Saying a bracha on Torah learning

 Nedarim (81a) And why is it not usual for scholars to give birth to sons who are scholars? — Said R. Joseph, That it might not be maintained, The Torah is their legacy. R. Shisha, the son of R. Idi, said: That they should not be arrogant towards the community. Mar Zutra said: Because they act high-handedly against the community. R. Ashi said: Because they call people asses. Rabina said: Because they do not first utter a blessing over the Torah. For Rab Judah said in Rab's name: What is meant by, Who is the wise man, that he may understand this. . . for what is the land destroyed etc.? Now, this question was put to the Sages, Prophets, and Ministering Angels, but they could not answer it, until the Almighty Himself did so, as it is written, And the Lord said, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein: but is not ‘have not obeyed my voice’ identical with, ‘neither walked therein’? — Rab Judah said in Rab's name: It means that they did not first recite a benediction over the Torah.

Telling lies has become the norm for today’s Republicans

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/01/politics/republican-party-kevin-mccarthy/index.html

 To assume lies would sink House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is to misunderstand the nature of today’s Republican Party: They actually demonstrate his credentials to lead it.

That’s not merely because Donald Trump remains the dominant GOP figure. The former President lies incessantly, and his aberrant behavior compels fellow Republicans to lie about him.

The problem runs deeper than one man. For a minority party joining blue-collar voters driven by cultural resentment with affluent donors fixed on the bottom line, gaining and wielding power requires dissembling beyond the conventional equivocation that politicians in all parties have always used to amass popular support.

One of the GOP’s most successful political consultants of recent decades issued that judgment in a confessional 2020 memoir. Stuart Stevens titled his book: “It Was All a Lie.”

Fact check: Republicans at CPAC make false claims about Biden, Zelensky, the FBI and children

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/04/politics/fact-check-cpac-2023/index.html

 The Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in Maryland. And the members of Congress, former government officials and conservative personalities who spoke at the conference on Thursday and Friday made false claims about a variety of topics.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio uttered two false claims about President Joe Biden. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated a debunked claim about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used two inaccurate statistics as he lamented the state of the country. Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon repeated his regular lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from Trump, this time baselesly blaming Fox for Trump’s defeat.

Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/05/politics/fact-check-trump-cpac/index.html

As president, Donald Trump made some of his most thoroughly dishonest speeches at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

As he embarks on another campaign for the presidency, Trump delivered another CPAC doozy Saturday night.

Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.

Here is a fact check of 23 of the false claims Trump made. (And that’s far from the total.)

US agency assessment backing Covid lab leak theory raises more questions than answers – and backlash from China

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/03/china/china-lab-leak-theory-department-of-energy-assessment-intl-hnk-mic/index.html

 The US Department of Energy’s assessment that Covid-19 most likely emerged due to a laboratory accident in China has reignited fierce debate and attention on the question of how the pandemic began.

But the “low confidence” determination, made in a newly updated classified report, has raised more questions than answers, as the department has publicly provided no new evidence to back the claim. It’s also generated fierce pushback from China.

Rav Soloveitchik & Evolution - by Rav Triebitz

This an excerpt taken from Rav Triebitz's introduction to Rav Soloveitchik's as of yet unpublished lectures on Bereishis The Rav’s view of incommensurability, however, goes only so far. While discussing the Biblical account of the creation of man and its relationship with the modern scientific theory of evolution, the Rav actually appears to be seeking commensurability. He declares:

“Indeed, one of the most annoying scientific facts which the religious man encounters isthe problem of evolution and creation. However, this is not the real problem. Whatactually is irreconcilable is the concept of man as the bearer of a divine image and the idea of man as an intelligent animal in science. Evolution and creation can be reconciledmerely by saying that six days is not absolutely so, but is indefinite and may be longer. Maimonides spoke of Creation in terms of phases and the Kabbalah in terms of sefiros, the time of which may be indefinite. However, our conflict is man as a unique being and man as a friend of the animal. Science can never explain how being came into being, for it is out of the realm of science, while the Bible is concerned with the problem of ex-nihilo. Aristotle could not accept evolution because he believed in the eternity of forms.” (Lecture XII).

