Igros Moshe (YD II #146) This that doctors say that the sign of of whether a person is alive or dead is in the brain In other words if according to their evaluation of a person if his brain is not working properly then he is considered that he is dead even though he is still breathing. You discuss this at length and try to refute this claim. You also say that the brain does not mean the brain stem at the top of the spine which you claim is irrelevant to this issue. I don’t understand your point. Since you are referring to the brain stem at the top of the spine in your discussion of the gemora in Chullin while the doctors are referring to the brain in the head. Furthermore the gemora is describing a case of where the brain stem is detatched while the brain itself remains intact and healthy. If in fact the brain decomposes the animal is a treifa. Similarly if the brain dissolves and flows like water. Even though in general the status of treifa is because eventually the brain cover will be perforated, nevertheless the status of treifa occurs for other conditions both the actual brain and the brain stem. Thus it is possible to say like the doctors if the damage prevents the body from functioning properly it means death. Neverthelesss it is certainly true that the brain stopping from working is not what we define as death since as long as there is breathing he is considered alive. It just means that when the brain stops working it will lead to death which is defined as the cessation of breathing. It is possible that since such a person is still alive and that there are known or yet to be discovered medicines that will restore the function of the brain. It is also possible in this case to pray to G-d to cure him. Thus he has the status of a seriously ill person whose life is in danger but he is not considered dead. If he were dead it would be prohibited to pray for him since it is considered a meaningless and worthless prayer. It is also obvious that anyone who killed such a person is considered a murderer and is subject to the death penalty. All this is because there is no mention in the classic sources of the gemora and poskim that the brain status determines whether the person is considered alive. It is not relevant to claim that nature has changed in this issue because even in Talmudic times the brain functioned then as it does now and all of man’s functioning depended on it. Nevertheless it was not considered that the person was considered dead with the cessation of functioning of the brain and so today we don’t either.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Seeing eye dog in shul
Igros Moshe (OC I # 45) Question Can a blind person who has a seeing eye dog in order to go walking and he needs to bring it into the synagogue when he goes for prayers and to hear kadish and kedusha as well as Torah reading or Megila reading and similar things even though it is disrespectful to bring a dog into shul which is a holy place? From the Yerushalmi, it was permitted to bring one’s personal donkey into shul and it compares this with the permission for a talid chachom to eat and drink and sleep in shul this is agreed by a number of authorities including the Magen Avraham, Tur, Shulchan Aruch and the Vilna Gaon. It is as if the use of a shul outside of Israel is permitted for all people for these and similar activities if needed. For a slight need for a mitzva such as eating seudas shlishis in Shul, even though it is not a great urgency since everyone can eat at home shul, nevertheless it is a widespread custom to permit it as well as to make a feast for the alyiah of a chasan or bar mitzva even it is not clear that these are mitzvos . Chasidim go even farther and permit things which are not mitzvas such as eating and drinking on a yahrzeit. It would seem clear that it is permissible to make conditional use of a shul in order to eat and drink even though there is no real need even though this seems to be a relatively new custom. Nevertheless in times of great need there is no problem following this view according to everyone. Thus since we see that bringing in a donkey into shul is not considered worse than eating and drinking and sleeping, we should permit the conditional use of our synagogues when needed. There is no question that a dog is not worse than a donkey and there is no greater need than the blind person who otherwise would lose the ability to go to shul the rest of his life. Thus it should be permitted for a blind man to bring his seeing eye dog to shul However it is best if he remain next to the doors as to noy upset the congregation. However it is possible that there is actually no degradation at all to bring an animal except when done for no reason or into a shul in Israel. The shul of Israel requires further study while there is no question that it is permitted in shuls out of Israel. .
The new world order is exactly what it looks like. Are we too frozen with fear to name it?
