Medicine and faith

 Rashba (1:413):… It is important to know that if a person falls ill it is permitted to utilize medicine as long as he knows that the true cure is from G d and he should not think that the cure is solely dependent upon the right doctor and the right medicine… A sick person is not allowed to rely on a miraculous cure and avoid the doctor and cures - whether natural or supernatural. The fact that the Torah itself grants permission for a doctor to cure indicates that there is no theological objection to medicine… In fact Shabbos (67a) states that whatever produces medical cures - even if not in a natural manner - is not prohibited because of magic. Furthermore it is prohibited for a person to place himself in danger and to trust that he will be saved miraculously… 

Creator of the world?

 Vayikra Rabbah (36:4) G-d said to His world: ' O My world, My world! Shall I tell thee who created thee, who formed thee? Jacob has created thee, Jacob has formed thee ‘; as is proved by the text, ' He that created thee is Jacob and he that formed thee is Israel.’ 

Ted Cruz Defends Mike Pence on Classified Docs Moments After Trashing Biden

 https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-defends-mike-pence-classified-docs-moments-after-trashing-biden-1776305

The Mike Pence story, it's still early," Cruz said. "You know, Mike Pence ... he is a good friend, he's a good man. He's explained where these came from ... That was a mistake, but there's no reason to think this was anything but inadvertent."

Blessing

 Zohar (1 88b) The table of shew-bread, from which issued blessings, was not to be left empty a single moment; and on that account we do not say grace over an empty table, since blessings from above do not rest on an empty table. To resume, then, the verse “I am my beloved's and towards me is his desire” indicates that “first of all I am my beloved's, and then, in consequence, his desire is towards me; first I prepare for him a place, and then his desire is towards me”. The verse may also be explained by reference to the dictum that the Shekinah is not found in the company of sinners, but when a man exerts himself to purify himself and to draw near to God, then the Shekinah rests on him. So “I am my beloved's” to begin with, and then “his desire is towards me”.’

George Santos Admits 500K Personal Loan to Campaign Wasn’t ‘Personal’

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/george-santos-admits-500k-personal-loan-to-campaign-wasnt-personal?ref=scroll

Late Tuesday afternoon, Santos’ political operation filed a flurry of amended campaign finance reports, telling the feds, among other things, that a $500,000 loan he gave to his campaign didn’t, in fact, come from his personal funds as he’d previously claimed.

However, while the newly amended filing told us where the funds did not come from, it also raised a new question—where did the money come from?

While both the old and new campaign filings claim that the loans came “from the candidate,” the campaign’s most recent amended filing had ticked the box for “personal funds of the candidate”; on the newly amended filing today, that box is unchecked.

Pedophile was ignored in Israel, then arrested in the US

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-729200?dicbo=v2-907c06e56605937dab776638e6a0eb48

Israeli Nimrod Shalom, a 41-year-old owner of a start-up company and a new immigrant from the United States who previously lived in Ramat Gan, was sentenced last week in the US to seven years in prison, following a pedophilia charge from 2016.

Former Vice President Mike Pence discovered classified documents in Indiana home

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vice-president-mike-pence-discovered-classified-documents-indiana-home

Former Vice President Mike Pence informed Congress on Tuesday that he discovered documents bearing classified markings from his time as vice president in his Carmel, Indiana, home on Jan. 16.

Following the revelations that classified documents from President Joe Biden's tenure as vice president were found at the Penn Biden Center think tank and Wilmington, Delaware, Pence's team conducted searches of Pence's Indiana home and the office of his political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom.

Mike Pence's Words Come Back to Bite Him

 https://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-denied-taking-documents-months-before-classified-items-found-1776227

A video of former Vice President Mike Pence denying that he took classified documents from the White House has resurfaced amid reports of classified documents being discovered in his Indiana home.

A CNN exclusive report said that Pence's lawyer discovered "about a dozen" classified documents at Pence's home and turned the documents over to the FBI.