These statements, while delivered orally, are an almost verbatim quote of a passage written by the Rav himself in the recently published posthumous work The Emergence of Ethical Man. As is clear from the above quote, the Rav is clearly not satisfied with incommensurability, but is apparently adopting the commensurable approach of Rambam in chapter 30 of section II of the Guide for the Perplexed where he seeks to interpret the first chapter of Genesis in accordance with Aristotelian science, and which the Rav himself criticized in lecture I. Clearly the Rav is not dismissing the contradiction between evolution and the Biblical account of creation by declaring incommensurability. The reference to the Guide where an Aristotelian physical interpretation of the first two chapters of Genesis is presented is clearly intended to set a precedent for a scientifically commensurable interpretation of Scripture. The other example cited, the kabbalistic interpretation of Bereishis in terms of sefiros, is also being cited as a precedent for a nonliteral interpretation of natural terms, thereby avoiding a clash with scientific theory. The Rav’s assertion at the beginning of lecture II that the Bible will employ ancient outdated theories of science for the purpose of communicating the historical event of revelation is apparently being abandoned. For if the nature of revelation is only to reveal the Will of God, and the details of that revelation will therefore be relative to the science and culture of the time, why does the Rav feel the necessity to invoke non-literal readings of the text? It appears to me that the Rav’s remarks concerning evolution are an attempt to achieve what I would call ‘halachic commensurability’ and not, merely, ‘scientific commensurability’. While Judaism views man as the “bearer of a divine image” and therefore endowed with the capacity for transcendence, this transcendence, in the Rav’s words, “was always seen against the background of naturalness. The canvas was man’s immanence; transcendence was just projected on it as a display of colors” (Emergence of Ethical Man p. 9). The Rav is clearly speaking from the standpoint of the halachah. In contradistinction, “Christianity succeeded in isolating them and reducing the element of naturalness to a state of corruption” (ibid.). This has to be seen as a consequence of Christianity’s rejection of the halacha

The issue of evolution and its seeming irreconciliation with the Bible “troubled Christian theologians more than Jewish scholars. The naturalistic formula of man was to a certain extent common knowledge among the Jewish sages, who did not resent it, whereas Christian theologians are still struggling with the secularization of human existence by scientific research. The reason lies in the discrepancy between the Jewish Bible and the Christian Gospels, the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Testaments (Emergence of Ethical Man).

The Rav’s desire to find commensurability between evolution and the Torah is therefore motivated by halachic reasons as opposed to scientific ones. The struggle waged by creationists’ against Darwin is in essence, according to the Rav, a Christian crusade which is in contradistinction to the Halachic conception of man. While Judaism’s objection is to the reductionist interpretation of evolution which reduces man to an animal, it equally objects to the Christian antinomy to evolution which views any naturalistic description of man to be sacrilege. The establishment of commensurability between evolution and the Bible is therefore motivated by a desire to adhere to the true philosophy of Judaism, the halacha, and to thereby exorcise it of Christian and Greek influences. The Rav clearly saw the reconciliation of evolution with the Biblical texts as being vital to Jewish interests.

