Voting for Gay rights

 

Aveira LShma - voting for Republican election deniers?

 As is well known Tuesday  Nov 8 is election day

Various gedolim have said to vote Republican because they were told that they would support the yeshiva system. No indication they are more competent. But even more relevant is the question of why these politicians should be naively believed? There are a number of other issues being ignored in the desperate hope to believe the one who promises the most on one issue. 

In other words Jews are selling their vote for mere promises about chinuch - without a realistic evaluation whether these promises can be kept or will be kept. Everyone knows politicians always keep thei promises!

An Emendation to the Ḳiddush Levanah after the Moon Landing, by Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1969)

 https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/roshei-hadashim/kiddush-levanah/emendation-to-the-kiddush-levanah-in-light-of-the-first-moon-landing-by-shlomo-goren-1969/

The day after humankind’s first landing on the Lunar surface July 20, 1969, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on a poetic and topical innovation to the Ḳiddush Levanah, the Blessing over the Moon, by then chief rabbi of Tel Aviv (and former IDF Chaplain General) Shlomo Goren. From “Prayer on Advent of New Moon is Altered to Take into Account Apollo 11 Achievement” (22 July 1969):[1]

NEW YORK, Jul. 21 (JTA) – Thoughtful Jews have speculated about the impact on Judaism’s religious outlook that would be made by man’s successful exploration of space. In a small way the answer began to emerge within hours of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing and exploration by Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

The word came from Israel where Gen. Shlomo Goren, the Armed Forces’ Chief Chaplain,[2] issued instructions about a change in the prayer for the blessing of the new moon which is said each month. The old blessing was worded:

כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאֲנִי רוֹקֵד לְנֶגְדֵּךְ. וְאֵינִי יָכוֹל לִיגַּע בָּךְ.‏

כַּךְ לֹא יוּכְלוּ כָּל אוֹיְבַי לִיגַּע בִּי לְרָעָה:‏

As I dance before you and cannot touch you,

so my enemies will not be able to touch me.

It now reads:

כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאֲנִי רוֹקֵד לְנֶגְדֵּךְ. וְאֵינִי נוגע ביך

כַּךְ אם ירקדו אחרים כנגדי לא יגעו בי.‏

As I dance against you and do not touch you,

so others, if they dance against me to harm me, they will not touch me.

The new version of the prayer is actually an old one found in the Talmud in Masekhet Soferim [מסכת סופרים], chapter 20 [section 2].

Chazon Ish - authority of Chazal is their superior knowledge of truth.

We have had several views of authority - Kesef Mishna - Talmud was accepted by the Jewish people as authoriative (bottom up). Rav Elchonon Wasserman - Majority of rabbis has status of Sanhedrin and thus Talmud was accepted by Sanhedrin authority (top down). Chazon Ish - authority is due to innate superiority and they also have the innate authority of truth and thus they are objectively right..

Chazon Ish[i](Letters 2:24): The truth is that the generation after the Mishna witnessed a decline in stature relative to the Tannaim. The new generation knew for certain that the truth was always with the Tannaim. Once they knew the truth of the matter that it was impossible for them to comprehend something that had not been understood by one of the Tannaim—it was no longer possible to disagree directly with the Tannaim on their own authority. Therefore, they only taught what they understood to be the teachings of the Tannaim. Similarly with the close of the Talmud, the words of an Amora, who was unaware of the teaching on that matter of a tanna, were null. The only exception being Rav who because of his greatness his words were not null. All their conclusions were reached with Divine guidance and ruach hakodesh which manifested itself. Their rulings were in agreement with G‑d as it says in Bava Metzia 86a — Rebbe and Rav Nachman were the end of the Mishna. Thus, it was at the conclusion of the Talmud as it says that Ravina and Rav Ashi were the end of hora’ah. While Rav Yosef Karo says that the authority came because the Jewish people accepted them as authoritative (Kesef Mishna Hilchos Mamrim), he did not do any kindness or good with the sages by this assertion. The fact is that their authority is because they had the truth. How could we simply go according to our opinion if we know that our understanding is limited and we don’t have the truth? How could we go against the sages? In fact, the entire Torah was given at Sinai — even that a student would “create” in the future. The Tanaim recovered that which had been forgotten and up to the time of Rebbe, not everything had been revealed. However, at the end of the Mishna, everything that was appropriate to reveal was revealed and henceforth nothing new was revealed. In fact, everything was hinted at in the words of one of the Tannaim. Thus, it was revealed the Mishna from the first generation of the Amoraim until the last generation of the Amoraim. Our portion is only what is mentioned in the words of the Amoraim. This was a tradition that they had as it says in the gemora Bava Metzia and Avoda Zara 9a that there were a period of 2000 years of Torah. This alludes to the Tannaim because this period ended shortly after them

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[i.

