Monday, August 19, 2024

Secular knowledge is from ruach hakodesh


The need and importance of consulting psychologists and doctors and other experts in secular knowledge should not be regarded as against Torah. Aside from the fact that Moshe consulted with Yisro and that through the ages gedolim have always done such - the following Chasam Sofer asserts that secular wisdom itself is inspired by ruach hakodesh.


Chasam Sofer (Orech Chaim 1:208): And this that you have written a number of times concerning the issue of wisdom and prophecy and Azniel ben Kenaz who restored the lost Halacha by pilpul… You correctly explain that which the Raavad said that there was ruach hakodesh in his beis hamedrash and similar such expressions does not mean ruach hakodesh in the sense that Dovid HaMelech had. Rather it means the spirit of G‑d for those who engage in Torah for pure motivations who merit to ascertain the truth even if according to the nature of their wisdom and intelligence they should be incapable of comprehending it properly. Nevertheless, G‑d in His mercy gives extra inspiration of wisdom for a limited time. In this manner Azniel ben Kenaz merited to ascertain the truth through pilpul, kal v’chomer and gezera shaveh [Temurah 16a] that which his natural intelligence was incapable of doing. This is similar to what it says in Bava Basra 12a that even though prophecy was taken from the prophets but not from the sages. However, your understanding of this gemora to be that wisdom was not taken from the sages is incorrect. Rather it is that prophecy was not taken from the sages. In other words, that type of prophecy which is attainable through the wisdom of one who studies Torah for pure motivation merits many things [Avos 6:1] with his intellect and his wisdom even though he doesn’t have the natural ability for it. The gemora wants to prove this from the common fact that a talmid chachom comprehends something on his own which in fact is according to the understanding of Rabbi Akiva. We know that this person’s level is not up to Rabbi Akiva’s heels. This proves that it happened by the prophetic ability we mentioned. In addition, we also find that he says things which in fact are Halacha L’Moshe m’Sinai. The gemora rejects this proof by saying that perhaps this occurs by chance like a blind person groping through a window. However, the gemora concludes that it is not by chance since he gives justifications for his views and thus it is like a prophetic form of wisdom. This idea can explain the gemora in Megila (16a): “Whoever says wisdom even if he not Jewish is called a wise man.” The obvious question is why shouldn’t he be called a wise man? Don’t we in fact even say a beracha on the wise men of the non‑Jews “who gives of His wisdom to human beings” (Berachos 58a)? The answer is that without this gemora we would have mistakenly thought that Divinely inspired wisdom only comes to Jews while if a non‑Jew said something brilliant that seems to transcend his intellectual capabilities we would have thought it was just blind chance….

Enlightenment & the Jews: What part should G-d play in secular culture?

This is the first of a series of posts on the relationship of Judaism to secular society and secular knowledge. I had previously mentioned the Seridei Aish's view that the Mussar Movement was a frum enlightenment which I understood literally. Dr. Marc Shapiro corrected me and said that I can not take this literally. Apparently the Seridei Aish simply meant it was enlightenment - but only in the spiritual sense and was never meant to include the issue of secular knowledge or tikun olam. However no one else seems to have characterized the Mussar Movement as frum haskala.  Dr. Shapiro said he would send me a letter from the Seridei Aish that discusses the issue more fully.

However once on the topic - since it is the issue today with Rabbi Lipman and his attempt to bring the chareidi society into the modern secular world with compulsory secular studies in high school, compulsory draft and in general a compulsory interaction with the secular world - I thought it would be of value to explore the historic lessons of the traditional Orthodox world dealing with the secular world. The issues facing Israeli Chareidim now were faced by the Jewish community beginning with the end of the 17th century when the secular enlightenment occurred together with emancipation from the ghetto - and continued to the present day.
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Paul Johnson (A History of the Jews page 298-299): Although the haskalah was a specific episode in Jewish history, and the maskil or enlightened Jew is a special type peculiar to Judaism, the Jewish enlightenment is nevertheless part of the general European enlightenment. But it is, more particularly, linked to the enlightenment in Germany, and this for a very good reason. The movement in both France and Germany was concerned to examine and readjust man's attitude to God. But whereas in France its tendency was to repudiate or downgrade God, and tame religion, in Germany it sought genuinely to reach a new understanding of and accommodation with the religious spirit in man. The French enlightenment was brilliant but fundamentally frivolous; the German was serious, sincere and creative. Hence it was to the German version that enlightened Jews felt attracted, which influenced them most, and to which they in turn made a substantial contribution. For perhaps the first time Jews in Germany began to feel a distinct affinity with German culture, and thus sowed in their hearts the seeds of a monstrous delusion.

