There’s no defending Trump’s North Korea performance

washington post

By E.J. Dionne Jr.ColumnistJune 13 at 6:40 PMEmail the author

One of the costs of the Trump era is that all opinions become suspect because, even more than usual, everything is seen through the prism of whether you are for or against the president. Consequently, criticism of President Trump is regularly assumed by his supporters to be rooted in bad faith.

The retort to any judgment against his statements or his policies typically begins with “You wouldn’t say this . . .” and ends with “if Obama (or Bush or Clinton) were doing it.”

In the interest of candor, let’s acknowledge that many of us are automatically suspicious of everything Trump says because he not only is a documented liar but also came close to copping to the fact during a news conference in Singapore.

In explaining what he’d do if he proved to be mistaken about his big bet this week on the integrity of Kim Jong Un, Trump said: “I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong.’”

Then he caught himself and added: “I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”

This was our salesman-in-chief reveling in his skill at covering up and deceiving.

DOJ ARRESTS MORE THAN 2,000 ALLEGED ONLINE CHILD-SEX OFFENDERS IN COUNTRYWIDE OPERATION

newsweek

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that in a three-month nationwide operation, more than 2,300 people suspected of online child sex crimes have been arrested.

The coordinated effort, called Operation Heart Break, was conducted by Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces in all 50 states. The effort combined resources from more than 4,500 law enforcement agencies, according to the Justice Department.

The Sacramento County, California, sheriff’s office houses ICAC operations within its Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. The department said it was “proud” to be a part of the effort.

“We conduct these investigations on a local level and work closely with our federal partners,” Sergeant Shaun Hampton, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, told Newsweek. “We work with agencies around the world to ensure the safety of our children.”

The operation targeted several elements of sexual exploitation of children online, including child pornography, enticing children online for sexual activity, sex trafficking and traveling across state and international lines to commit sexual abuse against children.

Hampton called the types of crimes the task force deals with a “tragedy,” and “extremely taxing” on the law enforcement agents who investigate them because of their difficult nature.  

Community in Conflict: Hasidic Jews & Education

Part 1: Some Americans may not realize that Hasidic Jews shun many common secular practices widely accepted across cultural and national borders, including the basics of education. For example, there are several yeshivas, or Hasidic Jewish schools, in the New York area that only teach subjects in Yiddish. Previous yeshiva students share the impact of these practices in their lives. Watch Part 2 Here: https://youtu.be/AlmVCPK_E7M

Lakewood: Senior Posek & Pediatrician Partner To Warn Parents About Sexual Abuse In Camp

yeshiva world news

In what appears to be a first, the senior Posek and senior Pediatrician of Lakewood have partnered together to warn parents about the dangers of sexual abuse for children in  summer camp.

Signs have been hung in Shuls around Lakewood with the phone number of a hotline, urging parents to call and listen to an important Shiur about summer camps, and protecting children.

HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Forscheimer, senior Posek at Lakewood’s Beis Medrash Govoah, addresses the obligation that a parent has to speak with their children before camp.

Rabbi Pesach Krohn addresses the importance of having open communication with your children.

Dr. Reuven Shanik, the leading Pediatrician in Lakewood, is one of the speakers as well as Dr. Hylton Lightman, the leading Pediatrician for the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, and Mrs. Debbie Fox, an LCSW and founder of Magen Yeladim International.

To listen to these important messages, call 641-715-3800 and enter code 424536#.

This is the second time that the Lakewood community has publicly addressed the dangers of sexual abuse and protecting children.

The first event was organized two years ago by Amudim, and was attended by well over 1000 people, including noted askanim, roshei kehillah, the poskim of Beis Medrash Govoha and with the hishtatfus and brocha of the roshei yeshiva, and ‎roshei mosdos.

It is clear that thanks to the Amudim event, this topic is now being dealt with head on, as opposed to the way it was addressed for decades. The awareness that the Amudim event generated went a long way in providing the necessary information and resources to prevent these problems from occurring, and if Chas V’shalom they do, how to properly deal with it al pi Da’as Torah.

