them. However there is no loss if one doesn’t want to believe them.

Sefer HaEshkol (Hilchos Stam): Rav Sherira Gaon [found in Sefer HaEshkol] stated that those things which are produced from verses and are called medrash or agada are the result of deductive reasoning (umdena). Some of them fit this description such as Shimon being included with Yehuda… which is supported by the fact that Yehoshua had a portion with Yehuda. However many Agada are not such as R’ Akiva’s identification of Mekosheis as being Zlafachad or R’ Shimon identify the “tenth fast” as being the fast of the 10th of Teves. The various views are presented in the Agada and medrash and we decide based on understanding which we view as praiseworthy. This is true also of the later medrashim such as from R’ Tanchuma and R’ Oshiya where the majority are not based on deductive reasoning. Consequently, we don’t rely on the authority of Agada. The valid ones are the ones that are consistent with our understanding or supported by verses. However, there is no end to Agada. Rav Hai Gaon was asked what is the difference between those Agada and medrashim which are written in the Talmud and those that are not? He replied that whatever is found in the Talmud is more valid that what is not found in the Talmud. Nevertheless, even those Agada and Medrash which are found in the Talmud if they make no sense or are erroneous are not to be relied upon. That is because in general we don’t treat Agada as being authoritative. However that which is found in the Talmud, we should correct their errors if possible. That is because if they didn’t have validity they would not have been included in the Talmud. Those that we cannot figure out how to correct should be viewed like that which is not the Halacha. In contrast that which is not in the Talmud, we have no need to attempt to correct them and make sense out of them. We merely should examine them as to whether they are correct and nice. If they are, we teach them. If they are not, we pay no attention to them. 

Menoras HaMeor (Introduction): Rav Sherira Gaon wrote: Medrash and agada which are derived from verses are just conjecture. This statement is true, however, only for some of the more recent medrashim such as those of R’ Tanchuma and R’ Oshiya and to a small number of agada found in the Talmud which were written speculatively. An example of the latter is found in Shabbos (96b) where it states that Mekosheis and Tzelafchod were two names of the same person. However, the majority of medrashim and agada are profound secrets and esoteric wisdom as well as ethical principles, good traits and conduct as well as beneficial prescriptions for health and spirituality. It is not fit to reject the majority for the sake of the minority. Even the Torah which is interpreted through the 13 hermeneutic principles there are minority opinions and views which are clearly not the Halacha. Nevertheless, they are recorded in order to aid in determining the truth.

Rav Avraham ben Haram bam (Essay on Derashos): The fourth type of drasha is explanations of verses in the manner of poets. What they say is not because they believe it is the actual meaning of the verse - G d forbid! This is what our Sages mean when they say the language of verses is different than ordinary speech [Chullin 137b]…One should not think that the drasha is merely explicating that which is in the verse  - as those who are ignorant think. These ignorant people think that the drasha is based upon some tradition and it constitutes Torah itself and is part of the Torah traditions. This is simply not so! They are simply comments about verses which are not connected with foundation principles of religion or Halacha when they don’t have a tradition concerning the verse. Some of them are simply conjecture and some are beautiful poetic expressions. They utilize the verses for whatever they can associate with them but it is in essence a form of poetry…The main point is that these drashos are not the actual meaning of the verse but are ideas and expressions that are independent… Close to the majority of drashos of our Sages are in fact in this fourth category. This is the truth that cannot be questioned except by idiots and fools. This category is itself subdivided into as many types as there are different types of poetic expression and ways of thinking. It is important to understand this.

Michtav M’Eliyahu (4:355): R’ Shmuel HaNagid in his Introduction to the Talmud is to be understood in the following manner. Those words of Agada which we don’t understand - we are not obligated to learn them and to base our service of G d upon - even though we know that all agada are foundation principles of the Torah. In contrast, Halacha which is involved with deed, is obligatory even if we don’t understand it. The purpose of Agada is inspiration and therefore when it doesn’t inspire us because of our limited ability to understand we have no obligation to study that which doesn’t inspire. When we reach the level that that we can understand it then it becomes obligatory. Furthermore, Agada has deep secrets of the Torah. As long as we are not on the spiritual level that these secrets should be revealed in a particular Agada, there is no reason to study it since we would be misunderstanding its true meaning. This is actually what R’ Shmuel HaNagid meant when he said if the Agada doesn’t make sense to use we shouldn’t learn it or rely on it. You will notice that he didn’t say that those Agada that we understand are true and the rest are fantasies - G d forbid! However, it is as we explained that there is no benefit in learning profound material that we don’t comprehend. This is also the correct way of understanding commentaries such as Rashi and the Radak when they say a medrash is far from the simple meaning of the verse or doesn’t fit the verse. They are saying the medrash can’t be used until it is comprehended and clarified…

