Friday, May 7, 2021
How Orthodox Women Are Using Social Media to Liberate Each Other From Dead Marriages
https://www.vogue.com/article/agunah-get-refusal-social-media-campaign-orthodox-women
Currently, in New York, there are two laws in place that theoretically protect against get refusal, the Domestic Relations Law 253 and Domestic Relations Law 236(b). Both are intended to prevent the get system from being misused, but both laws contain loopholes that can be exploited, says Starr. DRL 253, for instance, mandates that the person requesting the divorce must pledge that they have removed all barriers to remarriage for their spouse; but it does not work the other way around.
Unmasked, the Christian missionary who went undercover in Jerusalem as an Orthodox rabbi
Today, after an exhaustive investigation both in Jerusalem and Elkohen’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey, the JC can disclose the bombshell answers to these troubling questions.
We can confirm for the first time that the apparent rabbi qualified as a clergyman online; has thousands of dollars of unpaid debts to his name in the US; was deeply involved with American evangelical churches; and was born to a Methodist mother and Protestant father.
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Modern Orthodoxy in Israel and female clergy-crossing the line
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305680
However, evasion of rabbinic verbiage gets rather sticky under examination. For example, the RCA bans the “ordain(ing of) women into the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title used”; the OU ruling prohibits “the appointment of women to perform clergy functions on a regular ongoing basis – even when not accompanied by a rabbinic-type title.” A handful of American congregations at the edge of the Orthodox orbit have attempted to circumvent the prohibition on female clergy by hiring graduates of Yeshivat Maharat and assigning them rabbinic functions while bestowing up them novel titles such as “Director of Spiritual Engagement”, and it appears that OTS has embarked upon a similar path, as it provides women with rabbinic training and helps procure rabbinic-type positions for them, but makes sure to leave out the “rabbinic” wording.
Rav Tazdok Rav Hutner free will vs determinism
A prime example of the struggle Rav Hutner faced in integrating conflicting theories regards the place of determinism in Judaism. Determinism had a central place in the worldview of Rav Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izhbitz, and in that of his student Rav Tzadok of Lublin, that were prevalent in young Hutner’s Warsaw youth, and had a long-lasting impact on his thought. Yet, as a student of Slabodka Musar, R. Hutner was also well aware of the central place of free will in Judaism. How did R. Hutner reconcile Izhbitz’s focus on God’s omnipotence with Slabodka’s emphasis on the grandeur of man and man’s ability to change the course of history?
Zadok HaKohen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadok_HaKohen
Influence
Zadok HaKohen's philosophy was a major influence on Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner.
Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff has given numerous lectures on the works of Zadok HaKohen.[6]
Artscroll: The Case for a Traditional Approach in the Study of Tanach
https://jewishaction.com/cover-story/the-case-for-a-traditional-approach-in-the-study-of-tanach/
RDB: I’m curious about some of your influences outside of the
canon of Rishonim and Acharonim that appear in Mikraos Gedolos. Were
there any Chassidic thinkers who influenced your approach to Tanach?
RNS: Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr, the Sefas Emes [Rabbi
Yehudah Leib Alter], and Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen all had an influence. If
you read the overviews [in the ArtScroll translations], you’ll see that
there’s a heavy combination of mussar and chassidus that we incorporate into our commentary and that form our worldview.
What Does Free Speech Mean?
The First Amendment states, in relevant part, that:
“Congress shall make no law...abridging freedom of speech.”
NJ police officer says she was fired over Facebook post calling Black Lives Matter protesters ‘terrorists’
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nj-police-officer-fired-facebook-black-lives-matter-terrorists
Erwin reportedly wrote in the post: "Last night as I left for work I had my two kids crying for me not to go to work. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the way I did last night. And then I watched people I know and others I care about going into harms way. I love my police family like my own. So when you share posts and things on Facebook I’d really appreciate if you’d THINK before doing so. I’ve seen so many black lives matter [sic] hashtags in these posts. Just to let you know — they are terrorists. They hate me. They hate my uniform. They don’t care if I die."
Free Will – Our Greatest Power
https://www.aish.com/sp/f/48965061.html
Free Will Summary
Level One: Don't be a sleepwalker. Make decisions actively.
Level Two: Don't be a puppet of society's goals, or a slave to your old decisions.
Level Three: Be aware of the conflict between the cravings of your body and the aspirations of your soul.
Level Four: Identify with your soul, not your body.
Level Five: Make your will God's will.