Jesus for frum Jews

I have asked for recommendations for a teen age girl regarding Jesus

are their any kosher books available that you would recommend?

updatefrom Rav Spira

Shalom Aleikhem Ha-Rav ha-Ga'on R. Daniel Eidensohn, shlit"a,
Many thanks to Kevod Torato ha-Rav for the update today on Reb Aharon Friedman's situation. In my most recent publication at <http://www.scribd.com/doc/264957339/Sherbrooke-Street-Eruv>, I mention in footnote 30 that Ms. Epstein is still halakhically married to her first husband. Also worthy of highlight in the same essay is footnote 4, which cites an e-mail from R. Yisrael A. Knopfler disqualifying the RCA Vice-President (Northeast region) R. Michael Whitman (be-mechilat Kevod Torato) from adjudicating questions in Hilkhot Gittin. I will send Kevod Torato ha-Rav a copy of the original letter of R. Knopfler at a future date, so as to be mezakeh et ha-rabbim.
Gratefully,
Shalom C. Spira
Montreal, Canada 

update

Todah rabbah and ye'yasher kochakha, R. Eidensohn, shlit"a, for the publicizing today (23 Sivan, 5778) footnote 30 of this student's Sherbrooke Street Eruv essay. Interestingly, the very same day (23 Sivan, 5778), Ha-Ma'or  journal from Shvat-Adar 5776 was published online, which contains a letter by R. Shmuel Tsarch which seems to confirm my footnote. See here:

http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=57182&st=&pgnum=35&hilite=

I cautiously emphasize "seems to confirm," because R. Tsarch congratulates R. Landesman, despite the paradoxical fact that R. Landesman is himself (be-mechilat Kevod Torato) encouraged by the Emet Kneh pamphlet to perform teshuvah regarding the heter me'ah Rabbanim granted to R. Aryeh M. Kotler [itself mentioned in footnote 30 of my essay]. Okay, I am not here to criticize talmidei chakhamim, chas ve-chalilah. Obviously, ve-amekh kulam tzaddikim, and my only goal is to clarify the Halakhah and to perform the mitzvah of restoring shelom bayit between husband and wife, as I already wrote at http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2017/02/greenblatt-kaminetsky-heter-is-tamar.html .

Be-virkat kol tuv selah,

Shalom

Rav Shmeul's phony heter has paid off

http://www.phillykollel.com/Office%20Area/Dinner%202016-17/DN16-17%20Master%20Journal%20Combined.pdf

The Kollel would like to thank those who opened up their homes for Kollel shiurim and events during the past year. In the zechus of their hospitality and support, may their homes be blessed with health, happiness, and peace. We apologize for any omissions. Ilana Baltuch Karen Berkowitz Sara Bleier Diane Braid Galitte Den Amy Erlbaum Tamar Fleischer Stacey Goldman Gilya Hodos Susan Hullman Amanda Israel Cindy Kosloff Amy Kratchman Dana Kupfer Shelly Melman Paige Nochenson Dahlia Ocken Chava Paris Michie Pasternak Kristy Schulman Kineret Shakow Julia Strassman Lisa Stein Adina Spiller Mindy Zaslow Shayna Malka Zeffre

presumably, the Kollel would not sponsor a shiur in the home of a couple, in which the wife was also still married  to another man.  The fact that the Kollel sponsored a shiur in Adam and Tamar's home, and publicly, on the Internet, is thanking them for doing so is surely an endorsement of the annulment and remarriage.

Philadephia's Orthodox community is small and Rabbi Kamanetsky is closely associated with the Kollel.  The Kollel would not be endorsing the annulment and remarriage without Rabbi Kamenetsky's active approval.

Clinic Claims Success In Making Babies With 3 Parents' DNA

npr

In a clinic on a side street in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, doctors are doing something that, as far as is publicly known, is being done nowhere else in the world: using DNA from three different people to create babies for women who are infertile.

"If you can help these families to achieve their own babies, why it must be forbidden?" Valery Zukin, director of the Nadiya Clinic, asks as he peers over his glasses. "It is a dream to want to have a genetic connection with a baby."

I traveled to Ukraine because Zukin promised unusual access to his private fertility clinic, including the first demonstration for a U.S. journalist of how scientists create "three-parent" babies — a procedure prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Zukin also arranged the first-ever interview with a mother of a 15-month-old boy who is one of the four children he says he has produced this way.

Three more of his patients are pregnant, Zukin says, including a woman from Sweden. Women from several other countries including Britain, Brazil and Israel are going through the process, he says.

Leading ethicists and genetics researchers criticize the clinic for rushing ahead to use this method for infertility. No one knows whether children produced this way will be healthy, they say. And some worry the procedure may open the door to "designer babies."

kaminetsky-Greenblatt heter gains - GROUNDBREAKING RULING IN RABBINICAL COURT FREES 23-YEAR 'CHAINED WOMAN'

jpost
dr sprerberv applies heter of kaminetsy-greenblatt
arutz7
In a groundbreaking development for divorce rights in Israel, Tzviya Gorodetsky, who has sought a divorce from her husband for 23 years, has been freed from her marriage by a private, ad hoc Orthodox rabbinical court headed by respected Orthodox rabbi and talmudist Rabbi Daniel Sperber.