Shmuel HaNagid (Introduction to the Talmud): Agada are all the statements in the gemora that are not concerned with Mitzvos. You should only learn from them what makes sense. Those statements of Halacha which Chazal indicate are from Moshe Rabbeinu which he received from G d cannot be modified, however Chazal’s explanations of verses were done according to whatever each one thought was correct. Therefore, whatever makes sense of these explanations you should study and the rest do not rely on.

Rav S. R. Hirsch (Letter on Agada): You believe that Agada was received by Moshe at Sinai and that there is no difference between Agada and the Halacha that was transmitted to Moshe. However, in my humble opinion this is a very dangerous path to take. It poses a serious threat for those students who grow up believing this to be true and comes close to opening the gates of heresy for them. What should these unfortunate students do when they hear from their teachers that “Agada was given at Sinai just as the Torah itself,” and then they discover in the books of the Rishonim - upon whom all of Judaism is based - statements to the contrary. For example the statement that “Agada are not required matters of belief but are speculation” and “Agada are exaggerations” and “Agada are like statements people make to others which are not intended to be accepted as true but just to entertain for the moment” and “These are description of what they saw in a dream” and “Learn from Agada only that which makes sense” and others like them? What are these unfortunate students to do when they read these and other similar statements which contradict that which they have been trained to believe by their teachers that Agada also came from Sinai and there is no difference between Agada and the Torah itself? Obviously, they will find themselves in great spiritual danger and be ready to reject both Agada and the Torah itself and accept only that which their little minds can comprehend. Wouldn’t it be better for them never to have studied Torah and mitzvos in depth and instead observe the mitzvos mechanically and thus avoid this dangerous path? That is why in my humble opinion that we should not budge from the path of life which we have been taught by the Rishonim. They made a large and intrinsic distinction between that which has been transmitted to Moshe from G d and Agada. Their names reflect this distinction. While both have been transmitted person to person through the generations, only Torah originated with what G d told Moshe. In contrast Agada originated in the mind of a sage according to his broad understanding of the Bible and the workings of the world or what he said concerning ethical conduct and fear of G d to draw his audience to Torah and mitzvos.

Israeli study: People with autism don’t have less empathy, paradigm shift needed

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-study-people-with-autism-dont-have-less-empathy-paradigm-shift-needed/

Among non-autistic people, levels of the two broadly match, meaning that when they feel the experiences of others via emotional empathy, they have the cognitive empathy to decide on and execute an appropriate response.

Dr. Florina Uzefovsky, one of the psychologists behind the study, told The Times of Israel: “What we found is that people with autism feel affected by situations — in some cases even more so than others do — but have a cognitive understanding of the situation that lags behind their emotional response.”

A Political Party Unhinged From Truth

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/weapons-of-mass-delusion-book-excerpt-republican-party-trump/671907/

It took months of reporting before I fully appreciated the pervasiveness of the Big Lie. As I came to learn, the hallucinatory claim that a grand if largely unnamed conspiracy managed to snatch victory away from Trump and hand it to Joe Biden is not a trivial, stand-alone falsehood. Instead, it has become as central to the MAGA belief system as the crucifixion of Jesus is to Christianity. It affirms the martyrdom of their revered leader as well as the incorrigibility of his persecutors. Furthermore, it encourages the belief that the former president’s imagined adversaries across the globe have colluded with domestic malefactors to undermine all manner of American liberties. In these fevered scenarios, Venezuela and South Korea have corrupted our electoral ballots, China has implanted COVID vaccines with mind-control devices, and liberal Jewish billionaires like George Soros have underwritten acts of domestic terrorism. I attended a two-day ReAwaken America convention of right-wing influencers earlier this year at a Phoenix megachurch in which each of these claims was uttered from the stage, to more than 3,000 attendees. And I’m sorry to report that those conspiracy theories were not even the craziest I heard at the convention.

