'Will live forever as a stain on this country': Nicolle on bodycam footage from Newark mayor arrest

Judge blocks Trump’s National Guard deployment in Portland for second time

 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/05/national-guard-oregon-california-rurling-00594606

During an unusual Sunday night telephone hearing, Immergut said the Trump administration’s maneuvers appeared to be a deliberate attempt to circumvent her initial decision.

“I am certainly troubled by now hearing that both California and Texas National Guard are being sent into Oregon, which does appear to be in direct contravention of my order,” Immergut said, describing the latest deployments as a violation of federal law and the Tenth Amendment, which protects state sovereignty.

Immergut agreed with attorneys for California and Oregon, who said the new deployments appeared to be intended to outrun the court. She repeatedly pressed Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton about whether he believed the administration had complied with her order.

400 Texas National Guard headed to Illinois, Oregon

 https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5540091-pritzker-national-guard-illinois-texas-oregon/?tbref=hp

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) on Sunday said that hundreds of Texas National Guard members were headed to his state and Oregon and labeled it “Trump’s Invasion.”

In recent months, Trump has sent the National Guard to multiple cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn., angering local residents and Democrats. 

Spike in coronavirus cases: 'I was sure I was going to die'

 https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/sytkc91plg#google_vignette

“We’ve seen a slightly more significant wave of COVID-19 over the past three months, and we are now in the midst of that wave,” said Professor Tal Brosh, head of infectious diseases at the Assuta Ashdod public hospital and head of the Health Ministry’s epidemic response team. He sought to reassure the public: “These are not the huge waves we saw in 2021-22 when hundreds of thousands of Israelis were infected one after another and hospital wards filled. Since the start of COVID there has always been ongoing illness, sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less. It comes in waves, and most of the time it simply doesn’t interest the public.”

Federal judge blocks Trump's National Guard deployment to Portland amid constitutional challenge

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/federal-judge-blocks-trumps-national-guard-deployment-portland-amid-constitutional-challenge

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut ruled the action was unlawful and unconstitutional, issuing an emergency temporary restraining order to halt the deployment of California’s National Guard. The order also bars the use of troops from any other state or Washington, D.C. in Oregon.

"It appears to violate both 10 U.S.C. §12406 and the Tenth Amendment," Immergut said during the proceeding, according to reporting from Adam Klasfeld of AllRise News.

Immergut also pressed Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton on why the DOJ continued to pursue troop movements.

"How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention of the TRO that I issued yesterday?" she asked.

"You’re an officer of the court. Aren’t defendants circumventing my order?"

DOJ representatives requested a stay, but Immergut denied both the stay and the administrative delay, saying it was an "emergency" and there were no new facts to justify the request to change her previous ruling.

White House Responds to Trump Judge Stopping National Guard in Portland

 https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-trump-judge-national-guard-oregon-portland-california-10831824

Senior White House official Stephen Miller accused the federal judge who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's deployment of any National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, of "one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen."

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who is a Trump appointee, granted a temporary restraining order Sunday sought by California and Oregon, blocking Trump's attempt to deploy California National Guard troops to Oregon. It was a day after she had blocked his previous move to deploy Oregon's National Guard.

Miracles, Nature and what Lies Between: Ramban on Hashgacha

 https://etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/issues-jewish-thought/issues-mussar-and-faith/miracles-nature-and-what-lies-between

In the past few shiurim I have investigated the Rambam's understanding of hashgacha at length.  As I mentioned at the end of the last shiur, this position, though very important in creating space for a conception of nature that matches our modern sensibilities, also tends to leave us with the sense that it goes too far.  In protecting his conception of God as a transcendent Being, the Rambam runs the risk of propounding what amounts to a nearly secular theology.  The living God of the Bible who is passionately concerned with His people is replaced by a remote First Cause about whom “concern” is at best a metaphor stretched to the limit. 

your disgusting blog

It is important to note that there are many who don't understand that a massive earthquake has happened that needs to be addressed. I have been getting a significant amount of letters like this and personal confrontations with people who have very strong opinions against what I am doing as well as Rav Sternbuch. I am simply waiting for the rabbinic leadership to assume responsibility for investigating this mess and making changes that will prevent it from happening again. This scandal is not simply that one Jew had strong appetites - he was given too much power and his deviations were ignored by too many who should have done something about it. Also contrary to what is asserted in this letter it is clear that those in power either read or are informed of what I say on my blog and thus there is clearly a to'eles

======================================

It is a disgrace and abomination that you invoke the name or any other reference to the gedolei hador who are domeh lemalachim Rav Moshe ZT”L and the Chofetz Chaim ZT”L anywhere on this disgusting blog of yours.

While I don’t disagree with your views per se, we as laymen can just talk and right about anything as long as we long as we are entertained and then stop when we are bored with it. The rabbonim whoever they may be or however much you or I hold of them actually have to deal with the matters at hand until there is a resolution. So lets not be throwing around our opinions that nobody else besides for ourselves particularly values. Because however on the mark you are about the case you are championing currently or any other nobody who carries any weight on these issues lemaaseh are reading any silly blogs. It is of no toeles to have a blog unless it is purely informational (not current events) for whatever use.

                Also I am sure we both agree that there are extreme dangers on the internet and even if one must use it, it must be recognized that the internet is shiflius and tamei while our  gedolim such as mentioned above are kadosh v’tahor and their names and likenesses should be kept off this lowly tool.

                As you can obviously see I am not trying to talk down to you or trying to be “better than thou” because it is apparent that I too am not using the internet purely for work and I am no stranger to loshon horah myself.