Zionism is a Christian theology

Jersey Girl has left a new comment on your post "Impact of blogs - "Sometimes the good guys win"": RaP:It is well known that Zionism is a Christian theology. A definition of Zionism is "The movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland." There is nothing atheistic about Zionism. Atheists do not believe in the Bible and therefore would have no reason to exploit the Biblical promise of the Holyland to Jews. It is only Christianity which reads the Written Law without the benefit of the Oral Law that could come up with the theology that would birth the concept of Modern Zionism. For Christians who interpret the bible in a literal fashion, Zionism has a crucial role to play in bringing on the Second Coming of Christ. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries British and American Puritans began writing about G-d's plan to restore the Jews to their homeland. These were the early Zionists. Their writings were based on the Abrahamic Covenant from Genesis of the Old Testament written more than 3,800 years ago: (Genesis 12:2) (Genesis 12:7)(Genesis 35:12) The Christian Zionist project became political reality when Arthur Balfour proclaimed in his famous "Declaration" of 1917 that Palestine become the homeland for the Jewish people. He believed a modern state of Israel was part of the divine plan announced in Old Testament prophetic literature. (Canadian Dimensions, March/April, 2003). The Balfour Declaration asserted the British Government's support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and was endorsed by a number of other countries, including the United States. The Balfour Declaration became more important following World War I, when the League of Nations passed the Palestine Mandate, assigning the United Kingdom power to administrate Palestine. In 1985, the Christian Zionist Congress urged Israel to annex the West Bank, with its near one million Palestinian inhabitants. An Israeli Jew, seated in the audience, rose and pointed out that an Israeli poll showed that one-third of the Israelis would be willing to trade territory seized in 1967 for peace with the Palestinians. "We don't care what the Israelis vote!" declared van der Hoeven [spokesman for the International Christian Embassy]. We care what God says! And God gave that land to the Jews!" After his impassioned outburst, the Christians by a nearly unanimous show of hands passed the resolution. (Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics, p.133) A recent survey reported in Beliefnet found: .. over one-third of those Americans who support Israel report that they do so because they believe the Bible teaches that the Jews must possess their own country in the Holy Land before Jesus can return. It is also well known that Herzl's family converted to Christianity: "Herzl's Number One Advisor The modern Jewish founder of Zionism is recognized to have been Theodor Herzl. His earliest and closest adviser just happened to have been the Christian minister William Hechler who was a zealous Christian Zionist. In 1882 he had published his book entitled The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine according to Prophecy.24 In 1896 Hechler introduced himself to Herzl and thus became his most important aid, advisor and advocate. It was said, "William Hechler would prove to be 'not only the first, but the most constant and the most indefatigable of Herzl's followers'".25 A Baptist from Missouri, President Harry S. Truman was influenced by his Christian background regarding his decision to recognize Israel in 1948, when he rejected the advice of the State Department not to recognize the newly formed state. After his presidency, his longtime Jewish friend Eddie Jacobson introduced Truman to a group of professors by saying, "'This is the man who helped create the state of Israel,' but Truman corrected him: 'What do you mean "helped to create"? I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus.'"26 Truman was comparing himself to Persian King Cyrus in the Old Testament who enabled the Jews to return to their land in the sixth century B. C. after their 70-year captivity. 24 Paul C. Merkley, The Politics of Christian Zionism: 1891-1948(London, Frank Cass, 1998), p. 3. 25 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, p. 25. 26 Merkley, Politics of Christian Zionism, p. 191. Here is more: http://www.zionism-israel.com/christian_zionism/Christian_Zionism_History_Ice.html Here is another important reference: Douglas J. Culver, Albion and Ariel: British Puritanism and the Birth of Political Zionism (New York: Peter Lang, 1995 Michael J. Pragai, Faith and Fulfilment: Christians and the Return to the Promised Land (London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1985

Texan who posed as Hasidic Jew and adopted 9 boys charged with sexually abusing kids

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/texan-who-posed-as-hasidic-jew-and-adopted-9-boys-charged-with-sexually-abusing-kids/

Authorities in Texas have charged a man with a slew of sex crimes after he apparently fabricated his Jewish identity, adopted nine boys, paraded his “unique family” on social media to hundreds of thousands of followers and allegedly abused a number of children.

Cleveland rabbi sentenced to prison for soliciting underage sex

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-733142

A Cleveland-area rabbi was sentenced to six months in prison on Monday for soliciting underage sex, capping a sad and shocking saga for the area’s Jewish community.

Among those who testified on Stephen Weiss’ behalf in a bid for leniency was a prominent rabbi in the Conservative movement.

Ramban attacks Ibn Ezra for disagreeing with Chazal

Ramban (Bereishis 46:15)  But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra replied, saying that “this is surprising. For if so, why did Scripture not mention the wonder that befell her, for she gave birth to Moses when she was one hundred and thirty years old? And why did it mention the case of Sarah who gave birth when she was ninety years old? This distress was not yet sufficient for us so that the poets came and composed liturgic poems for the day of Simchath Torah, wherein they state, ‘Jochebed, my mother, will be comforted after me,’ [implying that Jochebed survived her son], and thus she was two hundred and fifty years old at the death of Moses! Is the proof of the poets for this longevity of Jochebed because Ahijah the Shilonite lived a life of great duration? [If so, this is not a proof, for his longevity is but] an Agadic tradition or the opinion of a single authority.” These are the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra.