The ruling could pave the way for more such women to avail themselves of private rabbinical courts, if they believe that they have no chance of ever escaping their failed marriages. It follows other attempts to bypass established religious institutions in such realms as conversion, kashrut and marriage.

Agudath Israel of America Statement on Supreme Court Ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

matzav

Agudath Israel of America today issued the following response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which involved the rights of a Christian baker who was punished by the State of Colorado for refusing on religious grounds to bake and design a wedding cake for the “marriage” of two men.

The Agudah, a national Orthodox Jewish organization, had urged the Supreme Court in its amicus curiae brief to uphold the religious rights of Mr. Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who was asked to use his creative talents to bake a cake in celebration of a same-sex marriage, an event that contravenes his sincerely held religious beliefs. While the Supreme Court’s decision requires close review, it is unfortunate that the ruling does not reach or provide clarity on the substantive question of whether Mr. Phillips and other such proprietors faced with similar conflicts will find free exercise protection within the First Amendment.

Nonetheless, the Court’s ruling is gratifying in that it emphasizes that religious freedom concerns must be given a full and deserving measure of consideration, even within the context of local and state anti-discrimination law. It affirms the principle that state agencies may not presume religious rights to be of lesser value or deserving of lesser protection, and they may in no way exhibit hostility toward sincerely held religious beliefs. We are also heartened by the fact that this posture was adopted by the Justices by a wide 7-2 margin. We are also pleased that the Court has explicitly affirmed the right of members of the clergy to be able to refuse to participate in ceremonies to which they object for religious reasons.

THE TOY THAT’S WREAKING HAVOC ON THE SOUTH

Up until recently, kites were a symbol of joy, innocence and beauty for residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza. That was until March, when some of their neighbors across the border in Gaza began using kites as a weapon, sending dozens into their community, scorching their crops and causing serious damage to their agriculture.

“For us, the kite is very symbolic,” Kfar Aza resident Ayelet Shachar-Epstein told The Jerusalem Post over coffee just outside the kibbutz on Monday. She explained that every Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year), “when the weather is beautiful and there are strong winds coming from the west, we have a kite event. Each family builds their own kites, we put them up in the air and it’s one of the most beautiful occasions... of peace and appreciation of life. It’s a community event – we have a very strong community.”

Saying Kaddish for Hamas

arutz\On May 16, about 50 Jewish activists gathered in London’s Parliament Square and, in a public display of phoney grief, davened Kaddish.

This gathering was less about a genuine empathy for dead Palestinians. It was more an exhibition of Jew hatred for the Jewish state.

How do we know that? Well, these people proved they are not equal opportunity grievers. They did not gather to mourn the 1242 Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists since the year 2000. Instead, they collected together to publicly show their support for Palestinian terror. Of course, these useful idiots would protest vehemently at such a suggestion but what other conclusion can we reach when it was announced, from the Palestinian side, that at least 53 of the 58 rioters shot by IDF soldiers were, in fact, either members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

So, in mid-May, we had the spectacle of Jews meeting in the heart of British democracy to pray for the souls of those that were prevented by Jewish soldiers from slaughtering Jews

An American 13-Year-Old, Pregnant and Married to Her Rapist

ny times

Dawn Tyree was 11 years old when a family friend began to molest her. A bit more than a year later, she became pregnant from these rapes, and her parents found out what had been going on. But they didn’t go to the police; instead, they found another solution.“It was decided for me that I would marry him,” Tyree recalled.

So Tyree, then 13, was married to her rapist, then age 32. She became one of the thousands of underage American girls who are married each year, often sacrificing their futures to reduce embarrassment to their parents. Statutory rape is thus sanctioned by the state as marriage, and the abuser ends up not in handcuffs but showered with wedding gifts.

Our State Department protests child marriage in Africa and Asia (worldwide, a girl 14 or younger is married every 11 seconds, according to Save the Children), but every state in America allowed child marriages. That has finally changed. Last month Delaware became the first state to ban all child marriages, without exception.

Rav Shlomo Fisher - Maharal's explanations are not part of Mesorah but he created them

otzar forum

Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test

atlantic
Affluence—not willpower—seems to be what’s behind some kids' capacity to delay gratification.