To intellectuals in Christian society, the question posed by the enlightenment was really: how large a part, if any, should God play in an increasingly secular culture? To Jews, the question was rather what part, if any, should secular knowledge play in the culture of God. They were still enfolded in the medieval vision of a total religious society. It is true that Maimonides had argued strongly in favour of admitting secular science and had demonstrated how completely it could be reconciled to the Torah. But his argument had failed to convince most Jews. Even a relatively moderate man like the Maharal of Prague had attacked Rossi precisely for bringing secular criteria to bear on religious matters. A few Jews, for instance attended medical school in Padua. But they turned their back on the world outside the Torah the moment they re-entered the ghetto in the evening, as indeed did Jewish men of business. Of course many went out into the world never to return; but that had always happened. What the awesome example of Spinoza had shown, to the satisfaction of most Jews, was that a man could not drink at the well of gentile knowledge without deadly risk of poisoning his Judaic life. The ghetto remained not merely a social but an intellectual universe on its own. By the mid-eighteenth century the results were pitifully apparent to all. As long ago as the Tortosa dispute, early in the fifteenth century the Jewish intelligentsia had been made to seem backward and obscurantist. Now, more than 300 years later, the Jews appeared to educated Christians - or even uneducated ones - figures of contempt and derision dressed in funny clothes, imprisoned in ludicrous superstition, as remote and isolated from modern society as one of their lost tribes. The gentiles knew nothing, and cared less about Jewish scholarship. Like the ancient Greeks before them, they were not even aware it existed. For Christian Europe there had always been a 'Jewish problem'. In the Middle Ages it had been: how to prevent this subversive minority from contaminating religious truth, and social order? No fear of that now. For gentile intellectuals, at least the problem was now rather: how, in common humanity, to rescue this pathetic people from their ignorance and darkness

Smotrich orders haredi daycare subsidies to continue, defying attorney general

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-815212

Smotrich claims Limon and Messing's opinion is wrong

In his letter, dated Thursday but published on Sunday, Smotrich argued that Limon and Messing’s opinion was wrong and based on spite towards haredi families. Smotrich demanded that they rescind the opinion, that he intended to continue with the subsidies and, that if the legal advisors thought it problematic, they could petition the High Court. The finance minister’s intention contradicted the aforementioned High Court ruling, which reiterated that the attorney-general was the only statutory interpreter of the law and the court’s rulings, and therefore its opinions were binding.

Studying Greek Wisdom

 https://www.etzion.org.il/en/halakha/yoreh-deah/topics-yoreh-deah/studying-greek-wisdom

          Learning a trade is considered one of these needs, as the Yerushalmi says. The Ra'avan writes that despite the prohibition against embarking on a sea voyage three days before Shabbat, it is permissible for one's trade.  Rashi writes (Bava Metzia 30b) that the verse "You should inform  them of the path in which they should walk" refers to teaching one's children a trade.  Studying Greek wisdom might, if it has some worth, also be considered a legitimate need, which (according to the Ran's approach) would not detract from one's fulfillment of the obligation to "learn Torah according to one's ability."

Far-right influencers turn against Trump campaign

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/18/trump-campaign-nick-fuentes-groypers-hard-right-criticism/ 

Colin Henry, a researcher at George Washington University who has studied political extremism online, said influencers on the far right have grown visibly frustrated in recent weeks by Trump’s fading performance in the polls and the campaign’s disavowal of hard-line policy proposals, such as Project 2025. “They saw that as a shot across the bow from the mainstream folks, who wanted to do all this stuff with policy and institutions,” he said.

