Israel to ban unvaccinated US tourists, even if they had COVID-19

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/israel-to-ban-us-tourists-who-had-covid-19-from-entering-country-683340

Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months and wish to enter Israel under the government’s new tourism outline will not be allowed to unless they have a digital recovery certificate, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

This means travelers who do not have access to such documentation will not be able to enter Israel. Only recovered patients from about 45 countries that are participating in the European Union’s Digital Passport Program will be recognized as recovered and meet the criteria for entry.

Individuals who recovered more than six months prior will still need to receive at least one shot of a verified vaccine.

Biden administration won’t prevent settlement expansion, says source close to PM

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-administration-wont-prevent-settlement-expansion-says-source-close-to-pm/

Official says Americans ‘don’t care that much’ about recent move to approve 3,000 West Bank homes; Bennett government doesn’t believe the US will reopen consulate to Palestinians

 

Greene, Gosar and Brooks Face Growing Scrutiny for Jan. 6 Insurrection: A Closer Look

What is a Tree?

 https://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/6863

 The Chazon Ish (Orlah 12:3) is dissatisfied with both of these approaches because there is no source in Chazal for this definition of a tree. However, he agrees that eggplants are not prohibited because of orlah for a very different reason. He contends that orlah can only ban the produce of a tree for its first three years but cannot ban the species completely. Therefore, a species that produces fruit for no more than three years cannot be a tree whose fruit is orlah. Instead, we must conclude that this plant is not a tree and therefore its fruit is not orlah.

Israeli military court convicts French-Israeli settler's killer

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjg6mmvut

 An Israeli military court on Wednesday convicted a Palestinian man of the December killing of a French-Israeli citizen in the north of the West Bank.

Esther Horgen, a 52-year-old mother of six, had gone out jogging but did not return and was found dead in a forest near the Tal Menashe settlement.

Pfizer Vax Immunity Waned in Israel, Regardless of Age

 https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/95288

 Immunity against the Delta variant from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine waned after a few months across age groups, Israeli researchers found.

Not surprisingly, rates of infection in July were higher among adults ages 60 and up who were fully vaccinated in January compared with those who were fully vaccinated in March (rate ratio [RR] 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-2.0), reported Yair Goldberg, PhD, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and colleagues.

'RINOs Stole Election, We Steal Lives': Pennsylvania GOP Commissioner Details Death Threats

 https://www.newsweek.com/rinos-stole-election-we-steal-lives-pennsylvania-gop-commissioner-details-death-threats-1643300

Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the official responsible for overseeing the 2020 election in Pennsylvania's biggest city, made the remarks while testifying at a Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on Tuesday. He said that supporters of the former president labeled him a "traitor" and a RINO, short for "Republican in name only," for correctly counting the votes.

 Schmidt then read a message that demanded he "tell the truth or your three kids will be fatally shot." The threatening message also contained Schmidt's home address, the names of each of his children and a picture of his house.

Other threats included the phrases "heads on spikes, treasonous Schmidts," "perhaps cuts and bullets will soon arrive at [Schmidt's address]" and "RINOs stole election, we steal lives." The alleged threats admonished Schmidt for supposedly having "betrayed" the country by not backing Trump's false claims and warned that "cops can't help you."

 

Hamas head urges Sheikh Jarrah families to reject compromise

 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/hamas-head-urges-sheikh-jarrah-families-to-reject-compromise-683273

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has urged families from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to reject a compromise that would allow them to remain in their homes for 15 years.

Earlier this month, the High Court of Justice presented the compromise to four Palestinian families facing possible eviction from their homes, which were owned by Jews before 1948.

According to the proposed compromise, during the time that the families remain in their homes, the issue of land ownership could be adjudicated, but in the interim, the court would recognize them as protected tenants and the Jewish Nahalat Shimon Company as the owners of the property.