The marshmallow test is one of the most famous pieces of social-science research: Put a marshmallow in front of a child, tell her that she can have a second one if she can go 15 minutes without eating the first one, and then leave the room. Whether she’s patient enough to double her payout is supposedly indicative of a willpower that will pay dividends down the line, at school and eventually at work. Passing the test is, to many, a promising signal of future success.

But a new study, published last week, has cast the whole concept into doubt. The researchers—NYU’s Tyler Watts and UC Irvine’s Greg Duncan and Hoanan Quan—restaged the classic marshmallow test, which was developed by the Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel in the 1960s. Mischel and his colleagues administered the test and then tracked how children went on to fare later in life. They described the results in a 1990 study, which suggested that delayed gratification had huge benefits, including on such measures as standardized test scores.

Einstein's letter to mournlng father

Dear Mr. Marcus:

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.

With my best wishes, 
sincerely yours, 

Albert Einstein. 

Mr. Robert S.Marcus
World Jewish Congress
1834 Broadway
New York 23,N.Y.

marriage substitute - therapists

 Aside from cases where therapists give bad advice or continue therapy longer than needed there are cases where therapist gets sexually involved this is also true for rabbinical therapists but there are other issues

I saw man of 35 asked him why he wanted therapy he responded that he had a number of problems and been seeing a therapist in America so thought he should continue in Israel

me "How long have you had therapy?"

patient 10 years!

"That seems a bit long

patient But she said I needed it

Did you see any improvement?

patient No but she said I should keep trying

If you don’t see significant improvement – usually wthin 2 sessions you should try another therapist

But what is your goal from therapy?

patient To get married

But it is obvious your therapist was a substitute for marriage.  no more therapy

Several weeks later he got engaged

I was told a similar story by another therapist. There was a woman of 35 who was depressesd over weight didn’t care about her appearance or life. But once a week for over 10 years she got dressed up and put on makeup – for her weekly therapy session

ן ואילך, ככל הנראה בעקבות ו' ר בכרך, אבר מוצאים את השימוש בניסוי ת תרדה' בתפוצה הולכת וגדלה בקרב בעלי ההלכה. למשל, חרא נמצא מספר פעמים אולר' יעקב וישר בעל 'שברת יעקב', 197 וכעברו מספר דרדרת חרא ורוח למדי אצל מספר ם חשובים בירתו I שתשרברתיד,ם הגיעו לקהילות רבות, כגרן ו' יעקב עמדן 1 198 ו' ל לבוא, בעל ה'נרדע ביד"דה', 199 ותלמידו ו' אליעזר פלקלס, בעל שר"ת 'תשרנה בסור.בה'. 200 במאה ו.תשע עשרה כבד ניתן למצאו אצל בלשון הרבנית כמסבע לשרן שגרד ו ככועס אצל כל הפרסקים ו.גחלים, בייחוד בספורת השאלות רד.תשובות.

בכל ה בבית מדרשו ל ה'נרדע ביד,רדה' נשתגד ד,ביסרי 'דעתי דעת תרדה' אר ו ת תרדה'. אמנם גם ציחף ה לא חרוש שם, והוא כבד ,.,פיע זעיר פה זעיר שם ' הביניים 201 ראחדיד,ם, אך חסה כי תפוצתו במאות השנים הללו במרבה מארד. ה'נרדע ניזזדה' עצמו השתמש בר פעמים ספרדרת, 202 רגם אצל החת"ם סרפד ,.,א נדיר למדי, 203 י בעיקר בלשונות פנייה בבקשת תשרנה לשאלה הלכתית, כאשד המבקש פונה אל ר.נורםק במסדה לשמוע 'ועתר ת תרדה' )בגרף שני אר שלישי!(, אך אצל בן אוצר ו' ה אסאד, א נעשית שכיחה יותר וגרבו השימוש בנוסחה זר בגרף ראשון )'דעתי - ת תרדה'(. 204 בכל המקומרת הללו אין ה אלא שימוש לשרן שבר נרמז כי המשיב מבסא

Dr Brown regarding marriage and Ger

Kedushah: The Sexual Abstinence of Married Men in Gur, Slonim and Toldos Ahron
Kedushah
 Gur: The Ordinances of R. Israel Alter, the Beys Yisroel
Gur Hasidism is a historical offspring of the hasidic groups of Pshiskhe[Przysucha] and Kotsk. Even though Kotsk had its own ideal of abstinence,

there is no indication that this was fostered by Gur until after the Holocaust and certainly not as a norm for the entire community. It was the fourth Gerer Rebbe, Israel Alter (1895–1977), known in Ashkenazi Hebrew as the BeysYisroel (after the title of his collection of homilies, the Beit Yisra’el who brought about the change when he re-established Gur Hasidism in the newly founded state of Israel. Shortly after his nomination as Rebbe in 1948, he inaugurated the Ordinances on Holiness, known in short as the takanot