‘Alarming’ surge in mental ill health among young people in face of ‘unprecedented’ challenges, experts warn

 https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/14/alarming-surge-in-mental-ill-health-among-young-people-in-face-of-unprecedented-challenges-experts-warn

Intergenerational inequality, unregulated social media, wage theft, insecure employment and the climate crisis are driving a “dangerous” and “alarming” global surge in mental ill health among youth, a consortium of health experts has warned.

There is an urgent need to address these driving factors and improve mental health treatments to stymie rates of premature death, disability and lost potential, all of which have escalated over the past two decades, the research from The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health found.

Sunday Meltdown: Trump Floods Truth Social With Photos of Swifties and Communists

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/sunday-meltdown-trump-floods-truth-social-with-ai-images-of-swifties-and-communists?ref=home?ref=home

Trump went on to remind his followers that he did more for Black Americans while in office than any other president—with one possible exception.

“Along with Opportunity Zones, the long term funding of HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, and much more, I’ve done more for our black population than anyone other than, perhaps, Abraham Lincoln!!! Sorry, but that’s the way it is!!!”

The claim is an old talking point of his, something he’s repeated in tweets, at campaign rallies, and, most recently, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago. (Experts told The Washington Post in 2020 that the list of presidents who have done more for Black civil rights than Trump includes: Lyndon B. Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Harry Truman, and Barack Obama.)

The Way to Fix the Middle East Conflict Looks Obvious—Except to Israelis and Palestinians

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/two-state-solution-israelis-palestinians-708b6075?mod=hp_lead_pos7

In fact, support for side-by-side states has been dwindling for well over a decade. While surveys from the late 1990s until around 2010 showed solid majorities of Israelis and Palestinians backing the two-state solution, it has been downhill ever since.

Now only 32% of Palestinians believe in the formula, according to a PCPSR survey released in June. Among Israeli Jews, belief in peace based on two states has collapsed to 19%, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center published in May, from 32% shortly before Oct. 7.

Most Israelis and Palestinians know they need to find a way to share the land between the river and the sea. But they can no longer see a partner on the other side. 

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Child sex-trafficking victim who killed her abuser will finally learn her fate

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/08/14/chrystul-kizer-sentence-sex-trafficking/

Her case has challenged the limits of the criminal justice system’s growing leniency for sex trafficking victims who end up behind bars. As police, prosecutors, judges and lawmakers have been trained regarding the trauma endured by those coerced into commercial sex, many states have implemented laws allowing trafficking victims to be cleared of certain charges — such as prostitution or theft — if they can prove their crimes occurred because they were being trafficked.

Obligation to obtain Scientific knowledge

 Devarim (04:06) Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who, when they shall hear all these statutes, shall say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

What is this wisdom which is required to impress goyim?

Rashi in Chumash says it is Torah study

ושמרתם AND YE SHALL BE ON THE WATCH TO DO — This refers to the study of the laws (Sifrei Devarim 58), 

ועשיתם — this must be explained according to what it implies: AND YE SHALL DO. 

כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם וגו׳ 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.

However in Shabbos (75a) Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi said that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said in the name of bar Kappara: Anyone who knows how to calculate astronomical seasons and the movement of constellations and does not do so, the verse says about him: “They do not take notice of the work of God, and they do not see His handiwork” (Isaiah 5:12). And Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: From where is it derived that there is a mitzva incumbent upon a person to calculate astronomical seasons and the movement of constellations? As it was stated: “And you shall guard and perform, for it is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations” (Deuteronomy 4:6). What wisdom and understanding is there in the Torah that is in the eyes of the nations, i.e., appreciated and recognized by all? You must say: This is the calculation of astronomical seasons and the movement of constellations, as the calculation of experts is witnessed by all. 

