In reality - how to deal with the consensus view of women as subordinate?

I have presented a number of posts regarding the Torah attitude towards women - in particular in marriage -  where they are clearly described as being subordinate to their husbands. As a consequence I have been attacked by some for being a nut or intellectual dishonesty - though no one has presented the "true" Torah view that contradicts what I have presented and no one has explained why an objective scholarly approach is a sign of being a nut. Clearly some people want their Judaism sanitized and subordinate to their own views i.e, they want to create G-d in their own image.

I have been criticized by those who claim that it is inappropriate or even a chilul haShem for daring to mention what the consensus of our traditional mainstream sources about women. Meaning that while they agree that my posts are accurately presenting the Torah view - it is best  if people are ignorant of how our rabbis tell us how the Torah views women and marriage. That is a rather bizarre claim. On the one hand we are to dedicate our lives to learning about and living  according to what rabbis tell us is G-d's will - but at the same time we are not supposed to learn what the Torah says about certain topics because that is a chilul HaShem?! How can G-d's will be a chilul HaShem?

On the other hand it is also accurately claimed that women and society are different today and that therefore they need to be treated differently the classic sources say. This is explained either that the Torah is outdated - chas v'shalom or that there are kabbalistic ideas which indicate as we come into Messianic times i.e., after 1740 - that women's role will come to be equal and perhaps superior to that of men. The only problem is that these kabbalistic views are minority opinions which are not very clear and have no basis in traditional sources and seemed to be used as a fig leave to cover the embarrassing consensus views.

I would like to start a serious discussion about how to reconcile the traditional views - which clearly are not acceptable to many if not most frum women and men - but which at the same time clearly represent the traditional consensus views of our greatest rabbis throughout history. Does this mean that the only solution is for people to submit themselves to the traditional view? Or as Rav Solveitchik put it, "we sacrificed out intellects on Mt. Sinai?" I think that there are alternatives.

I would appreciate if some people can contain their hysteric comments. I am concerned with reality - the reality of Torah and the reality of modern men and women. Any reconciliation has to be within the framework of traditional halachic reasoning and principles. This is a discussion for mature adults who are committed to the Torah and halacha. I am not interested in a solution which in essence says to abandon Yiddishkeit. And it really doesn't help in arriving at an answer by shooting at me - I am simply the messenger[to be continued]

Musk slams Trump defense of Bondi on Epstein controversy: ‘Just release the files as promised’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5398685-elon-musk-criticizes-trump-over-epstein-case/

Tech billionaire Elon Musk blasted President Trump on Saturday over his defense of Attorney General Pam Bondi and her handling of the case related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Musk, in a post on the social platform X late Saturday, responded to another X user, who screenshotted Trump’s Truth Social statement earlier that day and wrote, “This is in the running for worst post ever made.”

“Seriously,” Musk said, agreeing with that sentiment about Trump’s post. “He said ‘Epstein’ half a dozen times while telling everyone to stop talking about Epstein.”

“Just release the files as promised,” Musk added.

Musk, a few minutes later, responded to a separate post calling the Epstein case Trump’s “Achilles’ heel,” rebuking the president for pledging to release the files on the campaign trail and now dismissing the significance of the case.

Elon Breaks Silence on Trump’s Epstein File Demand to MAGA

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-breaks-silence-on-donald-trumps-epstein-file-demand/

Elon Musk has added his voice to the chorus of conservatives calling on President Donald Trump to release the Epstein files “as promised,” hours after the president pleaded with MAGA to end its civil 

Polls show American backlash as Trump breaks promise to focus on criminals in anti-immigrant crusade

Bannon warns GOP could lose 40 House seats over Epstein files

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5398104-steve-bannon-donald-trump-epstein-files-2026-midterms/

Former White House aide Steve Bannon suggested Friday that the GOP could lose dozens of House seats in the 2026 midterms over the Trump administration’s handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“You’re going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we ain’t gonna … we’re gonna lose 40 seats in ’26,” he told a live audience during his “War Room” podcast. “We’re gonna lose the president.”

