Hegseth compares media to Jewish biblical group that clashed with Jesus

 https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5834226-hegseth-media-iran-war-criticism/?tbref=hp

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday complained about an “endless stream of garbage” from the media in its coverage of the Iran war, comparing the Pentagon press corps to the Pharisees, the biblical Jewish group that often clashed with Jesus.

“The Pharisees — the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time — they were there to witness, to write everything down, to report,” the Defense chief continued. “But … even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda.”

He added that reporters “are just like these Pharisees,” as “politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors.”

Trump’s war with Iran has left prospects for North Korea talks on life support -Will Trump bomb North Korea?

 https://www.nknews.org/2026/04/trumps-war-with-iran-has-left-prospects-for-north-korea-talks-on-life-support/

Over a month into the U.S. war with Iran, the repercussions for North Korea are coming into focus, and they aren’t good.

The U.S. decision to attack an adversary in the middle of nuclear talks — going so far as to take out its leadership — will be raising alarm bells in Pyongyang.

For one, the developments in Iran once again confirm what North Korean decision-makers have believed for decades: Nuclear deterrence is the only reliable guarantee of both national survival and regime security. 

One can argue that the attack itself was triggered by Iran’s pursuit of such a deterrent. But from Pyongyang’s perspective, Iran has now joined the long list of states that were attacked and devastated because they failed to go nuclear while they still had the chance.

What Is Divine Providence? Chabad

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1409433/jewish/Hashgacha.htm

Although, without exception, classical Jewish thinkers acknowledge G‑d’s thorough dominion and omniscience “from the horns of the wild oxen to the tiniest louse,” nevertheless, two distinct approaches to His hashgacha can be discerned within classic Jewish texts:

From the plain meaning of scriptural, talmudic and midrashic texts emerges a view of G‑d intimately involved in every detail of His works, providing even “to the fledgling raven that for which it cries.”

Jewish philosophers, however, saw G‑d in a more passive role. To them, the degree of divine supervision corresponds directly to one’s transcendence of earthly matters. A tzaddik is wrapped up in G‑d’s supervision in every detail of his life, whereas a coarse, materialistic person is cast into a world of haphazard, natural causes along with animals and flora. In this lower realm, the philosophers see hashgacha applying only insofar as an event affects the divine plan. Yet, even according to this view, “chance circumstance has its source in Him, for everything stems from Him and is controlled by His supervision.”

The Baal Shem Tov is credited with the reintroduction of the idea of hashgacha pratit—detailed divine supervision of every occurrence and every creature. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, one of the foremost early proponents of chassidic thought, articulated a rational basis for this view, linking hashgacha to another vital theme in Jewish thought, continuous creation.

Faith in the Creator’s providence provides the basis for bitachon. Just through your belief in His providence you raise yourself to a level at which G‑d is intimately involved in your life, in an open, beneficial way.

Divine Providence Disagree with Rambam

 Ohr Hashem (02 Introduction) This section deals with G-d’s knowledge, which is one of the foundation principles, whether in the explanation of it  or in the manner of our knowledge of it, However since  many philosophers have deviated from the path of truth and seemed to contradict the direction as taught by Tradition this includes even some of the wise men of our faith who are rationalists, Therefore we have seen fit in this section to explain and resolve a number of issues and questions. Firstly what does the Torah say?. What are the difficulties in understanding the Traditional view and how can they be explained. What in fact is the Traditional view?

Torah view of Divine Providence

 Moreh Nevuchim (03:17): (5) The Torah view is … that man has absolute free will… without anything new being created to facilitate this… Similarly all living things move according to their desire. Furthermore this is G d’s desire that all creatures act on their own initiative and that man have absolute free will. This is a fundamental principle that no fundamental disagreement has ever been heard amongst our people and scholars - thank G d. It is also a fundamental principle that it is impossible that G d be unjust in any way or manner. Whatever happens to a person whether from bad or good, to an individual or group - everything is absolutely in accord with true justice. Even if a person is pricked with a thorn, it is punishment for sin whereas if he receives the slightest pleasure it is the result of reward - everything is just… However we don’t know the details of how this is just - but it is.

Everything Controlled by G-d is not a Jewish View

 Moreh Nevuchim (03:17): (3) Everything is controlled by Providence and there is no such thing as accident or chance at all. A corollary of this view is that the one who governs must have total knowledge of what will happen in the future. This is the view of the Islamic sect - the Azariyah. This view has tremendous problems and whoever accepts it is obligated to accept the inherent absurdities. For example they must accept the view of Aristotle that there is no difference between the falling of a leaf and the death of a person! They in fact agree to this equality but explain that in fact the wind itself only blows by the decree of G d and not by chance. Furthermore no leaf falls by chance but at a particular time and place by the direct decree of G d… Those accept this view also must believe all the movements of all living things are totally determined and that therefore man has neither the ability to initiate nor stop doing anything. Thus everything is totally determined and either must happen or can’t happen… It necessarily follows from this view that the Torah itself serves no purpose since man has no independent ability to obey what he is commanded to do or desist from that which he was commanded not to do. Those who accept this view say that G d will send messengers, command, warn, give hope and threaten - even though man has no free will. Thus it is possible that a person will be obligated to do something totally impossible and that even if a person fulfills the command he still might be punished while someone who transgresses will be rewarded. Therefore this view assumes that G d’s activities serve no purpose. All of these absurdities are inherent in this view so that when we see a person who was born blind or leprous it is not possible to conclude that these result from sin - but only that this is the will of G d. When we see a pious person tortured to death - we can only say that this is G d’s will and that this is not an injustice because it appropriate for G d to afflict the innocent and reward the sinner… 