Trump and other Republicans are already casting doubt on midterm results

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/06/politics/trump-midterms-casting-doubt-pennsylvania/index.html

Former President Donald Trump posted on social media on Tuesday to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the midterm election in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania. “Here we go again!” he wrote. “Rigged Election!”

Trump is not the only Republican trying to baselessly promote suspicion about the midterms in Pennsylvania, a state that could determine which party controls the US Senate.

Ted Cruz’s misleading claim that only Democratic cities take days to count votes

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/oct/28/ted-cruz/ted-cruzs-misleading-claim-that-only-democratic-ci/

Hoping to proactively rebut misinformation about the reliability of midterm election results, election officials are warning voters not to expect complete results on election night. They say that in many cases, ballots will still be counted in many states days later.

In a tweet, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, singled out Democratic-led cities for ballot-counting delays. 

"Why is it only Democrat blue cities that take ‘days’ to count their votes? The rest of the country manages to get it done on election night," Cruz tweeted Oct. 27, drawing more than 20,000 likes and retweets. 

Herschel Walker Says He Has Solutions to Major Issues But Won't Share Them

 https://www.newsweek.com/herschel-walker-says-he-has-solutions-major-issues-wont-share-them-1757207

Speaking to rally-goers, the Senate hopeful said: "Why are they not talking about things that really matter? Because they don't have a solution for those things. And I say I do have a solution, but I'm not going to tell them because you tell them [and] they'll think they came up with it."

Activists demand Amazon remove antisemitic film, books shared by Kyrie Irving

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-721595

The Jerusalem Post found on Friday that the book series was the top bestseller on three different categories on Amazon's website.

Further, on Apple Books, Hebrews to Negroes was number 9 on the list of top audiobooks. The book was also found to be number 69 on Barnes & Noble's top 100 bestselling books. 

US midterm elections: Why five states have slavery on the ballot in 2022

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63338784

t's 157 years since the US constitution banned chattel slavery - in which one person is the legal property of another - but left in place an exemption for convicted prisoners.

Throughout most of the US, slavery is still legal as punishment for a crime.

But on 8 November, voters in five states - Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont - will decide whether to remove these exemptions from their state constitutions in an effort to ban slavery entirely.

The outcome could enable prisoners to challenge forced labour. Some 800,000 currently work for pennies, or for nothing at all. Seven states do not pay prison workers any wage for most job assignments.

Chazal believed in existence of demons and evil eye

Maharetz Chajes(Introduction to Talmud 31) Concerning the subject of demons, the evil eye, and the evil ,spirits referred to in the Talmud, there can be no doubt that the Rabbis believed in their existence. and consequently we should take all ,reference to them in their literal sense, and we should nor attempt to offer other interpretations which will explain them in a sense remote  from the literal. 

The  Rabbis talk of the existence, the natural characteristics, and the  Behavior of these beings in a straightforward way. Thus, we read (Hag- 16,a): 'Six things arc said of the demons: in three things they are like ministering angels, and in the other three they are like human beings The Miishnah, Aboth (5, 6), says: 'The demons were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight'. The existence of demons was the general belief, indeed, of all the peoples of the Eastern and Western parts of the world a at the time of the Tannaim and Amoraim. 

They also believed in witchcraft and incantations, and although Maimonidcs, in his Commentary on the Mishnah, A.Z. 4, 7, with refcrence to the qucstion" put to the elders' in Rome, and also in Yad, Ab. Kochabim 11, 16, is of a different opinion, yet the wording of the Baraithoth, and of the Talmud in several places must be taken literally and not in an allegorical or figurative sense. We do, however. observe a substantial difference in regard to this matter between the Babylonian and the Palestinian sages, although both believed in the existence of these beings and both tell us or conversations which they held with them, and the marvelous things which these demons sometimes perform- for example, we read in Jcr. Tcr. 8, fol. 47, how,, when the baths were heated by Diocletian's' orders, the demon Antigorus cooled them

Money Does Not Always Buy Happiness, but Are Richer People Less Happy in Their Daily Lives? It Depends on How You Analyze Income

