Trump Really Was on the Ballot

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/2025-elections-donald-trump-gop-democrats-mikie-sherrill-abigail-spanberger-f9729d9d?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

President Trump on Wednesday blamed Tuesday’s Republican election defeats on the government shutdown and the fact that he wasn’t on the ballot. If he really believes this, the GOP is heading for bigger problems in 2026.

Mr. Trump was on the ballot—not literally, but nonetheless as the main motivating force behind a dominating Democratic turnout. Winning Democratic candidates for Governor in New Jersey and Virginia linked their opponents to Mr. Trump, driving Democratic voters to the polls and erasing the GOP gains in 2024 among Hispanics, black men and independents.

Thanks to Trump’s overreach, Democrats won big

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/05/election-results-trump-exit-polls-democrats-virginia/

They voted blue, no matter who. Democrats swept the off-year elections, largely in response to President Donald Trump’s first nine months back in office. Yet the future of the Democratic Party remains up for grabs.

Most voters said in exit polls that their ballot was intended to send a message to Trump. Every county in Virginia and New Jersey voted more Democratic than in the previous governor’s race. Trump’s gains last year with minorities evaporated.

While being anti-Trump was enough to win this year, and might work again in the midterms, the exit polls reveal that the Democratic brand remains underwater. Spanberger won 20 percent among voters who hold an unfavorable view of her party, and Sherrill won 17 percent. In the New York mayor’s race, Zohran Mamdani won 33 percent.

Satan was the father of Caine

 Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezar (21:01). Sammael riding on the serpent came to her, and she conceived; afterwards Adam came to her, and she conceived Abel, as it is said, "And Adam knew Eve his wife". What is the meaning of "knew"? He knew that she had conceived. And she saw his likeness that it was not of the earthly beings, but of the heavenly beings, and she prophesied  and said: "I have gotten a man with the Lord". 

Trump wasn’t on the ballot on Tuesday — but still took a major loss

 https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/trump-election-2025-loss-democrats-win-rcna242024

President Donald Trump’s name may not have been on the ballot Tuesday, but he suffered a resounding defeat anyway as voters rejected Republican candidates and registered their strong disapproval of how the president is doing his job.

From gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, to the mayoral race in Trump’s hometown, to a redistricting measure in California, Americans opposed Trump’s endorsed candidates and expressed deep dissatisfaction with the country's direction while signaling their dismay with the cost of living and their financial situations.

As the results became clear, the president took to social media to say the first election during his second term had nothing to do with him. "'TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,” Trump posted.

When did MAGA become Make Argentina Great Again?

 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/when-did-maga-become-make-argentina-great-again

While farmers wind down the harvest season without their previously reliable customers, like China, lined up to buy their product, you’d think the administration might reignite its "Farmers First" agenda. Instead, President Trump is using his power to boost one of our top agricultural competitors and kick American farmers while they’re down. Enter: his $40 billion taxpayer-funded bailout to Argentina.

In fact, the only people who will benefit from this bailout are President Trump and his ally, Argentine President Javier Milei, whose corrupt politics have driven Argentina into an economic crisis. Well, and the Wall Street financiers who placed bad bets on his unstable economy.

If there is any semblance of truth to "Farmers First" – or "America First," for that matter – President Trump should end his affair with Argentina and focus on the Americans struggling here at home.

Two competing views of Marriage

  Berachos (8a) For this let every one that is godly pray unto Thee in the time of finding. R. Hanina says: In the time of finding’ refers to [the finding of] a wife. For it is said: Whoso findeth a wife findeth a great good.

The above indicates marriage entails finding that which was lost. In other words marriage partners are preordained and the task is recovery of what was lost. This is the idea of basherte found in various places in the Talmud and is now the dominant view

This is contrasted by the gemora with the view it ascibes to Israel as opposed to Babylonia

Berachos (8a) In the West (Israel) they used to ask a man who married a wife thus: Maza or Moze? Maza , for it is written: Whoso findeth [maza] a wife findeth a great good. Moze, for it is written: And I find [moze] more bitter than death the woman.

The question is raised why ask the man only after he married  whether he got a good or bad wife? If it is preordained he needs to simply accept his lot. If not preordained he should be asked before they get married? And why was this viewed as an Israeli practise only and not Babylonian? The Chida answers that in Bavel they learned Torah prior to marriage and this protected them from a bad wife. In Israel they learned Torah only after marriage and had no protection. It is important to note that the Rambam in Shemona Perkim strongly rejects the idea of besherte

One of the commentaries in the Ein Yakov says this question was raised to remind the man that whether the marriage is good or bad is determined by constant effort

In other words in Bavel marriage involves primarily finding a lost part and thus involves only one significant event while the view in |Israel is that marriage is a life long process. 

Democrats win across the spectrum as voters reject Trump

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/04/politics/election-takeaways-new-york-new-jersey-virginia

Voters up and down the East Coast delivered Democrats a sweep on Tuesday, electing candidates across the party’s ideological spectrum in a vivid show of discontent with President Donald Trump nearly a year into his second term.

