Donald Trump Suffers Double Polling Blow

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-suffers-double-polling-blow-1861753

Joe Biden has a slim lead over Donald Trump in a potential presidential contest between the two according to two recently released U.S.-wide polls, a stark improvement for the Democratic incumbent following the release of three national polls putting him behind the Republican frontrunner.

The surveys, from pollsters Ipsos and YouGov, gave Biden a lead of between one and two percentage points, though a Newsweek analysis released earlier this month suggested Trump is on track for a second White House term due to his stronger performance in key swing states.

Halacha and Bean Counting

I recently got an email regarding an old post   https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2008/09/non-jewish-prostitute-versus-jewish.html

Question is would Reb Yakov advise having Jewish girl friends with the likelihood of sexual relations even though it would result in kares rather than have non Jewish girl friends?

In other words do we approve  a secular Jew sacrificing his soul to preserve the Jewish people?

Halachic consequences of probable outcome

 While it is widely known that in the case of the Rebellious Son - that he is killed because it is likely he will become a murderer

There are a wide range of halachos based upon anticipated outcomes

For example Rodef a person can be killed if he is percived as a likely assailant

A robber who breaks into your house can be killed because it is assumed he will also kill

An abortion can be done if it evaluated that the embryo is a likely danger to mother's life

The police can be asked to arrest a pedophile or unlicensed driver to protect against their anticipated actions

Hatzala members are allowed to return home after saving someone because otherwise people would not join Haztala

A goy's life is saved on Shabbos to ensure the well being of Jews

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All of this goes against the medrashim which state that G-d judges according to the present not the future.

Pakistan Attacks Iran

 https://www.newsweek.com/iran-pakistan-missile-terrorist-1861738

Pakistan has launched missile strikes into Iran less than two days after Tehran said it had attacked terrorist targets in its neighbor.

Islamabad said Thursday's strikes had hit "terrorist hideouts" in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province, whose deputy governor Alireza Marhamati said killed three women and four children. "At 4:30 a.m. explosions were heard in a border village," Marhamati told state television. Another explosion took place near the city of Saravan, but there were no casualties, he added.

Pakistan said the strikes were part of an operation called "Marg Bar Sarmachar," which loosely translates to "death to the guerrilla fighters," and that a "number" of militants had been killed "in highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes."

Hassagat Gevul

 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hassagat-gevul

HASSAGAT GEVUL (Heb. הָסַּגַת גְּבוּל), a concept which originally had specific reference to the unlawful taking of another's land; later it was extended to embrace encroachment on various economic, commercial, and incorporeal rights of others.

Competion in Commerce Laws of Hasagas Gevul

 https://dinonline.org/2015/08/31/opening-shop-laws-of-hasagas-gevul/

The prohibition of being yored le-umanus chavero, literally “descending to another’s profession,” or, in more simple terms, illegal competition, is derived from two distinct verses. The Gemara in Makkos (24a) derives the prohibition from the verse “he did not perform evil with his neighbor” (Tehillim 15:3), whereas the Gemara in Sanhedrin (81a) derives the same idea from the verse “he defiled his neighbor’s wife” (Yechezkel 18:11).

The Chasam Sofer (Choshen Mishpat 79) writes that the prohibition is a full Torah injunction, basing this on a number of earlier sources. Although the Beis Yosef (Choshen Mishpat 156) writes implies that there is no Torah prohibition, but only a rabbinic prohibition enacted as a tikkun olam (regulatory law), the Chasam Sofer writes that after the Sages enacted the prohibition it involves a full Torah transgression.

Certainly, the prohibition is a very grave sin, to the degree that Rabbeinu Tam (Sefer Ha-Yashar 741) even compares it with murder! As we will see, poskim treat the prohibition with appropriate stringency.

Scarborough says Iowa victory ‘bad news’ for Trump

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4412449-scarborough-iowa-victory-bad-news-for-trump/

“The fact that Donald Trump has 50 percent of Republicans not voting for him, and as Steve Kornacki said, one-third hating him in the state of Iowa, in the state of Iowa … I gotta say for people who actually want to win general elections, that’s not good news,” Scarborough said.