The economic game of chicken between Iran and the US is about to enter a dangerous new phase

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/14/business/economic-impact-us-iran-blockade

But the blockade will require serious military power to enforce, putting US troops in harm’s way – a consequence the US has largely avoided so far by conducting the majority of its attack from the air. Putting boots on enemy ships and taking control of dangerous waters threatens to increase the US death toll.

Americans are already largely opposed to the war, and the blockade risks two outcomes they have demonstrated no tolerance of: even higher gas prices and troop casualties. Trump is betting Iran will blink first, but Iran has withstood severe economic pain before, and there’s little evidence it is prepared to back down from this existential fight.

“Oil’s game of chicken continues to escalate,” said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Market and a former CIA analyst. “I’m not sure either side is prepared to swerve.”

So, who will blink first?

“Time is working in Iran’s favor,” said Rauball.

“Iran has dealt with devastating sanctions before, and they never abandoned their right to enrich uranium,” Croft said.

“Iran can probably hold out longer than the US Navy would care to enforce the blockade,” added Karen Young, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Three votes for Iran.

Chinese tanker crosses Strait of Hormuz, testing Trump’s blockade

 https://thehill.com/policy/international/5830128-chinese-tanker-strait-hormuz-blockade/?tbref=hp

A U.S.-sanctioned Chinese tanker tested President Trump’s new blockade on travel through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, passing through the trading corridor to the Gulf of Oman.

Another U.S.-sanctioned Chinese tanker, Murlikishan, passed through the strait from the opposite direction and is currently located in the Persian Gulf. The second tanker flies under Madagascar’s flag and is heading to Iraq to load fuel on April 16, according to Kpler. 

‘They’re not getting what they voted for’: Jesus meme lays bare GOP frustrations with

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/14/trump-jesus-meme-pope-backlash-00872163

President Donald Trump’s weekend tirade against the pope — capped off by an AI-generated depiction of the president as Jesus — was, for some of his supporters, just too much.

Their unusually severe backlash comes as many once-devout Trump supporters are having a crisis of faith. Upset over what they feel is a too timid deportation agenda, a sputtering economy and another war in the Middle East, many couldn’t stomach the affront the way they might have in the past.

“They’re not getting what they voted for to begin with. On top of that, whether he’s mocking their religion intentionally or not, he still is,” said Erick Erickson, a conservative radio host and an influential voice with evangelical voters central to the MAGA base. “I think we are looking not really at a MAGA crack-up per se, but a lot of the base becoming exasperated enough to start looking beyond Trump.”

For weeks, some of the president’s core supporters have been nursing grievances over the Iran war — which alienated the GOP’s isolationist wing — as well as rising prices, an insufficiently aggressive deportation agenda , and lingering frustration over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files. The weekend collapse of Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary, a lodestar for that wing of the movement, is only deepening the disillusionment. Against this backdrop, some of the president’s supporters had no tolerance for the attempted appropriation of Jesus.

Iran’s Regime Has Changed—for the Worse

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-radical-regime-change-a42d96ea?mod=hp_lead_pos7

On March 13, a massive billboard appeared in Tehran’s Enqelab Square. It showed Iran’s newly selected supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, standing in a trench and instructing commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to fire missiles at their enemies. The text suggested the mission is divinely inspired, comparing Khamenei to Imam Ali, a revered Muslim figure known for his legendary victory over Jewish tribes.

For opponents of Iran’s regime, the image is the visual representation of their worst nightmare: a militarized Iran ruled by a younger, hard-line leader where the Revolutionary Guard plays an even more dominant role.

Growing Authentic Leadership-Yahrtzeit of R.A.Miller

 BS"D

27 Nissan, 5786/ Yahrtzeit of Rav Avigdor Miller ZT"L

Isn't It About Time We Do Something Differently?

Growing Authentic Leadership

Current events are to serve as a Divine wake-up call, not only individually, but also communally, as evident from the Rambam at the beginning of Hilchos Ta'anis.