Rashi (Shabbos 75a) In the eyes of the nations – since this is wisdom that is self evident in that it shows them a sign according to his words in the movement of the sun and the constellations, which testifies as he says that this year is rainy or this year is sunny All the events are related only to the mechanical movement of the sun and the constellations

It indicates it is referring to scientific studies. There Rashi indicates it is to knowledge that shows that nature follows mechanical rules and this undermines the belief that there are volitional forces that run the world

Teens’ Energy-Drink Habit Is Amping Anxiety, Disrupting Class and Triggering Seizures

 https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/teens-energy-drink-habit-is-amping-anxiety-disrupting-class-and-triggering-seizures-9badd52b?mod=hp_lead_pos11

It can hinder learning, disrupt class and, in some cases, cause seizures. Students regularly visit the school nurse’s office, complaining of rapid heart rates and anxiety attacks after consuming several energy drinks, administrators say. Caffeine consumption is linked to heightened feelings of anxiety and depression, which are on the rise among adolescents.

NYT reporter responsible for doxxing of 600 Australian Jews, to face legal action

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-815137

A New York Times reporter based in Melbourne was responsible for the leak of personal information of over 600 Australian Jewish members of a WhatsApp Group earlier in 2024, according to a New York Times statement and Wall Street Journal investigation. The New York Times has announced that it will be taking legal action against the reporter, Natasha Frost, after she acknowledged the data breach.

The data was subsequently disseminated online, leading to mass doxxing, threats and harassment against the members of the group by pro-Palestine activists.

Friday, August 16, 2024

Trump’s fury over Harris’ switch with Biden is increasingly driving his campaign

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/16/politics/trump-fury-harris-switch-campaign-analysis/index.html

“Donald Trump is not the Donald Trump of 2016, he seemed slowed down, he seems meandering, he seems low energy and he really is struggling to make a point,” said former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, who broke with the ex-president after he refused to accept his defeat in 2020. “He is somebody who is not performing at the caliber he once was and that might have worked when he was up against Joe Biden — the contrast did make him appear at times stronger and more vibrant. It’s not working against Kamala Harris who is the younger candidate and the one with more energy,” she said on CNN’s “AC360.”

Fox News Deletes Shocking Story Claiming U.S. Gave List of Mossad Agents to Iran

 https://vinnews.com/2024/08/15/fox-news-deletes-story-claiming-u-s-gave-iran-secret-intel-about-mossad/

The now debunked “bombshell” report came from the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida, which claimed to have spoken with an unnamed source in Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Trump ‘committing political suicide’ as Harris seizes ‘intensity advantage’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4828533-luntz-trump-committing-political-suicide-harris-intensity-advantage/

Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz said in a Wednesday interview he is seeing a “broad shift” in the 2024 polls toward Vice President Harris as she rides her “intensity advantage” and as former President Trump increasingly commits “political suicide.”

Columbia President Steps Down After Blowback Over Campus Gaza Protests

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/columbia-president-minouche-shafik-steps-down-after-blowback-over-campus-gaza-protests?ref=home

Shafik, who has served as president since July 2023, drew widespread criticism on both sides of the political spectrum for the university’s handling of pro-Palestine student protests that began towards the end of the spring semester.

Walz Has 'No Personal Relationship' With Controversial Muslim Cleric, Campaign Says

 https://www.newsweek.com/tim-walz-imam-asad-zaman-controversy-hitler-1938773

This is not the first time Walz has been targeted for his stance on Israel and its ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza. After Harris selected him as her vice-presidential pick, Republicans were quick to suggest she chose Walz over Josh Shapiro, the popular Pennsylvania governor, due to Shapiro's Jewish faith and support of Israel.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump claimed again last week that he is the better candidate for Jewish voters, saying that any Jew who votes for the Democratic ticket needs to get "their head examined."

Walz has been consistent in expressing his support for Israel. Shortly after Oct. 7, he condemned Hamas while condemning those who demonized all Palestinians for the actions of the militant group. He has also advocated for increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

FBI probes whether Iran envoy Malley committed crimes in handling of classified info Lock Trump up?