GOP candidate said Dems 'still mad' the North won the Civil War

 https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/10/28/mi-gop-gov-candidate-tudor-dixon-conspiracy-theory-ip-vpx.cnn

Tudor Dixon, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Michigan, invoked a conspiracy that the Covid-19 pandemic and protests in the summer of 2020 after the killing of George Floyd were part of a decades-long plan by the Democratic Party to "topple" the United States as retaliation for losing the US Civil War, adding that the party wanted to enslave people "again."

Rav Sternbuch: Tradition is not to teach Tanach - why?

Rav Sternbuch (Teshuvos V’Hanhagos 2:457): Question: Should Tanach  be taught in talmud Torah (cheder) before learning gemora? Answer: The accepted practice is not to teach Tanach – even though the halacha is that one should teach Tanach since it is included in the category of holy writings (mikra). The reason for avoiding teaching Tanach is it tends to give a less spiritual understanding – G‑d forbid –  of G‑d’s relationship with us. In fact it is more difficult to learn Tanach then it is to learn a complex issue in the gemora. The Chasam Sofer (Toras Moshe Parshas Shemos) stated that when the Torah was translated into Greek then Jews began be aware of the plain meaning of the verses. As a consequence heresy developed and people were not interested in hearing the explanations of our Sages. This in fact is still a concern today. That is the reason that we keep our children from “higayon” – which as Rashi (Berachos 28a) explains means not to present them with Biblical texts unaccompanied with explanation and interpretations. However one who has been educated in Talmud and halacha and has a solid foundation of the pure fear of G-d – he is definitely obligated to learn the entire Bible. Rashi himself notes in his commentary to Torah that a talmid chachom needs to be expert in all 24 books of the Bible. However for young students our ancestors in recent times have not taught them Bible and one should not change this tradition. In fact teaching the Biblical stories carries the real danger that they will view the activities of our forefathers as lowly and coarse behavior because they are missing context and principles for proper understanding of the text. You also asked which commentaries should you use for self-study of Bible? I would recommend intially the commentaries of the Metzudos Dovid, Redak, Abarbanel and the Malbim. However the fact is that for most of Tanach we still don’t have a proper commentary on the elementary level which arouses the heart to fear G‑d – which is the main concern in our days. The heretics that learn Bible their entire purpose is to show that the Biblical personalities also sinned in those days. In this manner they want to minimize the negative connonations of sin. The fact is that the true meaning of Bible is like that of the true meaning of Torah – without the commentaries of our Sages we have little ability to understand them properly. Because of these difficulties in  learning Bible one will receive greater reward for not studying Bible then he would in studying it. He should leave his son to learn in the accepted manner which means Torah, Mishna, Gemora and Rishonim and then afterwards he should study Bible by himself with the proper commentaries and that will be the best for him.\\\\\

Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee invoked conspiracy claiming Democrats sought to ‘topple’ US in retaliation for losing Civil War

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/27/politics/kfile-tudor-dixon-conspiracy-democrats-topple-america/index.html

The Republican gubernatorial nominee in Michigan invoked a conspiracy that the Covid-19 pandemic and protests in the summer of 2020 after the killing of George Floyd were part of a decades-long plan by the Democratic Party to “topple” the United States as retaliation for losing the US Civil War, adding that the party wanted to enslave people “again.”

Tudor Dixon, a former TV news anchor, made the remarks on the far-right streaming news network Real America’s Voice, which hosts former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s show, in late June 2020.

Ted Cruz's Claim That 'Antifa' Burnt U.S. Cities For A Year

 https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-ted-cruzs-claim-that-antifa-burnt-us-cities-year-1754884

In short, Cruz appears to have grossly mischaracterized both the nature, scope and length of time these protests took. While Cruz may have been referring to protests in Portland which continued for almost a year, it is inaccurate to describe or imply that these happened across the country with each beset by arson.

Fake History from MTG

 https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greenes-confederacy-remark-trashed-civil-war-historians-1754011

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has been savaged by Civil War historians after tweeting two photographs of herself at a monument to Union troops which she incorrectly claimed "honored the Confederate soldiers."

