Sunday, August 2, 2026
Why people don't trust Doctors
Soul and Sleep
Zohar (Bereishis 010b) At the beginning of the day, when a man rises in the morning, it is his duty to bless his Master as soon as he opens his eyes. The pious men of old used to have by them a cup of water, and when they awoke in the night they washed their hands and rose and occupied themselves in the study of the Torah, having first pronounced the appropriate blessing. When the cock crows it is precisely midnight, and at that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, is to be found in company with the righteous in the Garden of Eden. It is therefore proper then to pronounce the benediction and study the Torah; but one may not pronounce the benediction with unclean hands. So, too, at any time that one rises up from his sleep. For whilst a man is asleep his soul departs from him and an impure spirit comes forth and settles on his hands and defiles them: hence one may not pronounce a blessing without first washing them.
Limit to G-d's Testing
I finally found attempts to prove that there is a limit to G-d's test
The Ramban (Bereishis 22:01) notes that tests like the Akeida are done for the benefit of the testee
AND G-D TRIED ABRAHAM. The matter of “trial,” in my opinion, is as follows: Since a man’s deeds are at his absolute free command, to perform them or not to perform them at his will, on the part of one who is tried it is called “a trial.” But on the part of the One, blessed be He, who tries the person, it is a command that the one being tested should bring forth the matter from the potential into actuality so that he may be rewarded for a good deed, not for a good thought alone.
Know further that G-d trieth the righteous, for knowing that the righteous will do His will, He desires to make him even more upright, and so He commands him to undertake a test, but He does not try the wicked, who would not obey. Thus all trials in the Torah are for the good of the one who is being tried.
Devarim (08:05) Bear in mind that the ETERNAL your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son.
The gemora Berachos (32a) Moshe says to G-d that of course Jews sinned because G-d gave them too much gold.
What is the meaning of and Di Zahav? The Sages of the school of Rabbi Yannai said that Moses said the following before the Holy One, Blessed be He, to atone for Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf: Master of the Universe, because of the gold and silver that you lavished upon Israel during the exodus from Egypt until they said enough [dai]; it was this wealth that caused Israel to make the Golden Calf.
Silly me, I thought Hamas was finished
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/431089
Israel, the nation that beat Hamas to a pulp in response to the slaughter of Oct. 7, 2023, gets to play the part of the loser in Trump's peace plan. Opinion.
Trump’s ‘historic’ deal to disarm Hamas faces uphill climb
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6002984-israel-hamas-roadmaps-skepticism/
President Trump’s announcement Thursday of a “historic” deal to disarm Hamas is drawing more skepticism than fanfare.
Hamas said it was prepared to abide by the terms, but only with the buy-in of Israel, which remains skeptical about the deal, according to a U.S official invited into the discussions.
The agreement would see Hamas hand over weapons in phases, with Israel ultimately withdrawing its military. However, with trust between the two sides at zero, countless hurdles remain to fulfilling Trump’s vision of a demilitarized and reconstructed Gaza.
Saturday, August 1, 2026
Trump claims Israel ‘very happy’ about Hamas disarmament deal, as Netanyahu indicates otherwise
US President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that Israel is “very happy” about the disarmament deal his Board of Peace inked a day earlier with Hamas, even as Israel has objected to the proposal and Hamas has said the deal’s implementation must begin with Israel complying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on the agreement, which would see the IDF pull back from its positions in Gaza as Hamas lays down its weapons and transfers control of Gaza to a technocratic body. But a pair of statements attributed to a “senior Israeli official” have asserted that Israel does not accept the proposal and will not carry out any withdrawals from territory in Gaza as it requires.
One statement, issued by Netanyahu’s office on Thursday, said Israel demanded “the full disarmament of Hamas, including removal of the weaponry from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a condition for any process” of withdrawal. The statement added that the agreement does not include “a sufficient response to those demands.”
Trump Unravels in Alarming Fashion After Reflecting Pool Humiliation
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-unravels-in-alarming-fashion-after-reflecting-pool-humiliation/
President Donald Trump has gone on a bizarre rant after his excuse for the green-slime disaster at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool took a turn for the worse in court.
The 80-year-old president continued to push his own version of events, taking to Truth Social to lash out at his own appointee, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, after she said Trump’s $16 million renovation failed not because of “vandals,” but due to a “flawed installation by the contractors.”
“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote on Saturday.