The Democratic wins by candidates with sharp ideological differences will do little to settle the party’s long-raging internal debate about its way forward, with a host of competitive midterm primaries just months away and the 2028 presidential primary already looming.

But their campaigns had some things in common. Though their solutions were different, the candidates focused on the issue of affordability. And they were all fiercely critical of Trump’s performance.

A Letter Every Lawyer Should Read

 https://vinnews.com/2025/11/04/a-letter-every-lawyer-should-read

I am a lawyer. I take money to tear families apart. I specialize in divorce, which is a polite way of saying I weaponize the law for whoever pays me. My current client has what I used to call “control issues” before I stopped using clinical terms to describe what I enable. She doesn’t want her ex-husband to see their daughter. She doesn’t want his parents—people who once rocked that child to sleep, who celebrated her first steps, who love her—to see her either. I help her do this.

I draft the motions. I coach her testimony. I know exactly which phrases make a judge hesitate, which insinuations plant doubt without proof. I am very good at what I do. Do I enjoy this? I used to tell myself no. Now I’m not sure I’m capable of honest self-reflection anymore. I rationalize it the way every lawyer learns to rationalize: if I don’t take this case, someone else will. Someone less skilled, perhaps, who won’t win as decisively. At least I’m competent. At least I’m professional. At least I return phone calls promptly.

‘Hakirah’ Explores Chassidic Origin of Hashgacha Pratis

 https://anash.org/hakirah-explores-chassidic-origin-of-hashgacha-pratis

Virtually all of contemporary Orthodox Jewry believes that hashgacḥa pratis affects the entirety of Creation and every occurrence including the most minor details, and this belief is manifest in their daily lives. Yet Orthodox Jews are generally not aware that this doctrine, so common today, only became dominant starting in the eighteenth century, nor are they familiar with its rather complex history since that time.

Moreh Nevuchim (3:17-18) “I do not believe that a leaf falls as a result of Divine Providence, not that this spider devours this specific fly as a result of Divine Decree...I do not believe that...when a fish snatches a specific worm floating on a river that such was the will of G-d. Rather this was all through absolute chance, as Aristotle contends

Moreh Nevuchim (3:17-18) : 1)      The first view is the claim of some people that there is no Divine Providence at all regarding anything in existence, and everything...is merely the result of chance...this is pure heresy (or alternately the view of Epicurus).2)      The second is the view that over some things there is Divine Providence... but other things are left to chance. This is the view of Aristotle. 3)      The third view...is that nothing in existence is the result of chance, not specific individuals nor general groups...This is the view held by the Muslim school known as Asharites. 4)      The forth view is...that all divine acts are a result of Divine Wisdom which can bear no injustice (even in regard to animals and inanimate objects). This is the (Muslim) school of Mu’tzalites[, where a guiltless mouse that is devoured by a cat will be compensated in Heaven.5)      The fifth view is the Torah view that...man is completely in control of his actions...and everything that occurs to man is fitting to occur as a result of Divine Providence.

Shomer Emunim (2:81) “Nothing occurs by accident, without intention and Divine Providence. This is learned out from the verse; ‘And I will walk with you in chance (be’keri).’ From this we see that even the state of apparent ‘chance’ is actually Providence. “But that does not apply to the non-human species...whether this ant will be trodden upon or saved. There is no special Providence for animals and certainly not for plants and minerals, as they are governed by species and not individuals. Whatever occurs to individual animals, plants and objects is purely by chance, and not by Divine Decree – unless it is ultimately connected to humankind

Due to anti-Israel bias: Wikipedia founder blocks edits to 'Gaza genocide'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/669774

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales personally intervened Sunday to block user edits to the site’s “Gaza genocide” article, citing severe anti-Israel bias and a violation of Wikipedia’s neutrality standards, the New York Post reported.

Wales criticized the article’s opening sentence, which refers to a “Gaza genocide” without attribution, presenting the claim as fact rather than a contested allegation.

“This article fails to meet our high standards and needs immediate attention,” he wrote, referencing Wikipedia’s policies on neutrality and attribution.

The intervention sparked debate among Wikipedia editors. Some praised Wales for restoring neutrality, while others accused him of yielding to political pressure and questioned his ties to Israel. Wales has reportedly visited Israel at least ten times and received the Dan David Prize from Tel Aviv University in 2015.

The price Israel paid to save the hostages

 https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-price-israel-paid-to-save-the-hostages/

Even though it's Trump, Israel's great friend in the White House, we should say plainly: the very idea of giving Turkey any role in Gaza, a country that even after the massacre still hosts Hamas terrorists on its soil, is a grave moral distortion.

Erdogan is currently far more troubling and dangerous for Israel and the West than Mamdani. His personality, his moves, his plans and, above all, the religious and ideological engine that directs his path are urgent and necessary subjects for examination. Admittedly, the Turkish president played a decisive role in securing the release of hostages by applying heavy pressure on his protégé, the Hamas terrorist organization. We found ourselves in a situation in which, to save hostages, there was no choice but to speak and do business even with the devil. But now the moment has come to internalize, explain and understand that this is indeed the devil.

