Shulchan Aruch is the default view only when Achronim are deadlocked

from Daas Torah - translation is copyrighted

Chazon Ish (C.M. 1:1 Likutim): Concerning the matter of the dispute over semicha in post-Talmudic times, the deciding factor in halachic matters is always according to which side has proofs which are stronger and more reasonable. Even though we normally follow the Shulchan Aruch – nevertheless were are accustomed to deviate from the Shulchan Aruch because the Achronim deviate from its rulings with correct proofs according to the understanding of the gedolim in each generation. So therefore for each halacha we are forced to study the analysis of the Achronim because intellectual reasoning is the decisive factor. However when the matter is deadlocked because the sides are equal – then we follow the disputant who is greater and that is why we accept the rulings of the Beis Yosef and Rema. So therefore in the dispute concerning semicha – according to our understanding those who rejected the new semicha are more cogent and understandable. Those who supported it are not understandable. 

‘Playing the Man’: Global Diplomacy in the Trump Era Is All About Flattery

 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/world/europe/trump-diplomacy-flattery-world-leaders.html

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel handed a letter to President Trump nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s not clear whether stroking the president’s ego has long-lasting effects.

The flattery was as obvious as it was effective. Seated at a dinner table in the Blue Room of the White House on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel handed President Trump a piece of paper.

“I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize committee,” Mr. Netanyahu said, with the news cameras rolling to capture the moment. “It’s nominating you for the Peace Prize. It’s well deserved, and you should get it.”

Mr. Trump declared the gesture from the prime minister “very meaningful,” though he has long said he believes the Nobel committee would never give him the prize.

The effort to curry favor was the latest evidence that many of the world’s leaders have figured Mr. Trump out. Heaping praise on the American president is the best way to manage him — even if it’s not entirely clear that the schmoozing leads to concrete benefits for their countries.

France: US overstated Iran strike impact, nuclear program only set back by months

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjyzhlohee

French intelligence chief says Iran’s nuclear program delayed by only a few months, not destroyed as claimed by Trump and Netanyahu; only a small portion of enriched uranium eliminated, Paris has indications about their whereabouts

The statement aligns only partially with the U.S. assessment. Last week, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the Israeli and American strikes likely set Iran’s nuclear program back by one to two years. He reaffirmed that key facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan had been destroyed.

Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized pause on weapon shipments to Ukraine

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/08/politics/hegseth-did-not-inform-white-house-ukraine-weapons-pause

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week, according to five sources familiar with the matter, setting off a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government.

President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was not responsible for the move. Asked on Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting whether he approved of the pause in shipments, Trump demurred, saying only that the US would continue to send defensive weapons to Ukraine. Pressed again on who authorized the pause, Trump replied, “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”

Donald Trump Drops Below Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton in Popularity Ranking

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-popularity-ranking-joe-biden-hillary-clinton-2095914

In the Q2 rankings, Trump ranks as the 17th most popular with 37 percent of adults having a positive opinion of the president. Vice President JD Vance ranks above Trump, at 14th on the list, at 38 percent.

Hillary Clinton ranks sixth on the list, with 47 percent, while Biden is ninth with 42 percent.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who died in December 2024, ranked number one. Second on the list was former President Barack Obama, while former Vice President Kamala Harris held the position of fourth most popular.

Deadly Texas floods leave officials pointing fingers after warnings missed

 https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/5388538-texas-floods-flash-flooding-camp-mystic-dhs-nws-warnings/

Local, state and federal officials are all pointing fingers in the wake of the deadly Texas flooding, but one thing is certain: The warnings weren’t heard by the people who needed them.

After the catastrophic Independence Day floods that killed at least 90 across central Texas, state and county officials told reporters that the storm had come without warning. But a wide array of meteorologists — and the Trump administration itself — has argued that those officials, as well as local residents, received a long train of advisories that a dangerous flood was gathering.

Some — like Sokich — argued that one possibility is that after rounds of staff reductions, NWS offices that may have had enough staff to issue accurate predictions didn’t have the personnel for potentially life-saving outreach. “If you don’t have the full staff, then you can’t do that,” he said. “People are just focusing on issuing the watches and warnings.” 