The Denial of Free Will in Hasidic Thought
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-denial-of-free-will-in-hasidic-thought/
From the Baal‑Shem Tov…there is a parable of a person who decided to test his wife, so he made himself appear to her as a sea captain, and grabbed her and enticed her. But she refused, until he forced her to agree to him. Afterwards, she came to him with a broken heart and revealed the matter to him. Her husband then said to her, "It was I, and you never committed adultery with another." Thus shall God clarify the sins of Israel, that all was from God. And so I heard from our Master, Teacher, and Rabbi, Blessed be his memory, from Izbica, the interpretation of the verse, "You were rebellious with God (Deuteronomy 9:8)," for it should have said, "against God." But the meaning is that God will make it clear that when we were rebellious it was also with God, and from Him it issued. (Pri Zaddiq, 4.236-237)
Tucker Carlson Says Vaccine-Related Deaths May Be Abnormally High — But Vaccines Haven't Been Linked To Deaths
Carlson cited recent data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System — a database run by the FDA and CDC — showing more than 3,300 reports of deaths after coronavirus shots were administered, a sum Carlson called “not even close to normal.”
Carlson acknowledged some of these deaths may have been coincidences, and concluded it’s unclear how many fatalities are actually linked to the vaccines.
But VAERS is designed to allow anybody to report an adverse event without any verification, and an unknown number of its reports have nothing to do with the vaccine.
Tucker Carlson Makes BS Claim ‘30 People Every Day’ Are Dying From Vaccines. Here’s the Truth.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson continued his reckless mission to mainstream vaccine skepticism on Wednesday night by dangerously speculating that thousands of Americans have died from COVID-19 vaccinations, citing a faulty open-sourced database that has become a haven for misinformation.
Over the past few months, the Fox News star has repeatedly used his top-rated primetime show to cast doubt on both the efficacy and safety of the coronavirus vaccines. Despite the fact that countless clinical trials and real-time studies have found the shots to be overwhelmingly safe, Carlson has told his viewers not to trust the vaccines while questioning if they even work.
Big tech acting like Dems’ Pravda
https://www.lockhaven.com/opinion/columns/2020/10/big-tech-acting-like-dems-pravda/
Big Tech is the biggest threat to democracy — and must be reined in by Congress — before our rights enshrined in the Constitution protecting free speech and freedom of the press are placed in the dustbins of history.
On Oct. 14, Twitter and Facebook acted no different than Communist state-run media organizations that corruptly block the distribution of information and news stories they don’t like.
If this type of thuggish censorship and election interference doesn’t send a chill up your spine, what will?
The single most damning quote about the state of the GOP
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/03/politics/anthony-gonzalez-gop-cheney-trump/index.html
Liz Cheney's fall shows that Trump is here to stay
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/06/politics/liz-cheney-donald-trump-gop/index.html
Fox News Has Completed Its Transformation Into Trump TV
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/08/fox-news-has-completed-its-transformation-into-trump-tv/
Fox is ever more firmly entrenched in the official echo chamber of Trump Nation — and ever more divorced from reality. The National Enquirer, owned by Trump friend David Pecker, is Trump’s Pravda (its recent cover story: “Hillary Framed Trump Family! How she set up Donald’s son with dirt file emails!”). Breitbart, once chaired by Trump aide Stephen Bannon, is his Sputnik. Fox is the jewel in the crown — Trump’s own version of RT. “A lot of people wish President Trump was a dictator,” Fox host Jesse Watters said on July 27. Perhaps at Fox “News.”
Roger Ailes’ parting gift: Fox News is Trump’s Pravda
https://whyy.org/articles/roger-ailes-parting-gift-fox-news-is-trumps-pravda/
Trump’s Pravda is not totally monolithic, however. Chris Wallace still practices real journalism on his Sunday show, and he recently clashed with “Fox & Friends” co-host Pete Hegseth. When Hegseth contended that Comey’s firing was no big deal, Wallace retorted: “This is a big story … This is the first time in history that a president has fired an FBI director who was conducting an investigation that was directly investigating him and his associates. It’s a big story, and I think it’s a legitimate story to cover.”
Facebook should make Trump's ban permanent
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/05/opinions/trump-facebook-medical-misinformation-emanuel/
Bill Barr's indefensible defense of Trump isn't fooling this federal judge
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/05/opinions/william-barr-indefensible-defense-honig/index.html
We know Barr misled the American people in his summary letter, first, because Mueller himself -- in an uncharacteristically confrontational move -- wrote a letter in which he pointedly noted that Barr's public summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office's work and conclusions."
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Liz Cheney becomes lightning rod, battling Trump over who’s lying about 2020
In interviews and statements, Trump continues to say he was cheated out of a second term, despite the failure of his own Justice Department and dozens of lawsuits to prove any widespread fraud. The other side, mostly among Democrats and the media, have branded this the Big Lie.
In the latest round, the 45th president attempted to appropriate that term, emailing reporters that the last election "will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!"
That prompted this tweet from Cheney: "The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system."
Not surprisingly, Trump issued another statement hours later, calling her a "big-shot warmonger" and, for good measure, insisting that Wyoming residents "never liked her much."
CNN reports that Cheney remained adamant at a private American Enterprise Institute conference on Monday, saying the party can’t swallow the "poison" of arguing the election was rigged.