PM rules out granting safe passage to 200 Hamas gunmen stuck in IDF-held Rafah

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-rules-out-granting-safe-passage-to-200-hamas-gunmen-stuck-in-idf-held-rafah

Following reports on Monday that Israel was considering granting terrorists hiding in tunnels safe passage from Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip to the Hamas-run zone, a statement attributed to an “Israeli official” — often a euphemism for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office — said the premier “is not allowing safe passage for 200 Hamas terrorists.”

According to Israeli estimates, some 200 Hamas gunmen are currently located in the tunnels underneath the IDF-controlled parts of southern Gaza, especially in Rafah, and are unable to retreat to the Hamas-controlled areas without emerging from their tunnels and being spotted by Israeli troops

UK lawmaker says there is now a ‘constituency for hating Jews’ in formerly friendly Britain

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-lawmaker-says-there-is-now-a-constituency-for-hating-jews-in-formerly-friendly-britain

Following Manchester terror attack, Blue Labour leader Maurice Glasman says working-class Brits are ‘last bulwark’ against rising antisemitism brought on by progressivism and migrants

Gay marriage vs Israel

 As we all know, there are those in our communities who are supporting Cuomo for NYC Mayor as an evil, albeit a lesser one, vis-a-vis Assemblyman Mamdani, in their (flawed, in our view) analysis. As we've explained on our radio program repeatedly over the past several weeks, we argue that their arguments are encumbered by faulty presumptions about the relative dangers presented by Cuomo vis-à-vis Mamdani. However, that's not our focus at the moment. (Cuomo, given his experience, contacts, and persona, actually poses a considerably graver danger of successfully implementing much of what Mamdani flamboyantly talks about, beyond what Cuomo has already perpetrated in those areas, including spiking crime.)

Unfortunately, some who purport to represent our views and/or interests are supporting Cuomo as a good person, a "friend" (sic) of our communities, כביכול, a qualified leader - whom we ostensibly should support per se', not just as a lesser evil. Such support for a one-man crime-wave - especially under the guise of Orthodox "leadership" - is disgusting beyond description.

Some Background:

Predictably, some of the community organizers aligned with Cuomo, for their own self-centered reasons, opted early on to collaborate in the unforgivable political rehabilitation of the prime-mover behind same-sex marriage (SSM) in NY - Andrew Cuomo.* 

[* Passage of SSM in NY in June 2011 predictably led to a cascading effect, culminating in reaching a critical mass of supporting - enabling five miscreant judges on the US Supreme Court to get away with sanctioning SSM four years later (in the infamous June 2015 Obergefell edict).]

This is no minor objection, as you may imagine reading some of what passes for news reportage in some quarters. Recognition of SSM triggered the annihilation of the world via the Flood, as Chazal exhort us (Midrash Rabbah 23:9 on Va'Yikra 18:3).  Rav Shmuel Faivelson, ZT"L, talmid muvhak of Rav Aharon Kotler ZY"A, over two decades ago, explained the Gemara in Chullin 92b - stating that writing same-sex marriage contracts is a sin that even the depraved amongst the nations of the world have traditionally avoided. He related that this Gemara indicates that the entire existence of the world is predicated on compliance with that prohibition. Once they they start undermining observance of that core commandment - they endanger the very existence of civilization.*

{* This is precisely what I meant when I was prominently quoted in the media years ago stating that recognition of SSM poses an "existential threat."}

To rehabilitate Cuomo after all of his iniquities, including his pivotal role in SSM - and after his subsequent, well-deserved, and miraculous fall from power - is an unforgivable evil.

Additionally, the aforementioned askonim behind the exhumation of the political career of Cuomo have been promoting someone who's ego-driven run - in a race he had almost been guaranteed to lose - is perhaps the biggest asset for the Mamdani campaign. Cuomo's greatest accomplishment heretofore had been that he's impeded others - far more qualified (=less criminal) - from getting a fair chance to put up a realistic opposition to Mamdani.

To those self-serving individuals, we offer congratulations: "You Pick Spoilers"...

Whatever happens - we must never, ever forget what Cuomo did, and, more fundamentally, what he is. The same applies to those inexcusably enabling him as a good person, who is a "friend" of the Jewish community.

We urge all recipients to please share this in the manner you deem fit, and to please consider doing what you may be able to do to counter this horrific חילול השם בפרהסיא.

We dare not forget:

מאריך אפיה - וגביה דיליה.

And:

מידה טובה מרובה (ערש"י על המשנה מכות סוף דף כ"ג ע"א).

Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,

Executive Director,

Help Rescue Our Children

845.642.1679

Direct: 771.215.8892

Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337

torahjewsfordecency@gmail.com

Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]: 

Tomim1679@gmail.com

Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2

Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).