The 'Manosphere' Starts to Turn on Trump

 The 'Manosphere' Starts to Turn on Trump

It was once hard to imagine Joe Rogan, Tim Dillon and Andrew Schulz—three of the loudest voices in the right's online culture—openly criticizing Donald Trump. They were cornerstones of his appeal among young, anti-establishment male voters, whom he rode to a decisive election victory in November.

Now, however, they're questioning whether the man who promised to drain the "deep state" has instead become part of it, while flirting with the very elites he once vowed to expose — and leaving some of his loudest supporters openly entertaining the idea that "America First" might now belong to the socialists and a younger generation of Democrats.

"The only party right now, that to me seems 'America First,' is the Democrat Socialist party," the influencer said Schulz on his Flagrant podcast on July 10.

Rogan, arguably the most prominent among them, and whose endorsement some analysts credit with boosting Trump's re-election, has repeatedly slammed Trump's immigration agenda. He called the administration's ICE raids "insane," saying they targeted "construction workers and gardeners" instead of criminals.

"The Trump administration—if they're running and they say, 'We're going to go to Home Depot and arrest all the people at Home Depot, we're going to construction sites and just tackle people at construction sites'—I don't think anybody would have signed up for that," Rogan said on his show on June 18.

17th of Tammuz: Who Fasts and who is Exempt

 https://en.yhb.org.il/17th-of-tammuz-who-fasts-and-who-is-exempt/

In the intermediate situation – when the Temple is destroyed, but we are not plagued with harsh decrees, as was the case during Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi’s lifetime – the status of these fasts depends on the will of the Jewish people: “If they want to fast, they do so; if they do not want to fast, they do not fast.”  This is the law regarding the tenth of Tevet, the seventeenth of Tammuz, and the Fast of Gedaliah.  Regarding Tish’a B’Av, however, the matter does not depend on the nation’s will, and everyone is obligated to fast, even in the intermediate situation, because both Temples were destroyed on that day (Rosh HaShanah 18b).

In practice, the Jewish people are accustomed to observing all the fasts, even in the intermediate situation.  Therefore all Jews are obligated to fast on these days.  This is the halakha until the Beit HaMikdash is rebuilt, speedily in our days, when the fast days will become joyous festivals.

17th of Tammuz: History, Laws and Customs

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/479885/jewish/The-17th-of-Tammuz.htm

The fast of the 17th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, known as Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, is the start of a three-week mourning period for the destruction of Jerusalem and the two Holy Temples.

The fast actually commemorates five tragic events that occurred on this date:

Moses broke the tablets when he saw the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.

During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering the daily sacrifices due to the lack of sheep.

Apostomos burned the holy Torah.1

An idol was placed in the Holy Temple.2

The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, in 69 CE, after a lengthy siege. (Three weeks later, after the Jews put up a valiant struggle, the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av.)

The Jerusalem Talmud maintains that this is also the date when the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem on their way to destroying the first Temple.

Sex abuse case rocks Israel's ultra-Orthodox community

 https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/07/11/sex-abuse-case-rocks-israel-s-ultra-orthodox-community_6743285_4.html

A sexual assault case has shaken Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, after the suspect was named and revealed to have volunteered alongside the police in a predominantly religious Jewish city.

According to Israeli media, at least six people have filed complaints against him. A rabbinical court headed by the chief rabbi of the northern city of Safed called on the victims to testify. "It is a religious obligation to testify, there is no shame in doing so," Shmuel Eliyahu wrote in a letter released by his office on Friday. "These crimes are as serious as murder in the eyes of the Torah."

Antisemitsm is the result of jealousy

Bamidbar (22:3) Moab was alarmed because that people was so numerous. Moab dreaded the Israelites,

Netziv (Bamidbar 22:3)  Moav was scared after seeing the Jewish Gedolim. They were not afraid that they would harm them since that is not what elevated people do. It was the result of observing how superior the Jews were and that they were relatively insignificant. It was this experience of inferiority which cause them to be afraid and thus to disloike the Jews

According to this understanding thr recent project to combat antisemitism by publicing the good deeds of Jews is bound to fail. 