Now lest he be wise in his own eyes in contradicting the words of our Rabbis,

 I must answer him and say that in any case, there is in the matter of Jochebed a great wonder of the hidden miracles which constitute the foundation of the Torah. Jochebed was Levi’s actual daughter, and not merely his offspring, as it is written, Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom [her mother] bore to Levi, and it is furthermore written, And Amram took himself Jochebed his father’s sister for a wife. [Thus Amram, Levi’s grandson, married Jochebed, Levi’s daughter.] Now if we would say that Levi begot Jochebed in his younger years, just as he begot all his sons, this would place her birth soon after his descent into Egypt, and she would have been very old at the time of Moses’ birth, at or near the age stated by our Rabbis. And if we would say that he begot her after he resided in Egypt for many years — say, for a period of fifty-seven years — then Levi would have been one hundred years old at Jochebed’s birth, for when he went down to Egypt he was forty-three years of age. In that case, there were two great wonders! [Levi, at the time he begot Jochebed], was as old as Abraham, concerning whom Scripture mentions, Shall a child be born to him who is a hundred years old? and it is further written, And my lord is old also, while Jochebed would still have been an elderly woman of seventy-three when Moses was born! And should we further postpone Jochebed’s birth to the end of Levi’s days, the wonder of his begetting a child will be greater than that of Abraham!

But I will tell you a true principle, clearly indicated in the Torah. Scripture mentions miracles performed through a prophet and which he previously prophesied, or performed by an angel who is revealed in the course of a Divine mission, but those effected naturally in order to help the righteous or destroy the wicked are not mentioned in the Torah or in the books of the prophets. 

May this be “hot gold poured into the mouth” of this wise man who refuted the words of our Rabbis in the matter of Phinehas and similar matters in many places. 

Why should Scripture mention hidden miracles when all the foundations of the Torah are hidden miracles. In the entire scope of the Torah there are only miracles, and no nature or custom. All assurances of the Torah are in the form of signs and wonders, as it is not natural that he who has connection with one of the forbidden degrees of marriage or he who eats forbidden fat suffers excision or death. Nor is it by nature that the heavens become as iron because we have sowed our fields in the Sabbatical year. Similarly, all the assurances of the Torah concerning those blessings [which will result from our observance of the law], and all the good fortune of the righteous ones because of their righteousness, as well as all the prayers of our king David [in the book of Psalms] and all our prayers, all are founded upon miracles and wonders, except that there is no heralded change in the nature of the world, as I have already mentioned, and I will yet explain it further, with the help of G-d.

I will give you faithful testimony to that which I have said. We know that from the time Israel came into the Land until the birth of our lord David, about three hundred and seventy years elapsed. These years are to be divided among four generations: Salmon, Boaz, Obed, and Jesse [David’s father], each one being allotted ninety-three years. Thus when they begot children they were all approximately as old as Abraham was when he begot Isaac. Furthermore, each one begot his son in the year of his death, a most unusual thing, since in their era the general span of life was not a hundred years. And if one of them begot his son in his younger years, as is usual, the others would have had to be much older than Abraham, and thus the wonder concerning them would be exceedingly great since people in the generation of Abraham lived long, and in the days of David the average lifespan was reduced to a half. And perhaps these four generations lived longer than their contemporaries for it is possible that Salmon was already advanced in years when he entered the Land of Israel. It is for this reason that the masters of Tradition, who are the true Sages, have attributed longevity to Obed, this being a covert miracle which was done to the ancestor of the kingdom [of the house of David], the son of the righteous one [Ruth], who had come to take refuge under the wings of the Divine Presence. The Sages similarly mention longevity in connection with Obed’s mother, Ruth. Now I have already explained that the wonder in the case of Abraham was not as the above-mentioned Sage [Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra] and other masters of the Scriptures have thought. Abraham begot Isaac seventy-five years before his death, prior to the completion of two-thirds of his lifespan, and in all generations, old age does not affect people until three quarters of their lives have passed, just as the doctors have considered the divisions of life to be: childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. In these generations, when the lifespan is about seventy years, doctors do not consider a person aged until after sixty. Moreover, Abraham begot many children forty years after the birth of Isaac, and the wonder is thus manifoldly miraculous! And should we say that G-d caused Abraham to revert to his youthful days, it may be asked why Scripture does not mention this great wonder when it was an open and known miracle which is contrary to nature. Moreover, it is known that in this present generation some men beget children until they are full seventy or eighty years old and more, depending upon the extent to which they retain their natural vitality. Women also have no specific time [for ceasing to conceive], as long as they have their period they can give birth. However, the wonder in the case of Abraham and Sarah, as I explained there, was due to the fact that they had not begotten children in their younger years, and now together they begot a child. In the case of Sarah there was an additional wonder, i.e., that the manner of women had ceased with her, and after this happens, women no longer give birth. Now if Jochebed lived as many years as her father Levi had, and if her vitality remained with her until near her old age, as is the way of women, it would be no wonder if she gave birth at the time set forth by our Rabbis, [namely, at one hundred and thirty years of age]. It is because G-d wanted to redeem Israel though the brothers [Moses and Aaron], and since the time of the redemption had not yet come, He delayed their birth many years until their mother was old. Nothing is too difficult for the Eternal.