JD Vance’s decision, while in Germany, to meet the far-right AfD leader, Alice Weidel, yet decline a meeting with the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, would have caused more alarm, I feel, if it hadn’t come accompanied by so much other signalling. The vice-president of a nation engaged in tearing down its own institutions lectured the whole of Europe on its project to “destroy democracy”, which is absolutely textbook: he’s describing black as white, openly turning observable reality on its head. It’s unsettling, for sure, but that’s because it’s audacious, not because it’s complicated. It’s the simplest move of statecraft ever – show the world who you are, dare them to call you on it.
What I did not anticipate, when thinking that the whole suite of behaviours, from Nazi saluting to upturning reality, belonged well and truly to the past, was the sense of paralysis that would settle when fascism finally put its fancy dress on.
Hypnosis for Medical cure?
Igros Moshe (YD II #29) Hypnosis is simply a natural phenomenon resulting from the influence on nerves and is not witchcraft. However I know that doctors generally do not utilize it. They do not rely that the person will be in a trance so that he can have an operation. Nevertheless if someone does this there is no reason to object since this is not witchcraft.
Igros Moshe ( YD III #44) Question Is it permitted to cure through hypnotism? Answer I have discussed this with some people who know a little about this as well as Rav Henkin and we do not consider it as something prohibited since it is not witchcraft but is a natural phenomenon. Some people have the ability to influence people such as those with with weak nerves who don’t know what is happening. However there is a possible concern that the doctor might tell the person to transgress a Torah prohibition This would not be considered an unwitting sin since the person by his consent to be hypnotized brought this about. This would be comparable to a person going to sleep next to breakable items. If he breaks them while sleeping it is not considered an unwitting act. However if the doctor is not suspected of doing this such as a religious doctor or for some other reason, I don’t see that hypnosis is prohibited. Nevertheless it is an act of self degradation which has an aspect of prohibition as we see that someone who eats in the street is disqualified from being a witness. Thus even though it is not prohibited a person should not do it unless it is for medical purposes for which it is permitted to degrade oneself if needed even if there is no danger. .If there is mortal danger that removes prohibitions In cases were there will be no likely degradation it is possible to use.
Trump’s rush for a deal with Putin leaves Ukraine and Europe scrambling
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/trump-putin-deal-ukraine-analysis/index.html
Trump wants a deal – perhaps any deal
The war often seems a distraction from what Trump really wants – the chance to sit down with Putin, one of the global strongmen he admires.
Trump is, for instance, only voicing a reality that many US and European officials have shared privately for months: that Ukraine can no longer win the war and eject Russia from all the territory it has seized.
Trump’s subordinates endlessly laud him as the world’s greatest dealmaker. But his efforts so far seem naive.
He’s conceded some of Russia’s top goals, often seems to empathize with the goals of the invasion and has turned on America’s European friends who’ve shared the cost of supporting Ukraine’s war effort. Those are the same allies who Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says must police any peace alone.
In his most extraordinary move, Trump tried to claim half of Ukraine’s rare earth metals wealth — in a play that exploited an invaded nation’s desperate vulnerability. President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the “deal.”
Trump’s view of every geopolitical crisis as a real estate deal waiting to be clinched suggests he might embrace an agreement that lets Putin keep all of the land he’s stolen just to stop the killing.
And there’s a big risk he’s being played by Putin. The Russian leader warmed the atmosphere ahead of the Saudi talks by handing Trump victories with the release of several US prisoners, including on Monday with Kalob Byers, 28, who was arrested on drug smuggling charges last week.
US and Russia Begin Peace Talks Without Ukraine
https://www.newsweek.com/us-russia-begin-peace-talks-without-ukraine-2032465
The U.S. and Russia have begun talks in Saudi Arabia aimed at improving diplomatic ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, signaling a potential thaw in U.S.-Russia relations after years of tension following Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and upending years of American foreign policy that has alarmed NATO allies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Monday he would be in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but that his trip was unrelated to the U.S.-Russia meeting.
"Ukraine knew nothing about this. And Ukraine regards any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as having no results," Zelensky said.