‘Platner on steroids’: Max Miller abuse claims have Republicans silently sweating
The surge of attention presents a dilemma for Republicans: speak out against their colleague who is running in a competitive race or face accusations of hypocrisy after hammering multiple similarly scandal-plagued Democrats — including Graham Platner, who recently ended his Maine Senate campaign, and Eric Swalwell, who resigned his House seat in April.
‘Bioweapons’ and cover-ups: The untruths behind RFK Jr.’s disease claims
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has argued that Lyme disease was cooked up by the American military in a Long Island laboratory in the 1950s.
It’s a debunked conspiracy theory that Kennedy has repeated in campaign events and on his podcast in the months before being named by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee national health policy.
In his telling, the tick-borne illness, which can cause debilitating pain and facial paralysis if untreated, was created as a military bioweapon at the Department of Homeland Security’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The facility opened in 1954 and is situated across Long Island Sound from the area of Connecticut where Lyme was discovered in the 1970s.
“Clearly this disease was not created by even the most evil genius military biologists in 1954,” said Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. “It is easy to refute with 100 percent certainty.”
DOJ will drop Reflecting Pool criminal case, citing ‘flawed installation’
The Department of Justice (DOJ) moved Friday to drop its criminal prosecution of a former Olympian charged with destroying the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying the damage was instead the result of a “rushed and botched installation.”
Prosecutors said it’s now evident some of the damage was in areas unlikely to be the result of vandalism, and a National Park Service engineer had raised concerns about peeling days before Hearn’s arrest. Prosecutors insist they didn’t become aware of the broader issues until after Hearn was charged.
“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” prosecutors wrote.
Friday, July 31, 2026
Republican Says Fauci Fifth Plea Shows Guilt—Here’s Each Time Trump Used It
Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during Senate testimony Wednesday, prompting Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, to suggest the move showed guilt.
While some Republicans criticized Fauci for invoking the Fifth Amendment, Trump has also relied on the constitutional protection. During a 2022 deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud investigation, Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment hundreds of times.
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Tosefta?
Wary of perception that Israel driving war, Trump and Netanyahu opt to avoid optics altogether
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the White House for his Tuesday meeting with US President Donald Trump via a side entrance.
Trump didn’t greet him outside the West Wing as he had for many of their seven previous meetings in his second term, and reporters weren’t called into the Oval Office to hear the pair issue statements or answer questions.
The limited public nature of the meeting, confined to a handful of photographs initially released by Netanyahu’s office, appeared to advance a joint interest — that Israel not be seen as once again dragging the US into renewing the conflict against Iran.
Angels have Free Will?
Ohr Hachayim (Bereishis 19:20) We also have a principle (Baba Kama 60) that once permission has been granted to the destructive angel to execute G'd's judgment, it does not really matter whether the measure of guilt is full. However, the angel Gabriel was then in a position to exercise some discretion. Lot was aware of this and appealed to Gabriel's discretionary powers. Lot left Tzoar as soon as possible because he was afraid that the time limit for the angel's discretionary power would elapse.
Radak (Bereishis 19:21) When God sends an angel He gives them permission to add or subtract slightly from their mission as they understand it because they are intelligent beings
Rashi (Bereishis 19:22) FOR I CANNOT DO ANY THING—This admission of their powerlessness was the angels’ punishment for having said, “For we will destroy the city”, attributing the act to themselves; therefore the incident could not close until they were compelled to admit that the thing was not in their power
Netanyahu Finds Diminished Welcome From Trump as Iran War Drags On
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House Tuesday, navigating a growing rift five months after the two launched a war on Iran that has proven far more complex than either imagined.
Tensions between the two had simmered for weeks. It was unclear until late last week that Trump would even entertain a meeting with Netanyahu. To secure an audience, the Trump administration pressed the Israeli leader to take steps to show he was serious about advancing U.S.-brokered peace talks in Lebanon and Gaza, according to officials and people familiar with the matter.
Tu B’Av, the Jewish Day of Love
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tu-bav/
Tu B’Av , the 15th Day of Av, is both an ancient and modern holiday. Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the Second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). Tu B’Av was almost unnoticed in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it is gradually becoming a Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine’s Day in English-speaking countries.
There is no way to know exactly how early Tu B’Av began. The first mention of this date is in the Mishnah (compiled and edited in the end of the second century), where Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted saying:
There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be your wife)? (Ta’anit, Chapter 4)
The Gemara attempts to find the origin of this date as a special joyous day, and offers several explanations. One of them is that on this day the Biblical “tribes of Israel were permitted to mingle with each other,” namely: to marry women from other tribes (Talmud, Ta’anit30b). This explanation is somewhat surprising, since nowhere in the Bible is there a prohibition on “intermarriage” among the 12 tribes of Israel. This Talmudic source probably is alluding to a story in the book of Judges (chapter 21): After a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and other Israelite tribes, the tribes vowed not to intermarry with men of the tribe of Benjamin.