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/10/fbi-probes-iran-envoy-malley-classified-info-00157321

Investigators are trying to determine if any crimes were committed, according to the person briefed on the case and another person familiar with the matter. But it is not yet clear if the Department of Justice will bring any charges against Malley or what the scope of any charges might be. The people were granted anonymity to discuss a highly sensitive issue.

Political positions of Donald Trump

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Donald_Trump

In a 2004 interview, Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat", explaining: "It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn't be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats...But certainly we had some very good economies under Democrats, as well as Republicans. But we've had some pretty bad disaster under the Republicans."[5] In a July 2015 interview, Trump said that he has a broad range of political positions and that "I identify with some things as a Democrat."[4]


The views of both Trump and Vance are constantly changing. It is thus to be expected they will turn against Israel and providing costly support. To help their Arab and Russian friends. Or they will simply lie about it like Trump's claims that Covid would just go away with warm weather or that the election was stolen or Mexico was paying for the Wall or that they were pro-family or even stating they were concerned by Clinton's reckless handling of government information but saw nothing wrong with taking classified document and failing to keep them in a secure location

Listening to anti-Israel activists, then shushing them, Kamala Harris walks a tightrope

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/walking-tightrope-kamala-harris-listens-to-anti-israel-activists-then-shushes-them/

Direct and unequivocal support came soon enough. Harris “has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups,” Phil Gordon, Harris’s national security adviser, said in a tweet. “She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.”

Intel is sued by fired Jewish employee over ex-supervisor's alleged antisemitism

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-814603

A Jewish former employee of Intel INTC.O sued the chipmaker on Tuesday, saying he was fired after complaining that the senior executive he reported to openly celebrated antisemitism, Hamas and terrorism against Israel.

The plaintiff, a former vice president of engineering using the pseudonym John Doe, said Intel fired him on April 2 in a purported cost-cutting move barely two months after assigning him to report to Alaa Badr, vice president of customer success.

Former aide: Trump ‘feels this election slipping away’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4825718-sarah-matthews-trump-aide-election/

Sarah Matthews, a onetime spokesperson to former President Trump, said Monday the GOP presidential nominee is embracing false theories about his political opponent because he’s getting “desperate” as Vice President Harris’s campaign benefits from a boost in voter enthusiasm.

“I think that he feels this election slipping away from him, and that’s where you’re beginning to see him spiral and cling to these conspiracy theories, as you noted with the AI-generated crowds, which obviously can be easily disproven,” Matthews said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”

Joseph McCarthy - Trump's Source of Inspiration

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative, Joseph Nye Welch. On June 9, 1954,[137] the 30th day of the hearings, Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down". McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named Fred Fisher, who had once belonged to the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive lawyers' association.[138] In an impassioned defense of Fisher, Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness ..." When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called

Blinken approves sale to Israel of military equipment worth over $20b.

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-814606

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday approved the possible sale to Israel of fighter jets and other military equipment worth over $20 billion, the Pentagon said.

In a statement, the Pentagon said Blinken approved the possible sale of F-15 jets and equipment worth nearly $19 billion. He also approved the possible sale of tank cartridges worth around $774 million and army vehicles worth $583 million, the Pentagon said.

The tank rounds would be almost immediately available for delivery. The Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets would take years to produce and deliver.

IDF confirms: Missiles towards Tel Aviv launched from humanitarian route

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/394605

Hamas fired missiles from adjacent to humanitarian route in Khan Yunis, IDF strikes back, exposes terror group's use of Gazan civilians as human shields.

Trump made at least 20 false claims in his conversation with Elon Musk

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/13/politics/fact-check-trump-musk-20-false-claims/index.html

Former President Donald Trump delivered his usual bombardment of false claims – at least 20 in all – during a Monday conversation with billionaire supporter Elon Musk, which aired on Musk’s social media platform, X.

Most of the falsehoods uttered by the Republican presidential nominee were claims that have been repeatedly debunked before, some of them for years. They spanned a broad range of subjects, from immigration to the economy to foreign policy to Trump’s record in office to Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Is Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal About to Dump Trump?