 

US State Dept confirms: Israel would have to authorize Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/us-state-dept-confirms-israel-would-have-to-authorize-palestinian-consulate-in-jerusalem-683334

 The State Department confirmed that it could not open a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem without Israel’s authorization, in a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who proposed a bill this week to ensure that the only American diplomatic entity in Jerusalem would be the embassy to Israel, asked Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon about the matter in a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“President [Joe] Biden’s proposal to open a second U.S. mission in Jerusalem would begin to reverse the recognition of Jerusalem, and it would divide Israel’s eternal and undivided capital city,” Hagerty said.  “I just want to confirm something on the record. Is it your understanding that, under US and international law, the Government of Israel would have to provide its affirmative consent before the United States could open or reopen the US consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, or does the Biden Administration believe it can move forward to establish a second U.S. mission in the Israel capital city of Jerusalem without the consent of the Government of Israel?”

Shatnez?

 We just had a sweater checked for shatnez in Jerusalem -it was claimed that every fiber was shatnez

We donated it  to a Shatnez checker in NY who displays these garments    - he checked it and said not a single fiber of Shatnez in garment.

 Obviously they both can't be right

I surveyed a number of stores and they claimed never having found shatnez

It seems wool and linen are rarely used together since synthetic fibers are stronger and cheaper.

 It would seem that following the concept of rov there should be no need to check? Comments?

U.S. voices opposition to Israel's plans for new West Bank settlement homes

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1hnxaruf

The United States voiced strong opposition to Israel's plans to advance thousands of settlement units in the West Bank, saying these moves were inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and were damaging to the prospects of a two-state solution that Washington has advocated.

ראש הישיבה הסביר וזעק: זו הסיבה לגזירות של הממשלה

 https://www.kikar.co.il/404020.html

ראש הישיבה הגאון רבי גרשון אדלשטיין, התייחס הערב (שלישי) בשיחתו השבועית, בפעם ראשונה, לגזירות ממשלת בנט-לפיד-כהנא על הציבור החרדי וזעק בכאב: "איך יהודי מסוגל לעשות גזירות על יהודים?".

ראש הישיבה דיבר בכאב על הרצון של חברי הממשלה, לגרום ביטול תורה ולהצר את צעדי הציבור החרדי וקרא לציבור להתחזק בדברים הצריכים חיזוק, כדי למנוע את הגזירות.

ל'כיכר השבת' נודע, כי ראש הישיבה הורה בימים האחרונים לחברי הכנסת של דגל התורה, לפעול בכל הכח למנוע את הגזירות וכעת קרא לציבור להתחזק כדי להציל את עם ישראל מהגזירות.

Leading haredi rabbi asks: 'How can Jews make decrees against Jews?'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315791

 Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, head of the prestigious Ponovezh yeshiva, on Tuesday evening responded to the Israeli government's new "decrees" on the haredi public, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

In his weekly class, Rabbi Edelstein questioned, "How could a Jew be capable of making decrees on Jews?"

Kikar Hashabbat was informed that Rabbi Edelstein recently instructed MKs from the United Torah Judaism's Degel Hatorah faction to fight the decisions with all their might. Now, he has called on the public to increase their care in order to save the Jewish people from the "decrees."

Contruction on park near Arab graves sparks widespread outrage

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/contruction-on-park-near-arab-graves-sparks-widespread-outrage-683198

Despite the claims by Palestinian media of bones being uncovered and graves being disturbed, Justice Daniel Mordechai Dembitz ruled in a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on October 14 that not enough clear evidence had been provided to prove that this was the case and that there was evidence that the claimants had even violated previous court rulings and given false testimony.

  Dembitz stressed that the court was provided with photos of a few bones that appeared to be human and not organized in the position of burial or as part of a full skeleton. The photos also did not include any concrete notes nor any clarification about who took the photos.

Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff

 https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/exclusive-jan-6-organizers-met-congress-white-house-1245289/

 As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent. 

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.

Yeshiva deans ban students from donating blood until 'normal' version of forms is restored

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315741

In Har Hamor Yeshiva, Mitzpe Ramon Yeshiva and several other Zionist yeshivas, students have been told to refrain from donating blood via MDA until the original version of the documents which ask for "name of father" and "name of mother" is restored.

In recent months, several organizations have been altering official documents, replacing "father" with "parent 1" and "mother" with "parent 2."

Usually, a Magen David Adom (MDA) van arrives at Zionist yeshivas once every three months, in order to enable the students to donate blood on site.

Danger! Missionaries in your home!