Boston Children’s Hospital’s transgender insanity reveals how unhinged elites make money off our kids

 https://nypost.com/2022/08/24/boston-childrens-hospitals-transgender-insanity-elites-profit-from-kids/

Data show that “socially transitioned” children are far more likely to go on to medical interventions. And perhaps this is the point: After all, transgender is big business. Gender-transition surgery can cost upward of $100,000. The US gender-surgery market was valued in 2021 at $1.9 billion, with predicted annual growth of more than 10%. And when hormone therapy costs $1,500 a year, for the rest of a patient’s life, no wonder entrepreneurial medics want kids on the treatment treadmill as young as possible. Clinics are popping up like mushrooms to take advantage of this new business opportunity: The first American pediatric gender clinic opened in 2007, and there are now more than 50 nationwide.

All major seforim were written with ruach hakodesh

 Rav Menashe Klein (7:160): Look at Divrei Chaim (Y.D. 2:105) concerning a teacher who insulted the honor of the Ohr HaChaim and said that the sefer wasn’t written with ruach hakodesh. After much discussion he concludes, “That in truth even in our days there are true sages who are not influenced by earthly matters and they have ruach hakodesh as we see stated explicitly in the Moreh Nevuchim and Ramban. Therefore not only did the Ohr HaChaim clearly compose his sefer with ruach hakodesh but all authors even in our generation if they are worthy of it compose their works with ruach hakodesh. That means that their wisdom and understanding is in agreement wth the Truth of the Torah. This is mentioned in the gemora with Rabbi Eliezar. It is also stated as a practical halachic ruling in Takfo Cohen (C.M. 25:123-124) where he says that one can not say “kim li” (use a minority opinion) against the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch because all of its rulings were written with ruach hakodesh. Therefore a teacher who denies the ruach hakodesh of the Ohr HaChaim is an apikorus because he doesn’t believe the gedolim who testified on the Ohr HaChaim that he was deserving of ruach hakodesh. Thus this teacher is a denier in the principle of ruach hakodesh and ridicules the words of the Talmud mentioned before and it is good that you did not leave your sons in his hands. “ See these words which are like firery coals. Therefore concerning this shochet, I say that if he doesn’t believe that the words of the Mishna Berura were composed with ruach hakodesh and therefore are in agreement with the truth of the Torah – he is a heretic and denier of the foundations of our faith. It is not only this shochet but all schochtim who do not believe in this their shechita is unkosher. 

Philosophy came from the prophets

 Rema (Toras HaOlah 1:11): In truth all the wisdom of philosophy and intellectual analysis originated from the Jews. All the secular wisdom is in fact contained within the Torah as the Rambam demonstrates in great detail in the Moreh Nevuchim that all philosophical wisdom is found in the medrashim and aggados of our Sages. You should know that I saw a very ancient document that described the development of all philosophy. It stated that Socrates was considered the first philosopher. It also says that he obtained this wisdom from Assaf and from Achitofel. It also says in the Paths of Faith that the philosophy of Aristotle was stolen from the wisdom of Shlomo HaMelech. When Alexander the Great captured Jerusalem he gave control of Shlomo HaMelech's library to his teacher Aristotle. Whatever good things he found there he wrote his name on it and then added some of his own incorrect  thoughts such as the world had no beginning and the denial of Divine Providence. This was done in order to conceal the fact that his material was in fact stolen from the wisdom of the Jews. Alternatively it is possible that whatever he found that did not have clear cut proofs in the works of Shlomo he simply did not believe. We see however that the basis of all wisdom hangs from this vine. In truth every Jew should believe in this system and not to give a pride and glory to strangers- the wise men of the gentiles. In fact Shlomo was praised for being able to speak to the cedars of Lebanon and the hyssop growing on the wall. If it hadn't been for the fact that the basis of this wisdom was stolen from him there would be nothing praiseworthy in Aristotle and those that came after him…Therefore it is proper to believe in these things. Just as we have we have written that is the way it is.

George Santos' Drag Queen Admission Is a Complete Disaster for Republicans

 https://www.newsweek.com/george-santos-drag-queen-admission-complete-disaster-republicans-1775623

Newly elected Republican congressman George Santos continues to be a headache for his own party, as the representative finally confirmed he has performed in drag on at least one occasion.

The admission, made in an interview with ABC 7 on Saturday as the congressman returned home to New York over the weekend, came after Santos had repeatedly denied ever dressing in drag despite evidence to the contrary.

Several images and videos showing Santos in drag have recently resurfaced online and have been widely circulated on social media. But the New York congressman claimed he only ever dressed in drag once at a festival in Brazil.