Deadliest year in decades as antisemitism becomes ‘new normal’ in West, Jewish watchdog finds
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-903961
The year 2025 marked the deadliest year for antisemitic violence in the Jewish Diaspora since the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, according to a new report by the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism.
The report, released on Wednesday, documented 20 lives lost to targeted antisemitic attacks across the globe in 2025. From the Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney that left 15 dead to shootings at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, and two killed at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, as well as one killed in Boulder, Colorado.
The J7 task force, which unites major Jewish organizations representing over 90% of the Jewish Diaspora outside Israel across Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US, tracked over 23,000 antisemitic incidents in 2025 alone. While total incidents dipped slightly in a few nations compared to record highs in 2024, overall figures remain up 136%, and violent incidents up 97%, compared to the baseline year of 2022.
Words have lost their meaning in the Trump era, and Israel is now paying the price
https://www.ynetnews.com/opinions-analysis/article/hyro4wvhfx
After weeks of strikes, none of the war’s central objectives has been achieved, Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz and Washington is searching for a diplomatic success, yet Trump continues to speak as though the campaign ended in triumph
It is doubtful Trump understands that the entire Middle East, not only Israel, is at stake.
When it comes to words, Trump is indeed a superhero.
Senate confirms Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5995382-senate-confirms-jay-clayton-as-intel-chief/
The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence (DNI) in a 51-47 party-line vote, potentially reviving a stalled battle over renewing the nation’s warrantless spy powers.
Clayton, currently a U.S. attorney who served as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission under the first Trump administration, does not have the broad foreign policy and intelligence background of others who have led the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
“When the position of the DNI was created by Congress after the 9/11 attacks, the law laid out a simple qualification for the position: that the DNI ‘shall have extensive national security expertise.’ Jay Clayton fails that foundational, statutory test,” Schiff wrote.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Limit to Testing
I have heard these words many times " G-d never gives a person a test greater than what he can deal with"
What is the source for this claim? It is a widespread Christian belief
Bereishis Rabbah (34:02) A potter does not test defective vessels, because he cannot give them a single blow without breaking them. Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not test the wicked but only the righteous: thus, The Lord trieth the righteous.’ R. Jose b. R. Hanina said: When a flax worker knows that his flax is of good quality, the more he beats it the more it improves and the more it glistens; but if it is of inferior quality, he cannot give it one knock but it splits. Similarly, the Lord does not test the wicked but only the righteous, as it says: ' The Lord trieth the righteous. R. Eleazar said: When a man possesses two cows, one strong and the other feeble, upon which does he put the yoke? Surely upon the strong one. Similarly, the Lord tests none but the righteous; hence, ' The Lord trieth the righteous.
Bereishis Rabbah (56:11)AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD CALLED UNTO ABRAHAM A SECOND TIME OUT OF HEAVEN, AND SAID: BY MYSELF HAVE I SWORN What was the need of this oath? He had begged Him: Swear to me not to try me again henceforth, nor my son Isaac. R. Levi in the name of R. Hama b. R. Hanina gave another reason for this oath: He had begged: ' Swear to me not to test me again henceforth. This may be likened to a king who was married to a noble lady. She gave birth to her first son by him, and he divorced her; a second, and he divorced her; a third, and he divorced her. When she had given birth to a tenth son by him, they all assembled and demanded of him: ‘Swear to us not to divorce our mother again.’ Similarly, when Abraham had been tried for the tenth time, he said to Him: Swear to me not to test me again. R. Hanan commented: BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS THING it was the tenth trial, yet you say, BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS THING! The fact, however, is that this was the last trial, which was as weighty as all the rest together, and had he not submitted to it, all would have been lost.
How vaccine skeptics use storytelling to create powerful and medically inaccurate messaging
Researchers generally refer to people who do not follow the standard advice of health professionals about vaccines, by either refusing or delaying some or all vaccines, as vaccine hesitant. Today, vaccine hesitancy is most famously associated with the Make America Healthy Again movement and its standard-bearer, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But vaccine-hesitant groups are particularly adept at using narrative to craft compelling, nerve-wracking or highly emotion-driven stories of doctors ignoring patient concerns and children developing devastating health conditions after getting vaccinated.