, and commonly pronounced takunes

They have never been published nor, in all probability, ever formulated systematically. He communicated them to some of his senior hasidim , who later became the community’s first marriage guides (madrikhim ), and they passed them on to the community as “oral law.”The ordinances are known to many, even outside Gur, and, as I was able to verify in conversation with a number of Gerer hasidim , they consist of the following:

•

The couple shall have sexual intercourse only once a month, on leil tevilah (the night after the wife’s immersion in the mikveh at the end of her halakhically prescribed menstrual period).

•

The couple shall refrain from sexual intercourse from as early as the seventh month of pregnancy.

•

After the wife has given birth, the couple shall refrain from sexual inter-course for a further period of six months.

•

During intercourse, the couple shall aim to minimize physical contact. The husband shall wear some of his clothes, including his tsitsit (considered a segulah

—supernatural remedy—against the sexual drive) and will not hug or kiss his wife or engage in any behavior that is not required for the performance of the act of intercourse itself.

•

The husband shall direct his thoughts as far away as possible from the sexual act.

Rivlin: 'We salute the casualties of the Altalena - for not firing back'

arutz7

resident Reuven Rivlin spoke Wednesday at the memorial ceremony for casualties of the Altalena incident of 1948, during which soldiers of the newly-created IDF were ordered to fire on the “Altalena” ship, on which Irgun fighters carried arms to Israel’s shore for the War of Independence. The ceremony took place in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery in Givatayim.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chairman of the Irgun Martyrs' Association Yair Assiskovitz.

"Seventy years have passed since the command was given, since the lights were extinguished, the light of reason and human discourse, the light of mutual responsibility, and as always in our history when one man raises his hand against his brother, the shock hits the foundations and the house trembles."

"Seventy years have passed and the wound has not yet healed, and that’s a good thing. There are wounds that must remain open, so that we do not think we can just go on," Rivlin added. There was never an incident like the Altalena. An order to our soldiers - to fire on our soldiers? This is inconceivable. We did not think that in the course of a war of survival, they would kill defenders of the land, fighters from among the best of the people, the remnants of the camps who came to fight for the people and the land. Brothers."

"Seventy years later, we must salute the Altalena fighters not only for their devotion, but mainly for the fact that even though they received crossfire, brothers’ fire, they did not respond. They did not meet fire with fire, they did not meet death with death.”

"This was the most important lesson that the young State of Israel, the young Israeli society, learned. The most difficult and painful disputes we will not resolve by force, as Menachem Begin said: ‘My brother, I call you: Do not raise your hand on a brother.' Even today, the lesson of the Altalena is not to stop talking. Brothers have to talk to each other. "

the collective fear of fallible gedolim

to be continued

Prof etkes cites Yated regarding Daas Torah or - why R Kaminetsky is infallible

       עיון אקראי בגיליון "יתד נאמן" מיום שישי, ל' בתשרי
               תשע"א ‎(8.10.10)‎‏ קורע חלון לפני המתבונן "מבחוץ" המבקש ללמוד על מקומם
               ועל תפקידם של "הגדולים" בחברה החרדית בת ימינו. בגיליון שתי ידיעות
               ומאמר פובליציסטי אחד – ובכולם מככבים "גדולי ישראל". עניינה של
               הידיעה הראשונה הוא מאבקה של החברה החרדית נגד הליכי הגיור של חיילים
               עולים המתנהלים במסגרת צה"ל. וזה לשון הידיעה:" - לשם שמים מאת עמנואל אטקס

https://www.e-vrit.co.il/7292-details.aspx



 מרנן גדולי ישראל זיע"א [זכרם יגן עלינו אמן] ויבלחט"א [ויבדל לחיים טובים ארוכים] רבינו מרן הגרי"ש 

אלישיב שליט"א, כבר יצאו ב"דעת תורה"
               לרבני ודייני ישראל, בו כתבו כי "הדבר פשוט וברור שגיור ללא קבלת עול
               תורה ומצוות אינו גיור אפילו בדיעבד"" - לשם שמים מאת עמנואל אטקס
Shulchan Aruch
https://www.e-vrit.co.il/7292-details.aspx
"השפעתם הקלוקלת של השבועונים.‎[473]‎‏ מנהלי
               תלמודי התורה כותבים: לאור בקשתם של מרנן ורבנן גדולי הדור שליט"א להתריע מפני השפעתם הרעה של השבועונים
               למיניהם פונים אנו אליכם, הורים נכבדים, בכאב וחרדה מתופעה זו החודרת
               בקרב מחננו, אשר מחד גיסא מביאים דברים באיצטלא חרדית, ומאידך,
          