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9199446/

Do people who have more money feel happier during their daily activities? Some prior research has found no relationship between income and daily happiness when treating income as a continuous variable in OLS regressions, although results differ between studies. We re-analyzed existing data from the United States and Germany, treating household income as a categorical variable and using lowess and spline regressions to explore nonlinearities. Our analyses reveal that these methodological decisions change the results and conclusions about the relationship between income and happiness. In American and German diary data from 2010 to 2015, results for the continuous treatment of income showed a null relationship with happiness, whereas the categorization of income showed that some of those with higher incomes reported feeling less happy than some of those with lower incomes. Lowess and spline regressions suggested null results overall, and there was no evidence of a relationship between income and happiness in Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) data. Not all analytic approaches generate the same results, which may contribute to explaining discrepant results in existing studies about the correlates of happiness. Future research should be explicit about their approaches to measuring and analyzing income when studying its relationship with subjective well-being, ideally testing different approaches, and making conclusions based on the pattern of results across approaches.

Wisconsin's Biggest Paper Says Ron Johnson 'Worst Senator,' Endorses Barnes

 https://www.newsweek.com/wisconsin-biggest-paper-says-ron-johnson-worst-senator-endorses-barnes-1756524

The newspaper goes on to call Johnson "incompetent," having compiled "an appallingly slim list of accomplishments for 12 years in office," and criticizes him for recently suggesting to rewrite the rules around Medicare and Social Security and for once claiming that climate change was "b*******."

The article also retraces the senator's actions following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots, when, in an interview with a conservative talk-radio show, Johnson said that the attackers were "people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law."

How Republicans Weaponized Paul Pelosi Attack Ahead of Midterms

 https://www.newsweek.com/how-republicans-weaponized-paul-pelosi-attack-ahead-midterms-1757225

Dr Julie Norman, co-director of the university's Centre on US Politics, told Newsweek: "Many prominent figures, Democrats and Republicans, were quick to condemn the attack on Paul Pelosi. But the fact that this was not ubiquitous across the GOP underscores the dismal state of US politics at the present moment.

"Even the relatively low bar of extending condolences has been replaced by peddling conspiracy theories by some on the right... The fact that the GOP can't or won't take a firm stance against political violence doesn't bode well for the party, or the country."

Going out alone at night is prohibited today because of demons?

 Pesachim (112b) Do not go out alone at night, the Gemara states that this is as it was taught in a baraita: One should not go out alone at night, neither on Tuesday nights nor on Shabbat nights, i.e., Friday nights, because the demon Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat, she and 180,000 angels of destruction go out at these times. And as each and every one of them has permission to destroy by itself, they are all the more dangerous when they go forth together.

The Gemara states: Initially, these demons were present every day. Once Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat, met Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa and said to him: Had they not announced about you in the Heavens: Be careful of Ḥanina and his Torah, I would have placed you in danger. He said to her: If I am considered important in Heaven, I decree upon you that you should never travel through inhabited places. She said to him: I beg you, leave me a little space. He left for her Shabbat nights and Tuesday nights.

And furthermore, once Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat met Abaye and said to him: Had they not announced about you in the Heavens: Be careful of Naḥmani, Abaye, and his Torah, I would have placed you in danger. He said to her: If I am considered important in Heaven, I decree upon you that you should never pass through inhabited places. The Gemara asks: But we see that, notwithstanding these anecdotes, demons do pass through inhabited areas. The Sages say in explanation: These demons

113a

are found on the paths [gazyata] near the city, as horses belonging to the demons flee along those paths, and the demons come to lead them away. Generally, however, demons do not enter inhabited places. 

דף על הדף פסחים דף קיב עמוד ב

הטורי אבן (חגיגה ג ב) כתב דלאחר שגזר אביי שלא יעבור בישוב, שוב מותר לצאת יחידי בלילה בלילי ד' ובלילי שבת, והא דשמטי סוסייהו לא שכיח ולא צריך לחשוש לזה. אמנם הרמ"א (יו"ד קע"ז סע' ה') פסק בהדיא דגם האידנא אסור לצאת יחידי בלילה.

בספר שמירת הגוף והנפש (סי' ק"ט סע' א') הביא מכתבו של הגר"ח קניבסקי שליט"א בזה"ל שאלתי ממרן החזון איש למה אין נזהרין מלעבור בין ב' דקלים, והשיב לי אביי כבר גירש את כל המזיקין. אולם עיין בשו"ע הרב (הל' שמירת הגוף והנפש סי' י' בקו"א אות א') שלאחר שגרשם אביי ולא שבק להו רווחא, אדרבא צריך יותר לחוש לגזייתא, והיינו טעמא דהרמ"א שאסר לצאת יחידי בכל לילה, ולא רק בליל ד' ושבת.