However I am just trying to be meorrer a point that hopefully will have an impact on both of us and many others as well.

                                Respectfully,

                                             xxx  

  P.S.  I must tell you that I appreciate your work on both maftechos and if I were you I would be satisfied having my name associated solely with those great works instead of also with  something as looked down upon as a blog.

Maharal:G-d's tears & science - earthquakes & G-d's influence on nature

Berachos(59a): As R’ Kattina passed the gates of the magician Oba Timei an earthquake occurred. He said: Does Oba Timei know what the reason for earthquakes? The magician replied: Of course I know. When G‑d thinks about His children who are sunk in suffering amongst the nations of the world, He sheds two tears into the ocean and the earthquake is the resulting sound that reverberates from one end of the world to the other. R’ Kattina replied:” The magician is a liar and his words are wrong because according to his explanation the earthquake should be followed by the aftershock of the second tear!” In fact however earthquakes are followed by an aftershock and the reason why R’ Kattina did not acknowledge the correctness of the explanation was so that people should not pay attention to the magician. R’ Kattina explained earthquakes resulting from G‑d clapping His hands together out of anger. R’ Nathan explained them as resulting from G‑d sighing from sadness. The Rabbis said that it is G‑d walking on the Heavens. R’ Acha b. Yaakov said: It results from G‑d pressing His feet together beneath His throne. …

Maharal (Be’er HaGolah #4): Berachos (59a): As R' Kattina passed the gates of the magician Oba Timei an earthquake occurred. … To properly understand this gemora you must be aware that our sages were not primarily concerned with a scientific description of the physical world. Even though it is obvious that there is a physical basis of earthquakes, our sages focused not on the laws of nature but rather G d's influence on the physical mechanism…G d in fact controls everything but works through the processes of nature…. This is an extremely fundamental principle on which is built the principle of faith… In contrast, the scientists when they investigate physical phenomenon such as earthquakes, thunder etc., assume that nature is all there is. They look at proximate causal relations and ignore the ultimate cause—the Creator of nature. However, our Sages …learned from Moshe Rabbeinu that the view of the scientists was incomplete. … Therefore, our Sages knew that these things are produced by natural processes, however G d is the initiator of all natural phenomena and thus nature is merely a messenger for G d. It is important to know that wherever the Sages use this type of language, they don't intended to actually describe G d, Heaven forbid! The description is simply a form that is comprehensible to the human mind. Thus, they are describing things from the point of view of the audience. This is an incredibly important principle which manifests itself in esoteric medrashim….

Sukkot: From Fear to Festivities – Rabbi Weinreb

 https://www.ou.org/holidays/rabbi_weinrebs_torah_column_sukkot

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch said it best when he wrote:

“The building of the sukkah teaches you trust in God. You know that whether men live in huts or in palaces, it is only as pilgrims that they dwell. You know that in this pilgrimage God is our protection. The sukkah is a transitory hut that one day will leave us or we will leave it. The walls may fall, the leafy covering may wither in this storm, but the sheltering love of God is everywhere. You dwell in the most fleeting and transitory dwelling as calmly and securely as if it were your house forever.”

And so this week, we undergo what scientists call a paradigm shift. We experience a different set of religious emotions, emerging from a deeply felt solemnity into a sense of calm security.

Sukkot and Living in the Age of Insecurity

https://aish.com/sukkot-and-living-in-the-age-of-insecurity 

Rashbam (Rashi’s grandson) says the sukkah was there to remind the Israelites of their past so that, at the very moment they were feeling the greatest satisfaction at living in Israel – at the time of the ingathering of the produce of the land – they should remember their lowly origins. They were once a group of refugees without a home, living in a favela or a shanty town, never knowing when they would have to move on. Sukkot, says Rashbam, is integrally connected to the warning Moses gave the Israelites at the end of his life about the danger of security and affluence:

Sukkot, on this reading, becomes a metaphor for the Jewish condition not only during the forty years in the desert but also the almost 2,000 years spent in exile and dispersion. For centuries Jews lived, not knowing whether the place in which they lived would prove to be a mere temporary dwelling. To take just one period as an example: Jews were expelled from England in 1290, and during the next two centuries from almost every country in Europe, culminating in the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, and the Portuguese in 1497. They lived in a state of permanent insecurity. Sukkot is the festival of insecurity.

President Trump’s perfect world

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/415827

Netanyahu mostly listened as Trump put forth an ambitious and optimistic 20-point program to end the fighting in Gaza.

Sounds good, as good as Neville Chamberlain’s “peace for our time,” Sept. 30, 1938, when men of goodwill didn’t see what’s coming less than a year later.

I say, good, let the optimists prevail…until reality sets in.

Some of us, those of us who do not live in Trump’s perfect world, remain far more skeptical overall.

Anyway, haven’t we already watched this movie dozens of times over the past two years? it is called Cinderella.

My guess, as a realist; Hamas will come back with counter offers.

$1 Trump coin draft is ‘real,’ US Treasurer says

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/03/business/trump-coin-treasurer-250-anniversary

It’s not clear the controversial coin design will be minted: It’s against US law to display the image of a sitting president or living former president. A president may be featured on a coin no sooner than two years following the president’s death.

“No coin issued under this subsection may bear the image of a living former or current President, or of any deceased former President during the 2-year period following the date of the death of that President,” according to the US code governing coin design.

Christopher Hitchens BLASTS Donald Trump’s Cult of Ignorance