     מעבירים באופן סמוי וגלוי השקפות פסולות ומסרים אנטי חינוכיים." - לשם שמים מאת עמנואל אטקס


   פסק ההלכה המנומק מאפשר לקוראיו מעקב אחר טיעונו של
               הפוסק, וממילא פותח את ההכרעה לדיון וביקורת. מנגד הכרעות 'דעת תורה'
               הוכרזו כעומדות מעל לכל ערעור, ומפתחיהן אימצו לגביהן דוגמה של אלטעות
               ‎[...]‎‏ תמורה זו הוצדקה בכך שהכרעות 'דעת תורה' נשענות על יכולות
               על-טבעיות שגדולי התורה ניחנו בהן – 'רוח
               הקודש', 'השראת שכינה' וכדומה – ולכן אין להחיל עליהן את הגבלותיה של
               הפסיקה ההלכתית הרגילה.‎[475]‎‏" - לשם שמים מאת עמנואל אטקס
https://www.e-vrit.co.il/7292-details.aspx



"המסקנה העולה מן המאמר היא שמי שאינו מכיר בסמכותם
               המוחלטת של "גדולי ישראל" מקומו לא יכירנו בקרב "היהדות החרדית הנאמנה
               לד' ולתורתו". לשון אחר, הציות ל"גדולים" בלא ערעור מסמן את גבולות
               הגזרה של החברה החרדית בת ימינו. אדם יכול לקבוע עתים לתורה ולהקפיד
               על קלה כחמורה, ואולם כשאינו מקבל עליו את מרות "הגדולים" בלא סייג
               אין לו חלק ונחלה בחברה החרדית. לא למותר להוסיף כי שימושו" - לשם שמים מאת עמנואל אטקס

https://www.e-vrit.co.il/7292-details.aspx

ציטוט מ "לשם שמים"

"המחבר
               בפסוק "ככל אשר יורוך" אינו אלא השלכה לאחור של הפרקטיקה הנוהגת
               בימינו, כביכול הציות להוראותיהם של "גדולי ישראל" בכל תחומי החיים
               הוא מצווה מדאורייתא, וכך נהגו קהילות ישראל מדורי דורות." - לשם שמים מאת עמנואל אטקס

https://www.e-vrit.co.il/7292-details.aspx

The Shidduch fraud

arutz7

Why is it that in these somewhat advanced and contemporary times we  allow the idea of seeking matrimonial matches for our children — shidduchim — to be equated with pleas for recovery from an illness, improved health, and the ability to earn an income?

Everything in our lives emanates, in one form or another, from the One Above. At the same time, as created beings, we have been invested with something extraordinarily unique — the ability to make free and independent decisions — as a gift from G-d. According to our sages, it is the will of Hashem that we use our Divine wisdom to channel our energies in good, right, and productive directions.

The odd thing about shidduchim is that in this generation — let us say over the last two decades — the effort to marry off our children has become a dreaded facet of life that has been comfortably couched in the term “crisis.” And those who have emerged as leaders of our worldwide Torah communities seem relatively at peace with the idea that a shidduch crisis is plaguing our community.

DaasTorah on Sexuality to be published in few weeks

I had planned to forget about the time put into this work. but as a therapist

I see there is a real need for it

please tell me issues that you think are important to include

I will be publishing it on Amazon

torah and common sense

I Used To Call For Boycotts Of Israel — Until I Spoke With Holocaust Survivors

 forward

I singled out Israel as the source of the problem. And my conscience did not hurt. Ironically, I had submitted a term paper discussing the Holocaust in media from 1950 to 1960 only two days ago. In my paper, I had made references to Anne Frank, my childhood hero.

that was two years ago. I am a journalist today. I don’t buy diamonds.

I also don’t boycott Israel.

Some of my friends would call me a hypocrite. How could I have gone back on my own words? How can I boycott chocolate brands like Nestlé for their bad trade practices while eating Sabra hummus which is owned by an Israeli company? How can I be so sensitive to the sufferings of Syrian refugees while ignoring those of the Palestinians?