University of California, Los Angeles meteorologist Daniel Swain wrote on X that such outreach is “one of the first things to go away when offices are critically understaffed.”

Musk Leads MAGA Meltdown Over Trump Administration’s Epstein Review

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/musk-leads-maga-meltdown-over-trump-administration-s-epstein-review/ar-AA1I6Kkg?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=e65e9148c21d4014ee182428979a8fa2&ei=53

Elon Musk led a MAGA freak-out after the Justice Department and FBI shot down claims about a so-called “client list” belonging to late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Conspiracy theories about Epstein have run wild for years, with many Trump supporters hoping explosive details, such as a list of high-profile names Epstein might have had incriminating dirt on, would surface now that Donald Trump is back in office. Two Trump loyalists at the FBI—Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino—have previously pushed the unsubstantiated claim that Epstein didn’t kill himself in his Manhattan cell.

Musk, who previously claimed—and then apologized—for suggesting the reason the DOJ hadn’t released the Epstein files was because Trump featured in them, has lashed out at the agencies’ findings.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck added: “Pam Bondi said the Epstein client list was on her desk to review for release to the public just a few months ago. Now the DOJ she leads claims that there’s no Epstein client list. Sorry but this is unacceptable.

“Was she lying then or is she lying now? We deserve answers.”

JD Vance’s old tweets show why the ‘Epstein client list’ is becoming such a problem for Trump

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jd-vance-s-old-tweets-show-why-the-epstein-client-list-is-becoming-such-a-problem-for-trump/ar-AA1I9mTs?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=e65e9148c21d4014ee182428979a8fa2&ei=27

President Donald Trump’s team spent a good deal of energy on Monday in unfamiliar territory: on the wrong side of a losing battle against America’s extreme online conspiracy theorists.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was the face of the effort at her daily news briefing. But if Leavitt is looking for who is fueling the speculation around the dead New York financier and sex criminal who appeared on camera yucking it up with her boss, she needs to remember: the call is coming from inside the (White) house.

Musk tweaks Trump with Jeffrey Epstein post

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5387380-elon-musk-trump-jeffrey-epstein/

Trump’s feud with Musk came to a head last month, when the Tesla chief executive said it was time to drop “the really big bomb.”

“[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote on X at the time.

“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out,” he followed up minutes later.

Trump to Resume Sending Weapons to Ukraine - Trustworthy Friend

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-told-zelensky-he-wasnt-responsible-for-weapons-holdup-f684444b?mod=hp_lead_pos1

The U.S. will send additional defensive arms because Moscow is hitting Kyiv ‘very hard,’ the president says

President Trump said Monday the U.S. would resume providing Ukraine with arms to help it withstand Russian attacks after months of trying without success to draw Moscow into negotiations on ending the war.

Q&A: Iranian War, Investments & Seminary (HaRav Yitzchak Breitowitz)

Eishet Yefat To’ar – Woman Captured in War

 https://aish.com/eishet-yefat-toar-woman-captured-in-war/

I’ll begin by writing that it’s not clear if your astonishment is warranted. The Torah never states that a soldier is permitted to rape a woman on the battlefield – only that if he desires her he may forcibly take her home to be his wife – after she undergoes a lengthy mourning period (and converts to Judaism). This is the simple reading of the Torah – and the explanation followed by a minority of the commentators (Jerusalem Talmud Makkos 2:6, Ramban Deut. 21:13, Da’as Zekainim (21:12)).

In truth, however, the Talmud (Kiddushin 22a, Sanhedrin 21a), Midrash (Sifri, Ki Taitzai 213), most commentators, and Maimonides (Melachim 8:2) all understand the Torah as you are familiar with. And you are right that following that opinion, this section of the Torah is strikingly inconsistent with virtually the entire rest of the Torah and norms of Jewish behavior. And the explanation behind it is a fascinating one.