She wrote: "Tonight, I stopped at the Wilder Monument in Chickamauga, GA, which honors the Confederate soldiers of the Wilder Brigade. I will always defend our nation's history!"

Wife disagreed with Daas Torah

Shemos Rabbah (52:03) The story is told of R. Simeon b. Halafta, that he once came home just before the Sabbath and found that he had no food for that day, so he went outside the city and prayed to God, with the result that a precious stone dropped down for him from heaven. He sold this to a jeweller and bought with the money provisions for the Sabbath. When his wife asked him, ‘Where did you get all these [good things]?’ he replied: ‘God has provided them.’ Said she, ‘If thou dost not tell me whence these come, I will not touch a morsel.’ He then told her the whole story, concluding: ' Thus did I pray to God and [the precious stone] was sent down for me from heaven.’ But she replied: ' I will not taste aught till thou promise me to return the precious stone as soon as Sabbath terminates.’ When he asked her the reason, she replied: ‘Dost thou wish that in Paradise thy table shall lack all good things, while that of thy colleagues shall be laden with them?’ R. Simeon then went and told the story to Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi who said to him: ' Go back and tell thy wife that if aught be lacking from thy table, l will replenish it from mine.’ When he told this to his wife, she retorted: ‘Take me to him who has taught thee Torah.’ When she came to him, she said: ' O master, does then one righteous man see the other in the World to Come? Has not every righteous man a world for himself’ When R. Simeon b. Halafta heard this, he at once returned the precious stone to heaven. Our Sages said: This last miracle was more difficult to perform than was the first. As soon as he stretched out his hand to restore it to heaven an angel descended and took it from him.

Berachos (10a)There were these hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you pray for the death of these hooligans? Do you base yourself on the verse, as it is written: “Let sins cease from the land” (Psalms 104:35), which you interpret to mean that the world would be better if the wicked were destroyed? But is it written, let sinners cease?” Let sins cease, is written. One should pray for an end to their transgressions, not for the demise of the transgressors themselves. 3Moreover, go to the end of the verse, where it says: “And the wicked will be no more.” If, as you suggest, transgressions shall cease refers to the demise of the evildoers, how is it possible that the wicked will be no more, i.e., that they will no longer be evil? Rather, pray for God to have mercy on them, that they should repent, as if they repent, then the wicked will be no more, as they will have repented.

Lapid’s near-impossible task: Why victory may not be in the cards

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapids-near-impossible-task-why-victory-may-not-be-in-the-cards/

Prime Minister Yair Lapid is in a sense the tragic figure of this election. His task is an almost impossible one. At first glance, polls seem to consistently show the same basic deadlock of the past four elections with Benjamin Netanyahu no closer to victory. But scratch the surface and that apparent parity turns out to be a massive advantage for the right.

On the all-important question of turnout, as well as in the post-election coalition calculus, Lapid is at a desperate disadvantage.

It’s not that turnout is expected to be very high among supporters of Likud, even if Netanyahu has reason to hope that 18 months in the opposition has lit a fire under his base. Lapid’s problem lies mainly on his own side.

Rabbinic court approved publishing the name of American-Israeli get refuser

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-720598

An American Israeli couple that made aliyah from the US a few years ago has separated since the wife claimed that the husband disappeared constantly to the US. The husband has refused to divorce his wife in a Rabbinic court according to Jewish law for a few years. The court therefore dramatically allowed to publish his name, Eliyahu Pollak, in order to pressure him to officially divorce his wife.  

Until a few years ago, anyone would have thought that 30-year-old Rachel (name has been changed to preserve anonymity) had a perfect life: She and her husband were raising three healthy children. Yet according to an Israeli organization, "she was living a nightmare," and "endured physical, emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of her husband since their aliyah five years ago. 

Psichas HaIgros – Seforim in Review

 https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/509974/psichas-haigros-seforim-in-review.html

In the fourth appendix, Rabbi Rosman discusses Rav Feinstein’s approach and usage of Rishonim and Acharonim. Rav Feinstein generally did not delve significantly in Acharonim, with the exception of the Mishna Brurah and the Aruch haShulchan. He cites another source that Rav Feinstein’s view was that when the Aruch haShulchan argues with the Mishna Brurah the halacha was with the Aruch HaShulchan.