And as someone did ask me, “How could you abandon your principles and become a Zionist?”I understand their disbelief and anger. I used to be one of them. They are not anti-Semites. Neither was I. It is just that I gained perspective over the last two years while they continue to see only what social media shows them. Most of them have never met a Jew, let alone an Israeli. And many in South Asia are emotionally invested in the fate of Palestine because of Jerusalem’s religious significance. Personally, I haven’t stopped caring about the Palestinians. I have simply started caring about the Israelis as well. To boycott Israel seemed like a good idea two years ago. Afterall, the boycott had worked in South Africa. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t work in Israel. It took me a while to realize that the story in the Middle East is not one of white supremacy vs. People of Color and that the boycott called for total economic, cultural, and academic isolation of Israel, civil society included.

How Junk Food Can End Obesity

Demonizing processed food may be dooming many to obesity and 
food-can-end-obesity/309396/e. Could embracing the drive-thru make us all healthier?
atlantic

Homeopathy, quackery and fraud- James Randi | TED2007

James Randi

|

TED2007

החרדית שבחרה ללדת בבית חולים פלסטיני

kikar

בתופעה שהולכת ומתפתחת בבית החולים, ניתן לראות גם אשה חרדית, שבחרה ללדת את בנה דווקא בבית החולים הפלסטיני, אחרי שלדבריה נפגעה מיחס פוגעני בבתי החולים בירושלים. 

על פי הדיווח של יוסי אלי בחדשות 10, בית החולים הקטן, שבבעלות הכנסיה הצרפתית, מקבל בזרועות פתוחות גם את הפציינטים היהודים וגם את הפלסטינים שחלקם בכלל נפצעו במהלך הלחימה ברצועת עזה.

Can Bad Men Change? What It’s Like Inside Sex Offender Therapy

time

Someone has shoved a workout bike into the corner to make room for a circle of overstuffed chairs dug up at the local Goodwill. The men jockey for a coveted recliner and settle in. They are complaining about co-workers and debating the relative merits of various trucks when a faint beeping interrupts the conversation. One man picks up a throw pillow and tries to muffle the sound of the battery running low on his ankle bracelet, a reminder of why they are all there.

Every one of the eight men in the room has been convicted of a sex crime and mandated by a court to see a therapist. Depending on the offense, their treatment can last several months or several years. (TIME has given both the men and the therapists pseudonyms in this story.)

They sit in the circle, the man who exposed himself to at least 100 women, next to the man who molested his stepdaughter, across from the man who sexually assaulted his neighbor. The group includes Matt, whose online chats led to prison; Rob, who was arrested for statutory rape; and Kevin, who spent decades masturbating next to women in movie theaters.

Some of the men’s crimes aren’t all that different from the allegations against public figures such as Kevin Spacey, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Roy Moore. Unlike the famous men, they cannot afford lawyers to draft nondisclosure agreements, or arrange hush-money payments, or appeal guilty verdicts, as Cosby’s attorneys are planning to do following his conviction on sexual assault in April. (Cosby could also be ordered to seek therapy.) Nor can they attempt to stage professional comebacks or publish mea culpa memoirs.

Instead, these men were all found guilty and had their names added to a state sex-offender registry. They will remain on that list for decades and, in some cases, the rest of their lives. Anyone can search online for the ugly details of their crimes, including employers, partners and their own children. A judge has limited where most of the men in this room can live, work and socialize–and whether they can access the Internet. Some are unemployed, and many live paycheck to paycheck, dependent on the few employers who are willing to tolerate their criminal history.

The more than 800,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. may feel that their parole restrictions are onerous, but the mere presence of a known offender in almost any community precipitates clashes of competing interests and legal battles that have only intensified in the wake of the #MeToo movement. In at least 10 recent lawsuits filed in states from Pennsylvania to Colorado, civil rights proponents argue that sex offenders face unconstitutional punishments that other criminals do not, and they note that there are no government registries for murderers or other violent felons in most states. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case challenging the limits of the registry in its October term.

In October, the Supreme Court will consider a complicated case challenging the federal laws that govern some sex offenders. The decision could allow hundreds of thousands of convicted offenders to move more easily across state lines and eventually remove their names from the sex-offender registry.

Even if that suit fails, civil rights proponents and victim advocates will likely confront each other again in the nation’s highest court. A Colorado federal judge recently ruled that the state’s sex-offender registry is unconstitutional. He said the list constitutes cruel and unusual punishment because it can subject these men to ostracism and violence at the hands of the public and that it fails to properly distinguish between different types of offenses.

The Colorado judge’s decision ignited outrage. In response, attorneys general from six states wrote a joint amicus brief to overturn the ruling on appeal. In their brief, the attorneys general quote a judge from a separate case regarding sex offenders in Wisconsin: “Parents of young children should ask themselves whether they should worry that there are people in their community who have ‘only’ a 16% or an 8% probability of molesting young children.”