Jesus & Shabsai Tzvi fell from high levels of holiness to sin - through pride and anger

Shivchei haBesht(#66) Rabbi Joel told me… that Shabbtai Zvi came to the Besht to ask for redemption. Rabbi Joel said in these words: “The tikkun is done through the connection of soul with soul, spirit with spirit and breath with breath” The Besht began to establish the connection moderately. He was afraid as Shabbtai Zvi was a terribly wicked man. Once the Besht was asleep and Shabbtai Zvi may his name be blotted out, came and attempted to tempt him again, G-d forbid. With a mighty thrust the Besht hurled him to the bottom of hell. The Besht peered down and saw that he landed on the same pallet with Yeshu. Rabbi Joel said that the Besht said that Shabbetai Tzevi had a spark of holiness in him but that Satan caught him in his snare, G‑d forbid. The Besht heard that his fall came through pride and anger. I was reluctant to write it down, but nevertheless I did so to show to what exent pride can be dangerous. [in Praise of Baal Shem page 86-87

Rav Tzadok (Machavos Charutz #1):...Therefore the Torah has to command us "Be Holy" You might mistakenly think that means as holy as G-d...[See Vayikra Rabba 24:9]. When a person has reached perfection in holiness until he is comparable to the angels through his free will - the Yetzer HaRah does not leave him alone ever and seduces him with the thought that he can be as holy as G-d literally (mamash). Because of this a person can fall from the greatest heights to the lowest depths c.v. This is in fact what happened to Jesus and Shabsai Tzvi - the name of the wicked should rot. Because of their excessive asceticism their imaginative faculty grew and they thought that they could compare themselves to G-d. This all came about because they saw themselves as holy people....

ספר מחשבות חרוץ - אות א

ועל זה הוצרכה תורה להזהיר קדושים תהיו יכול כמוני תלמוד לומר וכו' (ויקרא רבה סוף פרשה כ"ד, ט') כי כשהוא בתכלית המדריגה מקדושה עד שידמה למלאכי השרת הוא בכח הבחירה שבו אין היצר הרע מניחו לעולם כלל ומסיתו שיוכל להתקדש כביכול כמוהו ממש, ומזה יוכל להפילו מאגרא רמה לבירא עמיקתא חס ושלום כמו שקרה להאיש ולשבתי צבי שם רשעים ירקב על ידי ריבוי פרישותם גבר כח הדמיון שבהם לחשוב שיוכלו לדמות לעליון ובא להם על ידי שחשבו עצמם תחילה קדושים, וזהו שורש הסתת הנחש שמתחיל במועט עד וכו' ותחילתו במחשבה ודמיון ובלבוש החיצוני של מחשבה אלא שנוגע לכל מדריגות שבמחשבה כדאיתא שם:

Golem of the Maharal - Fact or Fiction/Oral history

There is a fascinating article from Dei'ah veDibur regarding the historical reality of the Maharal's Golem. It deals with many of the issues connected to our previous discussion of the nature of the dispute between the Gra and the Chassidim as well as the issue of the Ger Tzedek. In particular it wrestles with the issue of the veracity of oral traditions which are unsupported by other sources. Below are some excerpts. I also included similar concerns expressed by Prof. Marc Shapiro.

The Golem of Prague — Fact or Fiction?

by Binyomin Y. Rabinowitz

The Maharal's Greatest Feat

HaRav Meir Arik zt'l was once asked whether the Maharal of Prague really made a golem. He replied that he didn't know the answer to the question but that the Maharal's having produced a talmid like the Tosafos Yom Tov was a far greater feat! (Zer Zahav, p. 40, Bilgoray 5693 (1933)

Whether or not the Maharal ever made a golem remains unclear. Doubt arises mainly from the failure of the principal historians of the times to mention a word about the subject. In his forthcoming book, Rabbi Yitzchok Nachman Eshkoli (author of Tzaar Baalei Chaim Behalochoh Uve'agoddoh) discusses the nature and laws governing creatures — such as a golem — created according to Sefer Yetziroh. His new book contains many fresh details about the golem story and this article presents his main conclusions about the episode.