FBI's Dan Bongino clashes with AG Bondi over handling of Epstein files

 https://www.axios.com/2025/07/11/epstein-files-dan-bongino-pam-bondi-trump

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took a day off from work Friday after clashing at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, four sources familiar with the conflict told Axios.

The blowup involving Trump's senior law enforcement officials showed just how much the administration has been rocked by its handling of the Epstein case.

X ordered its Grok chatbot to ‘tell like it is.’ Then the Nazi tirade began.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/07/11/grok-ai-elon-musk-antisemitism/

A tech company employee who went on an antisemitic tirade like X’s Grok chatbot did this week would soon be out of a job. Spewing hate speech to millions of people and invoking Adolf Hitler is not something a CEO can brush aside as a worker’s bad day at the office.

But after the chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s start-up xAI ranted for hours about a second Holocaust and spread conspiracy theories about Jewish people, the company responded by deleting some of the troubling posts and sharing a statement suggesting the chatbot just needed some algorithmic tweaks.

But after the chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s start-up xAI ranted for hours about a second Holocaust and spread conspiracy theories about Jewish people, the company responded by deleting some of the troubling posts and sharing a statement suggesting the chatbot just needed some algorithmic tweaks.

The incident, which was horrifying even by the standards of a platform that has become a haven for extreme speech, has raised uncomfortable questions about accountability when AI chatbots go rogue. When an automated system breaks the rules, who bears the blame, and what should the consequences be?

Trump Isn’t Rebuilding the U.S. Military

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-isnt-rebuilding-the-u-s-military-national-security-defense-spending-266b41e6?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

The President’s 2026 budget, like Biden’s, is an after-inflation cut in defense.

The U.S. bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear sites was an impressive military feat, but don’t let that success fool you. The B-2 bombers are nearly 30 years old, and the U.S. has only 19 of them in service. The military is in worse shape than President Trump claims, and he’s ducking the second-term rearmament he promised.

The White House is touting its $1 trillion defense budget for 2026. Mr. Trump has also taken a deserved bow for getting NATO to agree to spend 5% of GDP on defense.

Silence is beneficial to abusers

 Excerpts translated from current Hebrew Mishpacha - an interview with Dayan \Tzvi Braverman of Beitar by Aryeh Erlich pages 82-84

"I spoke this week at a rabbinic convention. There are some mitzvos that apply specifically to men while some are specifally applicable to women Some apply specifically to cohanim. Some are especially relevant to rabbis. One such mitzva is "do not be afraid of any man" Lo saguru Mipnei Ish. Any rabbi who has a problem with this mitzva is like a cohen gadol who refuses to offer all the required sacrifices but only wants to burn incense and some sacrifices.  We say to him "Why don't you want to fulfill your duty?" We remove him from his position and replace him with a cohen who will fulfill all his duties. The same is true with community leaders. This is an absolute mimimal requirement that no leader can avoid. We are talking here of actual spilling of blood that is occurring in our streets near our homes. Literally under our noses. Turning a blind eye  is not an option in any form"

He was asked if it is appropriate to bring this topic up in newspapers?  He answered actually the opposite is true. This is like a shofar in your hand with which you can save by arousing  and awakening the public and thus help many. Everyday that passes without dealing with this topic it gets worse and claims more victims. It is another day of destruction of life.  Another generation will grow up paying the heavy price. More families will be totally destroyed. Thus it is an obligation for every newspaper columist and writer to bring up this topic. They should not write sensationalism to frighten nor shall they remain silent. The primary focus should be to get the community leaders to take responsibilty for the problem and not to continue supporting the perpetrators. Rav Braverman continued by admitting he was speaking harshly but noted it that the present situation must be described. These problems are coming to community leaders but instead of dealing seriously with the problem  they simply ignore them. They don't remember that mercy shown to the perperators is cruelty to the victims. It is important to note that rarely will the perpetrators be satisfied with only one or two victims. These cases rarely involve only a single incident.  There are some perpetrators who succeed in harming tens and even hundreds of victims. These disgusting serious attacks continue because of the silence and mercy being shown to them.  The result is destruction of the victims psychologically, physically and even spiritually. . A large per centage of those who have left religion in our time have done so because of the scars resulting from harsh .abuse in childhood.