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315747

These things need to become clear to all Jews regardless of their level of observance or non-observance. To have warm and fuzzy feelings for Christian Messianic Evangelical groups, colleges, individuals, preachers and their online programs just because they are "Zionist" or "Jewish" or can spout chapters of the Bible, is a mortal danger to the present and future of the Jewish people, no less than the rockets and terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Abracadabra: Israel Museum exhibit explores Jewish magic

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/abracadabra-israel-museum-exhibit-explores-jewish-magic-683100

What separates religion from magic? How is the Jewish world connected to magic and why did certain prayers become associated with protective rituals?

A new exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem attempts to answer these thorny questions.

Titled “Hear, O Israel: The Magic of the Shema,” the show hones in on the Shema, an important Jewish prayer that has been recited for millennia. The first verse of the Shema – “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” – comes from Deuteronomy and expresses the centrality of monotheism to the Jewish faith.

 But as the exhibition at the Israel Museum demonstrates, the prayer was also incorporated into Jewish amulets since ancient times.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Lectures on Genesis, through IX

  https://www.hakirah.org/vol27Triebitz.pdf

 https://www.hakirah.org/Vol29Triebitz.pdf

Based upon Rabbi Robert Blau’s notes taken at Bernard
Revel Graduate School in the late 1940s.

Edited and Annotated by: R. MEIR TRIEBITZ

The Human and Social Factor in Halacha by Rav Aharon Soloveitchik

  https://traditiononline.org/the-human-and-social-factor-in-halakha/

Illustrations apart, however, the cogency and legitimacy of a "human"approach to pesak, appears, to many, problematic. They would have us believe that the ideal posek is a faceless and heartless supercomputer into whom all of the relevant data is fed and who then produces the right answer. Should ths standard not be met, the shortfal is to be regarded as a failng, the lamentable result of human frailty-in Bacon's terms, a manifestation of the besetting "idols" which hamper and hinder the capacity for reasoned judgment. On this reading, the process of pesika,properly conçeived and executed, bears no semblance to an existential encounter between seeker and respondent. It entails, rather, the application of text to problem, the coupling of code and situation. This conception does not necessarily preclude reckoning with the specific circumstances of the question and questioner, as these may very well bepart of the relevant objective data. The prevailng tendency, however,would be to dwarf this factor; and as to the human aspect of the meshiv, that would be obviated entirely. He, for his part, is to be animated by the precept that "we do not have mercy in judgment," and hence, to pass on the merits of the issue with imperviously stony objectivity

Towards-a-sociology-of-psak

 https://traditiononline.org/towards-a-sociology-of-psak/

 Within the context of this paper, all of this has meant the growth of right-wing or "sectarian" Orthodoxy-the "yeshiva world" is, overwhelmingly, the world of right-wing Orthodoxy-and the growth of the perspective which is more punctilious and stringent, both in terms of psak and in terms of observance. To clarify and demonstrate this point, it is now necessary to distinguish between two types of Modern Orthodoxy. One may be called philosophical, while the other is more appropriately characterized as behavioraL. Within the category of philosophical Modern Orthodox (or "Centrist Orthodox") would be those who are meticulously observant of halakhah but are, nevertheless, philosophically modern. Within this context, being modern means, at minimum, having a positive perspective on general education and knowledge and being positively disposed to Israel and religious Zionism. 

 The behaviorally Modern Orthodox, on the other hand, are not deeply concerned with philosophical ideas about either modernity or religious Zionism. By and large, they define themselves as Modern Orthodox in the sense that they are not meticulously observant. In many ways, their definition of themselves as Modern Orthodox has the same basis as did those whom Marshall Sklare found to define themselves as Conservative. That is, when asked, "What do you mean when you say you are Conservative?," the responses were, typically: "Now-I'd guess you'd call it middle of the road, as far as (not) being as strict as the Orthodox, yet not quite as Reformed as the Reformed," or ." . . I don't like the old-fashioned type, or the Reform. I'm between the two of them. "28 Similarly, most of those who define themselves as Modern Orthodox do so in reference to right-wing or "sectarian" Orthodoxy, and they define themselves as modern in the sense that they are not as observant. As Heilman and Cohen put it,

Horowitz donates blood after Israel repeals ban on gay blood donation

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/horowitz-donates-blood-after-israel-repeals-ban-on-gay-blood-donation-683016

 Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz donated blood on Monday following Israel's repealing of the ban on gay blood donation.