Jerusalem Welcomes New Embassy

Putting Haredi Men on the Path to Financial Stability

Thought this might resonate with your readers. Vote to give $70K to one of 4 projects, one of which is "Putting Haredi Men on the Path to Financial Stability" - https://www.ujafedny.org/israel70-shape-whats-next/
uja

The Issue: Basic math, English, and science skills are critical to forging a successful career path and achieving financial independence. While Haredi women are exposed to secular studies in high school with the expectation that they’ll be their family’s primary breadwinner, Haredi boys only learn religious subjects. It’s no surprise then that only 50.9% of Haredi men participate in the workforce and more than 50% of Haredi men drop out of college. As the population grows, the poor state of education for Haredi men is an issue that is impacting the national economy.

The Solution: Cutting edge schools that combine secular and Torah learning.

A small group of brave educators are challenging the status quo — and two schools are gaining traction. The first, Hachmey Lev, just graduated its inaugural class. The other, Torah Academy, is one of the first of its kind in the Hassidic community. These start-up schools are creating a new model of education that is empowering the next generation of Haredi citizens to become agents of change in Israeli society.

Most Inspirational Ninja Warrior Ever - Zach Gowen"

youtube

Report: Some haredi travelers duped into smuggling drugs

arutz7

קריאת ה'מועצות': "חללים רבים; להתחזק בתפילה"

kikar hashabbat

מועצות גדולי וחכמי התורה פרסמו היום קריאה מיוחדת לקראת ראש חודש סיוון, וביקשו מהציבור להתחזק מתפילה להצלת ילדי ישראל. "חללים רבים כבר נפלו בגלל הטכנולוגיה" (חרדים)

קוראים לציבור לקראת זמן קבלת התורה "להוסיף ברוחניות ובקבלות טובות לרפואת הגוף והנפש".

בקריאה נאמר: "נקודת הלב של כשרי ישראל, דאגתם וחרדת עולמם - לראות את בניהם ובנותיהם אחריהם, ממשיכים בדרכי אבות וצועדים בנתיבותיהם מדור לדור; לעשות רצון הבורא יתברך באמונה שלימה, באהבה וביראה, מבלי שיהא חלילה, כל פרץ וכל יוצאת וכל צווחה".

"לדאבת כל לב, גבר בדורנו נסיון פגעי הטכנולוגיה, והיצר הרע השקט לא יוכל, ומתחדש בכל יום באופנים שונים, להוריד נפשות אלי שחת על ידי האינטרנט והמכשירים האסורים. ואמנם, חלה התעוררות גדולה בציבור החרדים לדבר השי"ת להתרחק ולהישמר מכל אלו, אך עדיין יש מי שנלכדים ברשת האיו

ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN RESIGNS HOURS AFTER FOUR WOMEN ACCUSE HIM OF VIOLENCE

nytimes.l



Newsweek

In a statement to the New Yorker, Schneiderman called his behavior consensual role-playing. “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone," he said. "I have never engaged in non-consensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”

But the women who spoke to the New Yorker did not see it that way. Another woman, Michelle Manning Barish, also said that Schneiderman habitually hit her after drinking, in bed and without her consent. The article quoted two other women who were not named, describing the same pattern of behavior.

The story was published less than a week after reports that Schneiderman, at the urging of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, will appoint a special deputy to investigate Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr.’s handling of allegations against Harvey Weinstein.

Also last week, Schneiderman was named a “Champion of Choice” by the New York-based National Institute for Reproductive Health. "We are appalled and horrified to learn about the violent behavior ascribed to Eric Schneiderman. This is especially disappointing given his long history of advocacy and action in support of women’s rights," the NIRH said in a statement Monday night. "We believe it is our collective duty to trust women. It takes extraordinary courage to come forward with allegations of this magnitude — we hope they are taken seriously and that justice is served."

Schneiderman has also been a vocal and active anti-Trump attorney general, and his office has repeatedly filed legal challeges to Trump administration activities, from the travel ban to the Environmental Protection Agency. He has also often been regarded as a legal backup to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in case Trump pardons campaign staff, friends or possibly family for federal charges. The president cannot pardon state charges.

After the story was published, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called for him to resign.

“In the last several hours, serious allegations, which I strongly contest, have been made against me,” Schneiderman said in a statement tonight. “While these allegations are unrelated to my professional conduct or the operations of the office, they will effectively prevent me from leading the office’s work at this critical time. I therefore resign my office, effective at the close of business on May 8, 2018.”