What makes these stories the secret weapons of vaccine hesitancy is that they often are not actually about vaccines at all. When vaccines become detached from medicine, they can function like a symbol or a metaphor in a story, reflecting a worldview that encompasses much more than medicine and is fueled by nonmedical anxieties. These stories use narrative strategies, including some drawn from film and literature, to undermine vaccine confidence.
Measles Cases in the U.S. Are at a 35-Year High
https://time.com/article/2026/07/27/measles-cases-us-35-year-high/
Measles is an old scourge that’s rapidly re-emerging as a new one. According to numbers released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 24, there have been 2,318 cases of measles reported nationwide so far in this year, already exceeding the 2,289 cases reported in all of 2025. The current figure is the highest incidence of measles in 35 years, a record set back in 1991 when there were 9,643 U.S. cases.
It wasn’t long ago that measles cases were extremely rare in the U.S. In 1963, the first measles vaccine was introduced in the U.S., and decades of steady administration of the shot eventually led to the country being declared measles-free in 2000. There were some scattered infections in the ensuing years—56 cases in 2003, 55 in 2012, 13 in 2020. But this year and last year, the numbers have exploded
The surge has come amid a backdrop of drastic changes to childhood vaccinations. In January 2026, the CDC changed the childhood vaccine schedule—despite experts and organizations saying there had been no change in the science—after President Donald Trump directed the agency and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine skeptic, to review how other developed countries issue vaccine recommendations. The new guidelines reduced the number of recommended vaccines for children from 17 to 11. Though the measles vaccine is still on the “recommended” list, recent research published in Science showed that changes in the CDC's vaccine messaging under the Trump Administration reduced the public's trust in the agency and in vaccines, while increasing perceptions that vaccines are not safe.
Monday, July 27, 2026
Torah makes you appear Wise
Devarim (04:06) Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the is nations, who, when they shall hear all these statutes, shall say, Surely this great nation a wise and understanding people.
Rashi Devarim (04:06) FOR THIS IS YOUR WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING IN THE EYES OF THE PEOPLES — i.e. through this ye will be accounted wise and understanding men in the eyes of the peoples.
Sforno (04:06) Observance of the laws of the Torah is your true wisdom and will enable you to resist the lures and challenges by the heretics.
Rabbeinu Bachya (Devarim (04:06) Nations perceive as your wisdom and discernment.” The verse teaches first and foremost that all the commandments only come into their own when being performed. Their integrity has to be safeguarded and their substance has to be carried out or performed by not violating them. All the worthwhile activities in the world are automatically part of one or more of the Torah’s commandments. The discipline of healing is part of a commandment seeing the Torah tells us that if we listen carefully to its commandments and perform all its statutes and refrain from violating them we will not experience disease, etc., “seeing the Lord is your Healer.” The message is clear: Torah observance=preventive medicine. The same applies to all other scientific disciplines.
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Trump holds off major Iran escalation after Pentagon warns of interceptor shortage
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r111brtghmg
The US president had weighed a multistage bombing campaign against Iranian military, energy and nuclear targets, but advisers warned that heavier fighting could drain Patriot stocks, expose Gulf bases to retaliation and deepen the region’s energy and refugee crises
Mind Blown
https://mishpacha.com/mind-blown/
What are these “miracle drugs” that have mesmerized so many in our community? What power do they hold to better people’s lives? What motivates an otherwise law-abiding person to ignore the ramifications of ingesting a powerful, illegal, and unregulated substance? And where is this cultural trend heading?
Rav Moshe Rotberg, a Toms River posek heavily involved in mental health issues and a licensed therapist, doesn’t deny the potential for psychedelic therapy to effect profound healing. He believes that in the future, psychedelics will figure significantly in trauma treatment. He has seen firsthand how psychedelic therapy administered once or twice, and entrusted to qualified practitioners with vast experience, who maintain rigorous screening standards, has produced remarkable results.
However, at the same time, he’s observed a psychedelic community that has sprung up with practitioners, prescribers, and even rabbis involved — but shockingly devoid of real, responsible oversight.
Friday, July 24, 2026
Trump’s Nuclear Doctrine: Anything Is Possible For A Price
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7309929059139673041/7580651519010879201
The United States’ new nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, struck yesterday as American missiles continue to batter Iran, was met with cries of hypocrisy! and warnings it would spur on the race for a nuclear bomb in the Middle East.