Freed Israeli hostage says she was held in Gaza hospital with dozens of others

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/17/middleeast/freed-israeli-hostage-says-held-in-gaza-hospital-intl/index.html

It has been more than 50 days since Hamas militants released Sharon Aloni Cunio and her twin three-year-old daughters, but she remains haunted by her time as a hostage - most of which she says was spent in a Gaza hospital - and longs for her husband who remains captive in the Palestinian enclave.

THE MISSING LINK

 https://mishpacha.com/the-missing-link-2/

Compounding the mystery is the high regard in which this gaon and tzaddik was held by all who knew him personally. One of the last eyewitnesses alive today who met Rav Tzvi Hirsch and was amazed by his tzidkus and toil in Torah is the revered posek Rav Moshe Sternbuch. In fact, Rav Sternbuch frequently mentions Rav Tzvi Hirsch in his shmuessen as a prime example of how total immersion in Torah was a reality not so long ago. Most recently, Rav Sternbuch spoke before thousands of yungeleit at a siyum held at the Mir in Yerushalayim, about the time Rav Tzvi Hirsch stayed in the Sternbuch home in England. He described his extraordinary hasmadah and tzidkus as a model for all bnei Torah to strive toward.

Tradition is reliable

Shabbos (85a) And from where do we derive that when the Sages have an accepted tradition it is a substantial matter, meaning that the tradition is reliable? Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “You shall not cross your neighbor’s border, which they of the old times have set in your inheritance that you shall inherit” (Deuteronomy 19:14)? It means that you shall not cross the border that the early generations set, establishing the parameters necessary for each plant. The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of the phrase: The early generations set? Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: What is the meaning of that which was written: “These are the sons of Seir the Horite who inhabit the land, Lotan and Shoval and Zibeon and Ana” (Genesis 36:20)? And is everyone else inhabitants of the heavens, that it was necessary for the verse to emphasize that these inhabit the land? Rather, it means that they were experts in the settlement of the land, as they would say: This tract of land that is the full length of a rod is fit for olive trees; this full length of a rod is fit for grapes, this full length of a rod is fit for figs. And the members of this tribe were called Horites [ḥori] since they smelled [heriḥu] the earth to determine what is fit to be grown there. The allusion is based on a transposition of the letters ḥet and reish. And in explanation of why the early inhabitants of Seir were called Hivites [ḥivi] (see Genesis 36:2), Rav Pappa said: Because they would taste the earth like a snake [ḥivya] and determine what should be grown there according to the taste. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said that they were called Horites [ḥori] because they became free [benei ḥorin] of their possessions when the children of Esau drove them from their lands. Their primary name was actually Hivites.

Haley says US has ‘never been a racist country’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4411489-nikki-haley-us-never-been-racist-country/

In an interview on “Fox & Friends,” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Haley whether she thinks the GOP is a “racist party.”

“No. We’re not a racist country, Brian.  We’ve never been a racist country,” Haley said in response.

Rabbinate delays divorce of a woman it helped wed but now says may not be Jewish

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/rabbinate-delays-divorce-of-a-woman-it-helped-wed-but-now-says-may-not-be-jewish/

In its ruling from December 26, the High Court of Justice ordered the Rabbinical Court of Ashkelon and the Chief Rabbinate to stop investigating the woman’s Jewishness and promptly dissolve her marriage.

The case of the woman, who asked that her name be withheld citing privacy issues, is part of a growing tendency on the part of rabbinical courts, which in Israel act as family courts and are therefore under the High Court’s authority, to conduct background checks whose scope exceeds the issues brought before them, and which critics say are invasive and inappropriate.

Complete Heated Exchange between Sen. Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci

סופר הסת"ם יצא לתרבות רעה; הרבנים פרסמו את שמו והורו להחליף את המזוזות

 https://www.jdn.co.il/j_world/2120910/

סופר סת"ם חרדי חרדי שמכר ספרי תורה, תפילין ומזוזות בקהילה החרדית במשך שנים, יצא לתרבות רעה, אך המשיך למכור כלי קודש ללקוחות • כעת הרבנים מפרסמים את שמו ומזהירים את הציבור שלא להשתמש בפרשיות שהוא כתב