Donald Trump’s lawyers argued before the D.C. Court of Appeals on Tuesday that a president’s powers are so unlimited and unchecked by the law that he could literally order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival and never face criminal prosecution so long as he wasn’t impeached by Congress.
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Cops clash with dozens of Orthodox men in synagogue as riot breaks out over secret underground tunnel
A riot broke out in a historic Brooklyn synagogue when a group of rebellious Orthodox men tried to stop police and construction crews from filling in a secret tunnel they illegally dug to reach a closed-down women’s bath.
The enraged men, thought to be mostly in their teens and early 20s, were filmed tearing down wood panels and wooden support beams Monday at the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights.
Secret Tunnel Under New York Synagogue Sparks Chaotic Scenes
Officers with the New York Police Department were called to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on Monday afternoon after "a group of individuals unlawfully entered" the building by damaging a wall, an NYPD spokesperson told Newsweek.
Jerusalem teen terrorist wanted to be a Hamas 'martyr,' left note
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-781448
Israel Police successfully located and arrested a 14-year-old girl who intended to carry out a terror attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, police said.
According to police, a 14-year-old resident of east Jerusalem left a "farewell" letter near a house in the Old City, where she expressed a desire to be recognized as a martyr and indicated her support for the Hamas terrorist organization.
Monday, January 8, 2024
ChatGPT avoids Muslim jokes, but antisemitic ones are fine
https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/byyqyxf006
Popular AI chatbot consistently refuses to tell jokes about Muslims but easily cooperates when asked for jokes about Jews, even incorporating antisemitic stereotypesBitachon today - Rav Lichtenstein
The phenomenon is clear: the equilibrium between the two aspects of trust has been lost by the Religious Zionist community in Israel. This fact was and is reflected in our educational system. We inculcated the ideas of faithful trust, redemption, hope and expectation very well, but neglected to teach the values of loving trust, of cleaving to God without hesitation under all circumstances. We did not fortify our children or ourselves concerning the possibility of crises, conveying that the song to God must be sung even on the rivers of Babylon. We did not allow ourselves to wrestle with the possibility of national setbacks.
We taught our students about the “human comedy” but never about the “human tragedy,” on either the individual or the collective plane. We did succeed in nurturing the younger generation to be ready and willing to make personal sacrifices for the sake of the nation and the land. All of this was accomplished, however, while riding a wave of optimism, that all would work out because the process of redemption was unfolding. The engine of this process was faithful trust, and it found expression on the individual as well as on the national level.
I fear, however, that today we are beginning to pay the price for this skewing of values, and now is the time to rectify the error. Our obligation is to redirect our focus to embrace loving trust, to acknowledge that we are ready to hold tight to God because He is our steadfast Rock, and let the chips fall where they may. We must deal with the tragic dimension of trust, to renew the spirit of “Though He may slay me, still I will trust in Him.” This expresses the essence of Jewish trust in the face of tragic situations.
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Critics say US colleges’ double standards let rabid antisemitism thrive on campus
“The school would not, and should not, tolerate menacing conduct aimed at Blacks or Latinos or the LGBTQ community. We want one standard applied equally to all,” said Schwab, the founder and managing partner of Kronor Capital.
‘I’m afraid every day for my children’: As antisemitism soars, French Jews flee to Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
“Some people tell me that they are afraid of being in France because they are Jewish, and they took down their mezuzahs,” Pachter says, referring to the parchment scrolls affixed to the doorposts of many Jewish homes. “It’s unbearable to live like that, to hide any sign of Judaism when no one is ashamed to say that they are Christian or Muslim.”
‘Beyond Crazy’: The Liberal Jew Mugged by a Post-Oct. 7 World
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/04/delphine-horvilleur-antisemitism-france-00133462
Of the calls she has gotten from her congregants since Oct. 7, many are from mixed couples in distress. Jewish spouses say their non-Jewish partners don’t get the trauma they’re going through and sometimes dismiss it as “a kind of Jewish hysteria.” From the non-Jewish spouse, she hears some version of, “When we got married, he or she wasn’t that Jewish.” That identity, “that Jewish marker has become so central,” Horvilleur adds. “They had no idea that Jewish history was so present in their beloved’s life. There is a deep consciousness of fragility.”
The Comeback of “SimpleFaith”: The Ultra-OrthodoxConcept of Faith andIts Development in theNineteenth Century
At the end of the eighteenth century, and especially in the nineteenthcentury, a swift and astounding process took place, wherein a shift occurred inthe belief values of Central and Eastern European Jewry. In rapid succession,Kabbalah lost its centuries-old hegemony over the Jewish spiritual world, andits vacated place was occupied by simple faith. Note that from this stage onward,simple faith became a religious ideal of Judaism and no longer a compromise—
Bitachon that everything that happens is good
The Chazon Ish, i(Ha-emuna Ve-ha-bittachon, beginning of chapter 2). . . an old error has become rooted in the hearts of many concerning the concept of trust. Trust . . . has come to mean that a person is obligated to believe that whenever he is presented with two possible outcomes, one good and one not, then certainly it will turn out for the good. And if he has doubts and fears the worst, that constitutes a lack of trust.
This view of trust is incorrect, for as long as the future outcome has not been clarified through prophecy, that outcome has not been decided, for who can truly know God’s judgments and providence? Rather, trust means realizing that there are no coincidences in the world, and that whatever happens under the sun is a function of God’s decree.
Bitachon: Rav Lichtenstein
https://etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/great-thinkers/harav-aharon-lichtenstein/bittachon-trust-god
The Ramban’s conclusion is forceful and unmistakable:
When God is pleased with a person’s conduct, he has no need of physicians.
The Ramban’s approach so disturbed Rav Chayim Soloveitchik that he was inclined to believe that the offending words were not the work of the Ramban at all, but rather an interpolation by a later copyist!
Friday, January 5, 2024
Harvard taps Jewish provost who lamented school’s failure to denounce Hamas as interim president
Harvard has named its provost and professor Alan Garber as its interim president following the resignation of Claudine Gay.
Gay stepped aside yesterday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over her testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Gerber, who is Jewish, teaches courses on healthcare policy, economics, public policy, health policy and management at various Harvard schools and departments.
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