We've seen many Divine wake-up calls, e.g.: COVID; the ongoing Ukraine War; the Simchas Torah pogrom; the Gaza war - leaving Hamas entrenched, despite over a thousand Israelis killed and about 20,000 plus seriously maimed; skyrocketing Jew-hatred fueled by the recent, ever-morphing wars in Israel and beyond; the first Iran War; the current Mideast War; the Lebanon quagmire; the global economic crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz; the ability of Iran to withstand the military might of the US and still pose an escalating ballistic missile threat, having evidently depleted Israeli interceptor missiles to dangerously low levels - while still being able to fire modern killer-cluster-warheads - all the while still posing a potential nuclear threat.*

[* This, despite the bombastic grandstanding of Netanyahu, who is claiming to have impeded another Holocaust - on Israeli Holocaust Forgetance Day - consistent with his arrogating of the Divine Role of Guardian of the Jewish People.]

This is before we even talk about all of the spiritual assaults to which we've been subjected in recent years, in the US, Israel, UK, and elsewhere -- be they self-inflicted, or superficially otherwise.

Each one of these should have awoken us - individually and communally. Have they?  If so - how?

It's the Yahrtzeit of Rav Avigdor Miller ZT"L tonight (27th of Nissan). Ask yourself: When was the last time you saw your community leadership complying with the non-Politically-Correct Torah imperatives to intelligently articulate an uncompromising stand against the communal sins against which Rav Miller would rail? These include communal support for pro-sodomist, pro-abortion, pro-crime politicians, and tolerance of the same in Israel, and the drafting of girls into the immoral cesspool of the Israeli Army. (The fact that the IDF isn't as depraved as it used to be in his time is more due to the "Me-Too" movement than due to Orthodox political "leadership" growing a spine.)

How many communal "leaders" (lay, organizational, or otherwise) risk their positions and reputations to counter or protest the ongoing "community" support for politicians (of either major party) who support the types of moral subversion against which Rav Miller - and numerous other Gedolim - protested so heroically?

Case-in-Point: As we've discussed in detail on our weekly WSNR radio broadcast, LevinAt11, if the Orthodox community would have complied with the directives of Da'as Torah on issues of foundational morality and retzichah (murder) - by voting for values rather than selling out for government money - we would have been able to forestall passage of Physician-Facilitated poisoning of the "terminally-ill" - which passed this year in NY, and previously passed in NJ - by a single vote, being one Assemblymember from Passaic (thanks to Avi Schnall, as documented previously).

And the worst - by far - is yet to come, if we keep it up (like Canada), R"L.

As a child, my father had the merit to get ejected from his last Rabbinic position (in Edmonton, Alberta - yes, there is a frum community there). He taught us by example that principle trumps position, and "parnossah," the latter in truth being dependent on HaShem alone.

In Eretz Yisroel as well, do we see the frum politicians - who have formidable power in the current Israeli government - even talking against the moral subversion against which Rav Miller and Gedolei Eretz Yisroel alike fought - be it sanctioning LGBTQ, abortion-on-demand, the IDF subjecting "non-Chareidi" soldiers to inappropriate exposure to female soldiers, or drafting the next generation of Jewish mothers into the exploitative Army environment?

Please realize that every one of the issues enumerated here is something that should be a common ground priority for every single Orthodox faction. Authoritative Rabbis from across the spectrum concur on these basic issues.  So why barely a peep, from almost all quarters (other than the No'am Party)?

"מאריך אפיה - וגביה דיליה."

Let's not complain so much about the ubiquitous Jew-haters, the fulminating leftists, and the Islamist radicals. Let's look in the mirror. THAT will certainly make a difference.

If you desire to do something tangible, and would like to help share in the burden of those who've taken responsibility to save neshomos of girls in jeopardy of being drafted into the Israeli Army - please donate today here. The holy work is B"H expanding, along with the needs.

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2026/03/saving-neshamos-in-eretz-yisroel-kimcha.html

How befitting for Yizchor money - to help ensure that these girls - who stand to compose the next generation of Jewish mothers - don't suffer the fate of the many tens of thousands of girls who weren't saved.

May we merit the Redemption the easier way - through communal teshuvah - rather than having the need to endure so many forms of yisurin.

Good Chodesh, and Good Shabbos.

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).

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

'Not even close': Joe laughs at Trump's claims he thought AI image was him as a doctor, not Jesus

Divine Providence is a Fundemental Belief

 Maharal (Gevuras HaShem 47) You should know that there are three beliefs that form the foundation of Judaism so that if G-d forbid one of them fails the religious faith falls with it. 1) Divine Providence that G-d supervises the world 2)Everything is in G-d’s hands and there is nothing besides Him, and this is the belief in the reality of God... 3) The third belief is that God spoke to man and give him Torah.  And so when Moses came to redeem them and God saw their affliction and did not forsake them, it is said, "And the people believed that God had visited the children of Israel," etc., and this is the belief in providence... If He watches over people and their deeds and does not forsake them, then He certainly pays them their reward as well, which is not reasonable to say that He, sees their deeds and watches over them and does not punish them for their sins... And so from providence, reward and punishment follow.