Elon Musk, Ashley St. Clair, and the New Moral Majority
https://www.thefp.com/p/elon-musk-ashley-st-clair-and-the
There was a time when Musk’s lifestyle might have disqualified him from the political power he wields in the nominally conservative Trump administration (headed by a thrice-wed president). But Musk’s rise to political power despite his nontraditional family life epitomizes the decline of the old Moral Majority, which once set the culture war agenda for the GOP and even for some moderate Blue Dog Democrats.
Trump administration fires thousands for ‘performance’ without evidence, in messy rush
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/17/trump-fires-federal-workers-performance/
The Federal Aviation Administration let go hundreds of technicians and engineers just weeks after a midair collision miles from the White House killed 67 people, eliciting promises from Trump officials to improve air safety, workers said in interviews. FEMA, which handles the nation’s natural disasters, is preparing to fire hundreds of probationary employees, according to four people familiar with the situation who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The agency is already stretched thin responding to fires in California and floods in Kentucky. And the administration terminated scores of employees who work to bolster the nation’s nuclear defense, only to realize its error and start reversing the firings.
“I’d understand a strategic reduction in force if needed,” said one USDA employee, who was fired over the weekend. “But this was a butchering of some of our best. Does the public know this?”
WSJ asks Kennedy to cast aside ‘antivax hooey’ amid Texas measles outbreak
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5149761-wsj-kennedy-antivax-texas-measles-outbreak/?tbref=hp
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published an op-ed Monday calling on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to set aside his anti-vaccine activist positions in light of the nearly 50 measles cases that have been confirmed among mostly unvaccinated children in Texas.
“We are on record as skeptical of RFK Jr.’s nomination. The Senate confirmed him. Now the best-case scenario would be for Mr. Kennedy to internalize that he is no longer an activist outsider who needs to take provocative potshots to get attention,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote.
MAGA Bill Introduced to Make Trump’s Birthday a Federal Holiday
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-bill-introduced-to-make-trumps-birthday-a-federal-holiday/
A Republican congresswoman has called for President Donald Trump’s birthday to become a federal holiday. New York Rep. Claudia Tenney announced the bill to turn Trump’s birthday on June 14th, which falls on Flag Day, into an official holiday in a news release on Friday. “This legislation would permanently codify a new federal holiday called ‘Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day' on June 14 to honor this historic day,” she said.
Four top deputies to Eric Adams have resigned, New York mayor says
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/17/politics/eric-adams-deputies-resign/index.html
“Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles,” Torres-Springer, Williams-Isom and Joshi said in a joint statement.
Torres-Springer, Williams-Isom and Joshi are career public servants and highly regarded in the city’s government circles. They are also responsible for putting much of the mayor’s agenda into place. Their portfolios include some of the city’s biggest agencies, including the public hospital system, the Department of Homeless Services, and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, to name a few.
GOP lawmakers divided on Musk, seen by some as a liability
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5146881-elon-musk-senate-republicans/?tbref=hp
“There’s a lot of concern among my constituents. The concern is, ‘Who is this guy?’ He’s a billionaire, which puts him in a certain category. ‘How does he have the authority if he’s not elected by anybody to do what he’s doing?’” said the senator, who said there are “a lot” of federal workers in their home state.
The senator said Musk’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also created problems for farmers who sell products to provide food assistance around the world.
GOP senators say Musk’s brash online personality has inflamed constituents who are already skeptical of his broad access to federal programs, the Treasury Department’s sensitive federal payment systems and millions of Americans’ personal information.
Monday, February 17, 2025
Medical Experts React to RFK Jr.'s Antidepressant Drug Remarks
https://www.newsweek.com/rfk-jr-antidepressants-ssris-drugs-maha-2032297
Colin Davidson, a professor of neuropharmacology at the University of Central Lancashire wrote for The Conversation: "RFK Jr. has made several debatable statements related to health, including, for example, on vaccinations. On this occasion, though, concerning antidepressants, there is considerable evidence that coming off of SSRIs can be very difficult. But, for most people, it is unlikely that it would be as difficult as coming off heroin."
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