In recent years, controversy has once again raged over the veracity of stories that have been published about the Maharal's creation of a golem. Irrespective of the accuracy of these particular tales, it is clear that many holy tzaddikim of previous generations did possess knowledge of the secrets governing the creation of men and animals, based on Sefer Yetziroh.[...]

Fact or Fiction?

It is unclear whether or not the Maharal ever made a golem. The main ground for doubt is the fact that none of the major historians of those times breathe a word on the subject. How, for example, could the famous historian HaRav Dovid Gans, author of Tzemach Dovid (Prague, 5352 [1592]) have entirely omitted to mention it or even to allude to it? He lived in Prague at the time and was in fact a talmid of the Maharal. (Reb Dovid was born in 5301 [1541] and was niftar in Prague on the fifth of Elul 5373 [1613], approximately four years after the Maharal's petiroh.)

How did the Chido zt'l, fail to document the episode in his sefer, Sheim Hagedolim, which recounts the praises of gedolei Yisroel throughout the generations? In the same sefer he doesn't omit to mention that Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem zt'l, the rov of Chelm, created a man using Sefer Yetziroh.

The dayan HaRav Meir Pereles of Prague was a relative of the Maharal's who recorded all his kinsman's biographical information in a Megillas Yuchsin (genealogical record), without mentioning a word about the golem. (Rav Meir wrote the Megillas Yuchsin approximately one hundred years after the Maharal's petiroh, "at the request of the elder Rav Yeshayohu Katz, brother of the great gaon HaRav Naftali Katz, author of Semichas Zekeinim" who were grandsons of the Maharal. Only the editor of the 5649 (1891) edition of Megillas Yuchsin mentions that the Maharal made a golem. Neither is there any mention of the golem on the Maharal's gravestone.

Neither Korei Hadoros (by Rabbi David Konforto zt'l) nor Seder Hadoros (by Rav Yechiel Halperin zt'l) contain the slightest hint of the Maharal's having created a golem.

Amazingly, the first written testimony to the episode only appears 230 or 240 years after the Maharal's petiroh. The first stories about the golem of Prague appeared in a book written in German in 5612 (1852). The story was briefly mentioned fifteen years earlier, in 5597 (1837), but that writer also expresses reservations about its veracity.[...]

Similar views were expressed in Prof. Marc Shapiro's critical review "Of Books and Bans" concerning the Making of a Godol published in the Edah Journal:

Another serious shortcoming is his use of sources–in particular, the hundreds of personal communications he records. While oral history can be valuable, it has to be used carefully and must yield when faced with documentary evidence to the contrary. The haredi culture is in many respects an oral culture, with stories of gedolim told and retold, and with this come distortions and falsehoods. Kamenetsky at times shows that he is aware of this, but only when the oral history is contradicted by another version of oral history or by a reliable written source. Otherwise, he chooses to rely on all sorts of tales. It is one thing when oral history focuses on an event or an oral exchange witnessed by a particular individual–and there are numerous such examples in the book— but often Kamenetsky will record a story he heard from X who heard from Y who heard from Z, sometimes about an event that happened 100 years ago!

Clearly, this does not qualify as history. Again, if this were a book of hagiography, one would expect this type of thing. In that sort of book we would anticipate being told what R. Hayyim Soloveitchik said when he was on a train or how the Rogochover rebuked another gadol in the privacy of their hotel room. But Kamenetsky wants his book to be judged by the standards of historical scholarship, and in this respect it is sorely lacking.

This failure to recognize the unreliability of oral history leads Kamenetsky to take different versions of the same story and try to determine what actually occurred. While there is no doubt a kernel of truth in the basic story, a historian must acknowledge that at this late date it is simply impossible to come to any firm conclusions. Similarly, his detailed and tedious analysis of events, most notably the mission of Max Lilienthal in Russia (pp. 188-257), combine what is best about the book – a gathering together of widely scattered material – with the book's weakness, a reliance on stories and traditions, together with hypotheses, which, at the end of the day, have no basis