"There is no difference between blood and blood," Horowitz, who is gay, said during his blood donation at the Magen David Adom compound in Jerusalem. "The ban on gays donating blood was the remnant of a stereotype that should be left in history."

Horowitz had pushed to remove part of the blood donation questionnaire that barred gay men from donating blood.

Israel okays $9 billion plan to fight gaps between Jewish and Arab citizens

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-okays-9-million-plan-to-fight-gaps-between-jewish-and-arab-citizens/

 The government approves a far-reaching plan that allocates NIS 30 billion ($9.4 billion) over five years to fight persistent gaps between Arab and Jewish Israelis.

Now passed by the cabinet, the proposal will head to the Knesset, where it is set to be passed alongside the state budget next month.

The plan includes NIS 9.6 billion (nearly $3 billion) to improve education in Arab cities and towns; NIS 5.2 billion ($1.6 billion) for Bedouin Arabs in the southern Negev desert; NIS 650 million ($202.7 million) to bridge health gaps between Arabs and Jews; NIS 2 billion (some $624 million) to improve Arab communities’ crumbling infrastructure, and more.

Facebook Yanks Jair Bolsonaro Video Claiming COVID-19 Vaccines Cause AIDS

 https://time.com/6110398/facebook-bolsonaro-covid-vaccines-aids/

 RIO DE JANEIRO — Facebook and Instagram have removed from their platforms a live broadcast that Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro delivered in which he said people in the U.K. who have received two coronavirus vaccine doses are developing AIDS faster than expected.

Facebook’s press office confirmed in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that the content was removed Sunday night because it violated Facebook policy regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

“Our policies don’t allow claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people,” the statement said. The company didn’t respond to AP questions regarding why three days elapsed before the much-criticized content was removed nor whether language barriers played a role, as Bolsonaro was speaking in Portuguese.

Objectivity and choosing an unbiased rabbi and hashkafa

 https://www.yeshiva.co/ask/7083

Question

It seems every Halachic authority I consult is biased towards his particular sect’s hashkafa. How can I find objective advice?

Answer

Kudos- for your fantastic question (as usual!). Without a doubt, there is an overlapping between a rabbi’s hashkafa (world outlook or philosophy) and his halachic decisions. This isn’t “bias” but it is the very definition and part of the beauty of the Oral-traditional process, where we view the “70 different faces of the Torah” which complete and “harmonize” each other, as something positive. In other words, machloket (argument) is not only inevitable when people (especially Jews, and even more so, rabbis!) are involved, but it’s actually found on every single page in the Talmud, and is exactly the Oral process which God formulated in His eternally relevant Torah!

Just Say No’ And Its Effects

 https://landmarkrecovery.com/just-say-no-and-its-effects/

 Years after the start of Just Say No, numerous studies in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s looked at the effects of anti-drug marketing efforts and found that they weren’t as effective as they sought out to be.

'Kissing disease' among teens could trigger MS - study

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/kissing-disease-among-teens-could-trigger-ms-study-682655

 Results show children and teens contracting mono between the ages of 11 and 19 have a significantly higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis as an adult.

Six-year-old Survivor Kidnapped From Italy to Israel Must Be Returned, Court Rules

 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-six-year-old-survivor-of-cable-car-accident-to-return-to-italy-israeli-court-rules-1.10323350

 Six-year-old Eitan Biran, who survived a cable car accident near Lake Maggiore this summer that killed both his parents, will be returned to his aunt in Italy, an Israeli court ruled on Monday.

The boy's paternal aunt, Aya Biran Nirko, filed a civil custody suit following the abduction by his maternal grandfather, 58-year-old Shmuel Peleg, in September, seeking his return to Italy. 

The judge who made the ruling on Monday rejected the grandfather's claim that Eitan's usual home was in Israel, as well as the claim that he generally lived in both Israel and Italy. The judge noted that Eitan had moved to Italy with his family when he was only a month old. She also rejected Peleg's argument that special consideration should be given to the boy's parents plans before they died to move to Israel.