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-murdochs-wall-street-journal-about-to-dump-trump?ref=home

The conservative-leaning Journal editorial board has never appeared eager to anoint Trump, with its November 2022 editorial titled “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser,” following Republicans’ razor-thin midterm wins that cycle, serving as a prime example of its frustration toward his temperament. Yet the paper has still oscillated between defending (and advising) Trump and attacking President Joe Biden.

Trump Is Looking Like a Loser Again

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-is-looking-like-a-loser-again-mar-a-lago-news-conference-2024-election-02ec5c8f?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

By my calculation, about one-third of Mr. Trump’s remarks fell into three categories: false, obtuse or lunatic.

I’m not even talking here about the usual grotesque hyperbolic assertions or baffling verbal manufactures, the finest of which last week was surely the description of “people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon.”

I am talking about things like these:

• The argument that he must have won Georgia in 2020 because he easily won Alabama and South Carolina, suggesting he thinks that Georgia—which has two Democratic senators, and which two Democrats have carried in the last eight presidential elections—is politically indistinguishable from states that no Democratic candidate has carried since 1976.

Monday, August 12, 2024

Torah Learning on Tisha B'Av

 There are texts that everyone knows are permitted to learn. 

https://www.ou.org/holidays/the_story_of_the_churban_the_destruction/

However, certain portions of the Torah are permitted to be studied even on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. They include the Book of Job, which is a dramatic probe into the question of seemingly undeserved suffering, “Megilat Eichah,” the Book of Lamentations of the Prophet Yirmiyahu over the fate of Yerushalayim, the Laws of Mourning and certain portions of the Talmud.

The permitted Talmudical portions are in the “Aggadic” part of the Talmud; that is, the non-legal, but rather, historical or poetic, but with a moral lesson, portions. In particular, those portions of the Aggadah which are permitted to be studied are those dealing with the “Churban,” or Destruction, of Yerushalayim and of the Temple, the destruction of Beitar at the end of the Bar Kochba Revolt with its river, literally, of Jewish blood, and of certain similarly tragic episodes in Jewish History. Presumably, books about the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis, may their name be erased, are also acceptable reading matter on Tisha B’Av.

The major location in which these Aggadic portions are found is in “Masechet Gittin,” the Volume of the Talmud the legal portion of which deals mainly with “Gittin,” or Divorces (pages 55b – 58a). This is most appropriate, since the destruction of Yerushalayim and the Temple about two thousand years ago represented a “temporary” divorce, separating G-d and the Jewish People.


In addition Rabbi Friefeld told me in the name of Rav Hutner that it is also permitted to learn sefarim that help correct the sins that led to Tisha B'Av

Trump Rolls Out Bonkers Harris Plane Conspiracy—but Photographer Disproves It

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/photographer-andrew-harnik-shoots-down-trumps-kamala-harris-plane-crowd-conspiracy?ref=home?ref=home

“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday. “There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches.”

Trump falsely accuses Harris campaign of fabricated AI crowd photos

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/11/trump-falsely-accuses-harris-campaign-fabricated-ai-crowd-photos/

The event last week at an airport hangar in Detroit was live-streamed, widely attended by the media including The Washington Post, and many attendees posted their own pictures and video showing a packed venue. Local news outlet MLive estimated that 15,000 people filled the hangar and that attendees spilled out into the tarmac.

Trump spreads false conspiracy theory about Harris’ Detroit crowd size

 https://www.wfft.com/news/politics/trump-spreads-false-conspiracy-theory-about-harris-detroit-crowd-size/article_9e23e48d-5acf-510b-9f65-5acc886fe63a.html

 Donald Trump falsely claimed in a series of social media posts Sunday that “nobody” attended Vice President Kamala Harris’ Michigan rally last week — and said his Democratic rival should be “disqualified” over a “fake crowd picture.”

The former president appeared to have fallen for a far-right conspiracy theory — one easily disproved by photos and videos captured by attendees and media showing thousands of supporters at the event at an airport hangar near Detroit.

'He Failed': Woodward Reveals Trump's 'Danger' In Newly Released Tapes - Trump's biggest problem is incompetence