This is neither surprising nor unfair, but the criticism fails to address a deeper, and perhaps more consequential, problem.
The agreement—which could purportedly grant Riyadh a path to build its own uranium enrichment facilities as part of its civilian nuclear program without undergoing stringent inspections by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA—signals we are entering a new era of nuclear doctrine.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Tisha B’Av 2026: fast times, rules and who is exempt
https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/bjiheap4fe#google_vignette
The Tisha B’Av fast in 2026 will begin at sunset on Wednesday, July 22, and continue until nightfall on Thursday, July 23.
Evil Eye how it Damages
Malbim (HaCarmel) The concept of the "evil eye," as explained by scientists is that when an envious person gazes at an object, then harmful sparks and poisonous vapors—derived from bodily excesses which are expelled naturally and which are rooted in the lowliness of his soul—emanate from his eye. These act like deadly darts upon the object of his gaze; their venom affects whatever is susceptible to such influence, instilling a curse and a blight, much as the gaze of a viper can kill those vulnerable to it. It has even been noted that if a person possessing the evil eye gazes steadily at a loaf of bread, that bread can become a source of death and destruction. It is regarding this that the Wise man warned: "Do not eat the bread of him who has an evil eye, nor desire his delicacies, for there is death in his offering."
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Mazel and Free Will
Derashos HaRan (08) For it would seem that a man, according to his mazal rebels through transgressions or pursues mitzvoth, it being stated there: "One who is born under Jupiter will be righteous. R. Nachman b. Yitzchak said: 'He will be especially exemplary in the mitzvah of charity.' One who is born under Mars will be a spiller of blood." Now this is certainly to be wondered at. For if mitzvoth or transgressions proceed from mazal, there is no room for reward or punishment. There are two answers here. Mazal, in respect to mitzvoth and transgressions, merely predisposes; it does not compel. One who is born under Tzedek is not compelled to be a tzaddik but is only predisposed in that direction. Similarly, one who is born under Mars is not compelled to be a spiller of blood, but is predisposed to it. The reason for this is that mazal acts upon bodies until it leaves an impression in them. In spite of this, however, it does not act upon the soul, which is above it. It follows from this that everything relating to nature will be affected by mazal, but acts of mitzvah or transgression, which are above the realm of nature, will be dictated by the activity of the soul. And this is in two respects. The first: the soul, having dominion over the body, can change the evil disposition invested in it by the mazal. So that, for example, if one is born under Mars, though it is dictated by his mazal that his blood be hot and boiling, predisposed to murder, still, the soul, in its power of dominion over the body, can quiet that boiling. This is the first respect. The second: though the boiling not be quieted, the soul can turn it to good and not employ it for evil. For mazal does not dictate specific acts but only characteristics, and it is within the province of the soul to employ a single characteristic for good or for evil. This is the intent of "R. Ashi said: 'Either a thief or a blood-letter; either a slaughterer or a mohel.'" Now a slaughterer and a mohel are both possessed of the same characteristic, one manifestation of that characteristic being commendable, the other, reprehensible. It is seen, then, that a mazal cannot compel the doing of mitzvoth or transgressions but can only create a predisposition — and the soul has power over that predisposition, as we have indicated.
As a British Jew, I Already Feel More Afraid
https://www.newsweek.com/andy-burnham-jews-antisemitism-britain-hamas-gaza-12217673
Andy Burnham, who was appointed Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade by King Charles III, is the symptom, not the cause, of a political system in turmoil.
For more than a decade, the Labour Party’s internal battles have been most glaring on how much they are willing to overlook antisemitism. Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, presided over a culture that brought anti-Zionist Jew-hatred into the mainstream, a kind of blueprint for some of the more radical Democrats in the U.S. The British Equality and Human Rights Commission concluded that the Labour party was liable for unlawful harassment of Jewish members, including the use of antisemitic tropes and minimizing or dismissing complaints as "smears". One of the now ousted Starmer’s rare achievements was to fight back against this.
Burnham insists he is against antisemitism. But the symbolism of his first political moves have caused Britain's Jews considerable alarm. There is a perception that he wants to make an effort to win back the support of areas with large Muslim populations, whose voters have been abandoning Labour for several years, as well as “progressives” who appear preoccupied about Israel above all else. Labour has haemorrhaged votes to a group known as the Gaza Independents (who make up four MPs in Parliament backed the Muslim Vote lobby group) and the Green Party, whose election campaigns repeatedly focus on Gaza at the expense of other issues.