The Foreseeable Future: May We Try to Find Out What Lies Ahead?

 https://baishavaad.org/the-foreseeable-future-may-we-try-to-find-out-what-lies-ahead/

One brief but important attempt at a delineation of the contours of the injunction of tamim tihyeh is by R’ Moshe Feinstein, in the context of the propriety of screening for the gene that causes Tay-Sachs:

According to this understanding of R’ Moshe, preventive MRIs would presumably not violate tamim tihyeh, because they, too, do not predict the future, but rather reveal what already exists. While this does not seem to be the straightforward understanding of R’ Moshe’s intent, we shall iy”H see in the follow-up article that some do indeed posit such a distinction with respect to the applicability of the mitzvah of tamim tihyeh.

Matt Gaetz ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state laws

 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-gaetz-ethics-report-released/

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who briefly stood to become President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid numerous women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office, according to a final draft of a comprehensive investigative report obtained by CBS News.

Those were among the findings of the long-running investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Gaetz, which concluded the former Florida congressman violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office.

Commemorating the Holocaust, Yom ha-Shoah

Igros Moshe (YD IV #57.11) The reason for not establishing a day of fasting and prayers to commemorate the murdered of the Holocaust 

Question In the matter of the Decree due to our many sins which resulted in the murder of 10 times 600,000 through Hitler and his associates their memory should be erased. It would seem appropriate that there is a need to establish a particular day for fasting and prayer. You are astonished that nothing has yet to be done. Answer  In the Kinos which are said by all Jews on Tisha B’Av, it is explained there that a special day was not established for fasting and and mourning for the decrees of the Crusades, which were the decrees in all European countries where most of the Jews lived, and several towns and villages were destroyed, and it was named  Tach v’Tat after the years it happened. Also in Israel they killed many during the Crusades. The reason is they didn’t is because we are not to establish another day  for fasting and mourning. Instead the tragedies of the Crusades are to be mentioned in the Kinos of Tisha B‘Av  For this reason we are slso not to establish a special day to commemorate the decrees that happened in our time.  Rather it is to be included in all the tragedies that have happened during this long  Galus. It is thus not like the Chemelniki Massacres that were done by Cosacks in the Ukraine and Poland for which a day of fasting and Selichos was established on the 10th of Sivan since that wasn’t a general decree like the Churban and Galus but it occurred only in a part of one country. In addition tragedies of  Tach v’Tat were not committed by the government and therefore are not the result of Galus and the Churban but rather those who rebelled against the government.  It is not considered a government action and thus an aspect of Galus  since the government attempted to defend the Jews. The only connection to Galus is that the Jews received punishment for their sins which deserved Galus. Thus it was only relevant to make a decree of fasting and Selichos for only those places. In contrast the decrees of Hitler applied to all Jews since he conquered the main places where Jews lived and in these places he murdered all the Jews who were there and he intended to conquer the whole world. It was impossible to stop him untl G-d hasd mercy on us. Therefore it was a decree against all Jews and thus it is to be viewed as an extension of the Churban and Galus for which we are not to establish another day of mourning as is stated in the Kinos.

The Proper Time to Kindle Chanukah Lights by Rabbi Chaim Jachter

 https://www.koltorah.org/halachah/the-proper-time-to-kindle-chanukah-lights-by-rabbi-chaim-jachter

One should try to light Nerot Chanukah at the optimal time.  However, defining the precise time has been an elusive task.  It appears that common practice is simply to light when the men return from Maariv.  Shalom Bayit and male communal Torah study might permit one to light after the optimal time.    

Igros Moshe (OH. IV #101.6 p189) The best time to light a Hanukkah candle is about ten minutes after the beginning of sunset and it should have enough oil to burn for an hour or so in order that it will burn about half an hour after the stars come out.,  

Igros Moshe (OH IV 62 page 95)  Also we light the chunukah lights everyday at a later time so that there is parsumei nissa for fanily members

Halachic Musings: Lev Tahor and Pidyon Shvuyim

 https://www.5tjt.com/halachic-musings-lev-tahor-and-pidyon-shvuyim/

It is this author’s conclusion that there is no mitzvah or even inyan to help the leaders of Lev Tahor evade jail charges. This is also the opinion of one of the leading poskim in the New York area. May Hashem bring yeshuos and nechamos to Klal Yisrael.

Aching Hearts

 https://mishpacha.com/aching-hearts/

During the four-and-a half-years since Mishpacha’s probing report on the mysterious Lev Tahor, the setting has changed and shocking accounts of mind control and abuse are emerging. Can an unlikely coalition of Guatemalan geirim and chassidish activists tip the balance and bring change to Lev Tahor?