"I was young and I had fun at a festival—sue me for having a life," he told ABC 7 on Saturday. Last week, he described claims he had performed in drag as "outrageous" and "categorically false."

Angels and prayer

 Sefer Chasidim (1158) If there is an angel to advocate for him the angel since the angel is his mazel he prays for him before the person prays, G-d will first answer the angel who is the man’s  mazel and then afterwards when the person himself prays G-d will listen to him because of the  prior activity of his mazel

Sefer Chasidim (1158)וכל מאמצי כח אם יש עליו מלאך מליץ שמלאך מזלו של אדם מתפלל עליו קודם שיתפלל האדם זהו והיה טרם יקראו ואני אענה. כלומר אני אענה למלאך מזלו ואח"כ כשמתפלל האדם על עצמו שומעין לו בעבור המזל שהתפלל עליו וזהו עוד הם מדברים ואני אשמע:

A Reiterated Plea to Russia to Stop the Invasion of Ukraine by Rabbi Shalom C. Spira

 Ten months ago, Agudath Israel of America implored Russia to abort its invasion of Ukraine, as announced at <https://agudah.org/agudath-israel-statement-on-ongoing-invasion-of-ukraine/>. Soon afterward, this writer published his own similar (albeit more nuanced) analysis at <http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-cri-de-coeur-for-russian-army-to_30.html>. 

            The hope that these two articles would inspire President Vladimir Putin to repent appears to have been illusory, since – as of the present date – the invasion of Ukraine continues. To that effect, the frustration experienced by halakhic decisors in convincing humanity to follow the Noahide Code has been captured by R. J. David Bleich in his following comments (<https://www.yutorah.net/sidebar/lecture.cfm/733609/rabbi-dr-j-david-bleich/tikun-olam-a-jew-s-responsiblity-to-society/>, commencing 4:51 into the recording):  

 

“I don’t know why I draw these topics at rabbinic alumni conventions. The last time, I believe the topic was nuclear war. The next morning I went into the RIETS office, and Zevulun Charlop zol zein gezunt un shtark greets me with a kiltered face and says: ‘It’s about time you showed up. The switchboard is ringing off the wall. The Kremlin has already called to ask what in the world to do with its nuclear warheads. The Pentagon has heard that you said Bnei Noach may under no circumstances engage in war and they want to know what they’re supposed to do with all the bases they now have to dismantle. And we don’t know what to answer all these people.’ Now, you give me the topic of tikkun ha-olam, the obligation of fixing society in general, which deals with the entire gamut of issues involving Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach, as if the umos ha-olam are out there waiting to hear what we are going to decide here tonight...”  

 

            Nevertheless, the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 65:16) elucidates Genesis 27:22 to mean that “when the voice of Jacob is found in the synagogues, the hands are not the [overpowering] hands of Esau.” Living in a world dominated by weapons of mass destruction, Jews are summoned to find hope by assembling for prayer. 

Now, such assembly for prayer must be accompanied by a partition between ladies and gentlemen, arguably even a visual barrier (as this writer has hypothesized at <https://www.scribd.com/document/576679859/Retraction-of-The-Quest-for-an-Effective-Synagogue-Partition-Plan>), and I submit that the latter itself serves as a valuable lesson to humanity in abjuring warfare. Tosafot to Bava Batra 21a, s.v. ki mi-Tziyon tetzei Torah, comment that a spectator visiting Jerusalem who witnesses the great sanctity and the kohanim occupied in their Temple service becomes endowed with Yir’at Shamayim. Presumably, Tosafot are referring to the spectator being impressed by the separation between ladies and gentlemen in the Temple [which, in turn, serves as the precedent for the synagogue.] And, as I wrote in my series premier at <http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/05/daas-torah-and-legacy-of-rabbi-joshua-h.html>, Yir’at Shamayim is the only real guarantee that a person will respect human life. Ergo, congregating for prayer in the synagogue with a formidable partition is an effective way of conveying the message to Esau to reconsider his militancy. In other words, when Jews pray with a formidable partition, we are publicly declaring “we can say ‘no’ to our evil inclination; we can successfully become moral heroes as per Pirkei Avot 4:1,” and this sends a message to humanity to try to accomplish the same.  

 

Rabbi Spira works as the Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research [a Pavillion of the Jewish General Hospital] in Montreal, Canada.