Back to the father: the scientist who lost his dad – and resolved to travel to 1955 to save him

 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/01/back-to-the-father-the-scientist-who-lost-his-dad-and-resolved-to-travel-to-1955-to-save-him

However, the story of how Mallett, now emeritus professor at the University of Connecticut, reached this point could have been lifted straight from a comic book. A year after losing his father, Boyd, at the age of 10, Mallett picked up a copy of HG Wells’s The Time Machine and had an epiphany: he was going to build his own time machine, travel back to 1955 and save his father’s life.

Hayim Nissim Cohen, Father of ‘Our Unique Family,’ Sued & Charged with Sexual Abuse of Child

 https://hareiani.com/2022/01/20/hayim-nissim-cohen-father-of-our-unique-family-sued-charged-with-sexual-abuse-of-child/

According to the civil suit filed against him, Hayim Nissim Cohen was born Jeffrey Lujan Vejil in 1984 in Odessa, Texas. This is confirmed by a quick Google search finding only one Jeffrey Lujan Vejil in the state of Texas born in 1984. According to the Odessa High School website Jeffrey was part of the graduating class of 2002. In 2005 a picture of him was featured in the Odessa American assisting in relief efforts at a Red Cross shelter set up at UTPB in Odessa, Texas following Hurricane Rita. While he is listed as having attended high school from 1998-2002, I couldn’t find any records online of which college he may have attended to study social work. I was also unable to find any social work license, current or expired, for either Hayim Nissim Cohen, or Jeffrey Vejil. Given the image in the Odessa American, Cohen was not a Williamsbug native, and definitely was born, raised, and lived in Texas until 2005.

Houston adoptive father of 9 used religion, social media to mask abuse of children, prosecutors say

 https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/hayim-cohen-child-abuse-case-houston-17804123.php

Prosecutors on Friday outlined a hellish life for the adoptive children of Hayim Cohen — whose birth name is Jeffrey Lujan Vejil — that conflicted with Cohen's portrayal of a tight-knit, pious family on social media.

“Behind all that is excessive abuse,” said Janna Oswald, chief prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Crimes Against Children Division.

Cohen, 38, faces 12 criminal charges, including ones related to child sexual abuse and assault. Each of his court appearances, including Friday's, has revealed new, alleged layers of deceit.

Does God have a body?

 https://www.jpost.com/magazine/judaism/does-god-have-a-body-331789

Maimonides also deemed the early mystical work Shiur Koma, a midrashic work from the Heichalot literature that graphically depicts God’s exact measurements, as heretical and stemming from non-Jewish hands. Following in his father’s footsteps, Maimonides’s son Abraham maintained that believing in a corporeal God was equivalent to worshiping demons or idols, and further sniped that it was no surprise that Christians were generally supportive of those Ashkenazi scholars who vociferously opposed Maimonidean teachings.