How Trump and Musk set off the shutdown crisis — but got little in return

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/21/trump-musk-shutdown-demands-defeat/

After that, the accounts diverge. Multiple House Republican lawmakers said the president-elect mentioned eliminating the debt ceiling casually and in passing, and that he understood Johnson’s explanation that the proposal didn’t have the votes to pass. Hill Republicans broadly agreed that no one got the impression Trump was repeatedly and clearly demanding that they raise the debt ceiling before Christmas. His sudden red line Wednesday reverberated across the Capitol, shocking House and Senate Republicans

Preventive Medicine and Disease Screening

 https://medicalhalacha.org/2021/01/21/preventive-medicine-and-disease-screening/

Predictive or presymptomatic diagnosis, whether for the purposes of assessing the risk of diseases or for early intervention, can play a critically important role in a patient’s chances of recovery or of avoiding disease entirely. Screening tests, such as mammograms or colonoscopies, tests that assess or predict the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, or genetic testing that can identify a predisposition to an ever-growing wide range of diseases, are all essential diagnostic tools. Does the Mitzva of “v’Nishmartem” obligate a person to undergo such testing or to follow the precepts of preventive medication in general?

Trump has claimed his victory was a mandate. Washington’s realities are already challenging that

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/21/politics/trump-mandate-washington-challenges/index.html

Trump has asserted his decisive November victory should clear any roadblocks standing in the way of his agenda. He has demanded fealty from fellow Republicans while often overstating the breadth of his win. Though he is the first Republican in a generation to win the popular vote, Trump ended up with less than 50% of the country behind him and his Electoral College margin was sizable but hardly historic.

The Woody Johnson Republicans

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/mike-johnson-republicans-budget-congress-elon-musk-donald-trump-woody-johnson-2dc5a626?mod=hp_opin_pos_0

Mike Johnson is still Speaker of the House, but this week Republicans have behaved as if the Speaker is another Johnson—as in Woody of the New York Jets. He’s the impulsive owner who, reports The Athletic, overrules his football people on a whim, consults his teenage sons for football insights, and looks for guidance from the internet. Result: perennial losing seasons.

US strikes Houthi targets in Yemen, takes down drones over Red Sea

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-strikes-houthi-targets-in-yemen-takes-down-drones-over-red-sea/

The United States on Saturday said it struck targets in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, hours after a missile fired by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck and wounded people in the central Israel city of Tel Aviv.

The missile, which wounded 16 people, was the second such attack in two days.

Among the targets of US forces was a Houthi missile storage center and a “command-and-control facility,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

It said that it had conducted the strikes “to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden.

At least 200 children and women rescued from Lev Tahor Jewish sect

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/guatemalan-jewish-sect-lev-tahor-children-rescue-b2668298.html

Authorities in Guatemala rescued at least 160 children from a Jewish sect following allegations of abuse and human trafficking.

Police raided the premises of the sect called Lev Tahor in Oratorio city, 78km southeast of the capital Guatemala City, on Friday after receiving complaints of widespread abuse of children, including rape, human trafficking and forced marriage, prosecutors said.

They took at least 160 minors and 40 women into protective custody.

The operation in the Santa Rosa region involved around 480 police personnel, soldiers, prosecutors, and psychologists who also seized electronic devices and searched for evidence of child pornography.

Trump and Musk show how not to conduct the nation’s business

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/21/shutdown-deal-trump-musk-debt-limit/

Mr. Trump should not have spurred a last-minute frenzy to keep the government running during the holidays when a reasonable bipartisan compromise had already been reached. The negotiators’ job was made harder by the fact that Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, the president-elect’s confidant tasked with making the government more “efficient,” seemed to be at cross-purposes in their demands. Mr. Musk said the stopgap’s spending levels were “criminal” and called for shutting down the government until Mr. Trump’s inauguration, when Republicans would have more leverage to deny line items Democrats wanted. Chiming in later, Mr. Trump criticized some of the spending but also issued a very different demand: that Congress lift the debt limit or eliminate it entirely, which would have required Democratic buy-in, given the narrow majorities in Congress and some Republicans’ aversion to raising the fiscal ceiling.

Usurped by 'President Elon Musk': Is the world's richest man acting as Shadow President and dictating terms?

 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/usurped-by-president-elon-musk-is-the-worlds-richest-man-acting-as-shadow-president-and-dictating-terms-democrats-take-pot-shots-at-trump-as-shutdown-looms/articleshow/116481188.cms?from=mdr

The Democrats without any delay seized the opportunity to mock Donald Trump while suggesting that Elon Musk had effectively become the ‘Shadow President’, asserted Daily Beast. Eventually, two competing narratives emerged to explain the events, where, one suggested the confrontation was a deliberate strategic move which showcased the direct approach of the new administration while the another indicated Donald Trump was essentially ‘cornered’ by Elon Musk's vocal opposition.