letter from Rav Moshe to Menachim Begin

http://pikuachnefesh.net/?p=435&lang=en

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, President

Copy of a letter sent by Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein of blessed memory to former Israeli prime

minister Menachem Begin, 13 Kislev 5738 (Nov. 23, 1977):

In wake of the situation created by the visit of the President of Egypt whose address raised

the issue of territories, thus placing the topic of territorial withdrawal on the agenda, there are

two opposing views. One sees withdrawal from some territories as a condition for the survival

of the state, while others warn that withdrawal from any of the territories endangers its very

survival. This problem is a very complicated and dangerous for it is a matter of life or death for

tens of thousands of people in Israel and it is difficult to express a concrete and decisive opinion.

We only wish to point out that when deliberating such a question, our holy Torah directs that

any decision made in this fateful matter must take into account the opinion of the experts, the

military personnel who are privy to all military secrets and all dangers and predicaments that are

liable to occur after any decision. The Law is clearly stated in Shulchan Oruch, the Code of Jewish

Law, that when one is confronted with a question of Pikuach Nefesh (life or death) one must

consult the experts. Likewise in the matter of relinquishing territories one must follow the

opinion of the most significant experts.

We trust that with your wisdom and earnestness you yourself will know how careful to be in the

final decision. We wish you great success, and may G-d Almighty guard Eretz Israel and her

borders.

Respectfully,

The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of U.S.A. and Canada

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, President

pressing problem of the day - did Rav Moshe read newspapers?

the fact is he did - I spoke with people that delivered papers to him

https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=21600#p212205

https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=21600&sid=166087ac5b7088e082a1a82dda3dfdb2

Torah and human feelings Rav Yakov

אמת ליעקב פרשת אמור

ובאמת י"ל דלפיכך המציאו חז"ל שדין אבילות נוהג באלה הקרובים, משום דכיון דהתירה התורה לטמאות על כרחך שנפשו של אדם דוה על אלו, ורואין אנו שהתורה - או יותר נכון שחז"ל - תלו האבלות ברגשי האדם, שהרי כמו בשמחה אמרו יום א' לענין אלמנה וג'2, ולבתולה ז' ואח"כ ל' לענין מניעת תכשיטין, ויב"ח אם אמר מחמת הלולא3, כמו כן באבילות ישנה ג"כ אבילות יום א' וג' ימים וז' ימים ול' יום ויב"ח, והיינו דהם הם רגשות האדם - הן לטוב והן למוטב.

וביאור ענין זה - שהתורה מתחשבת עם השכל האנושי אף על פי שאינו האמת לאמיתה - נראה לבאר בהקדם ביאור דברי התוס' בעירובין [דף ו' ע"ב], דשם בגמרא איתא דיצתה בת קול דהלכה כבית הלל בכל מקום ולאחר הבת קול שוב אין לעשות כדברי ב"ש. והקשו שם התוס' מדוע קי"ל כבת קול זו ולא קי"ל כבת קול שאמרה שהלכה כרבי אליעזר כנגד רבי יהושע וחבריו בפרק הזהב, ותירצו וז"ל: דהתם היתה כנגד רבים והתורה אמרה אחרי רבים להטות אבל הכא אדרבה ב"ה הוו רובא ולא הוצרכו ב"ק אלא משום דב"ש חריפי טפי עכ"ל. ודבריהם צריכין ביאור, דאי נימא שהיה הדין בהחלט דאחרי רבים להטות אף נגד חריפי א"כ ל"ל ב"ק כלל, ואם לא היה ברור גם דין זה א"כ שוב קשה דמאי מהניא בת קול4

ונראה בביאור דבריהם, ע"פ מה שביארתי באריכות בחידושי לעיל בפרשת בראשית [א' פכ"ו] דהתורה מסרה לנו את המדות שהתורה נדרשת על ידיהן, ועל ידי אותן המדות אנו פוסקין כל ספק שנולד לנו באיזו הלכה - ואין לו לדיין מה שעיניו רואות, וכשהללו מזכין - אף שהאמת לאמתו שהוא חייב, מ"מ אם הרוב מזכין הרי הוא זכאי על פי דין תוה"ק דאחרי רבים להטות, ואף שאפשר שהמיעוט כיון לאמיתת האמת מ"מ התורה מסרה לנו את הדין איך שנדרוש עפ"י השכל האנושי, ועיי"ש5. ועיין בים של שלמה [בהקדמתו למסכתות ב"ק וחולין] איך שביאר הא דאמרו בגמ' אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים.

והנה בעירובין [דף י"ג ע"ב] איתא: ג' שנים נחלקו ב"ש וב"ה הללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו והללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו יצאה ב"ק ואמרה אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים הן והלכה כב"ה, ועיי"ש. ולכאורה מאי שנא מכל פלוגתא דתנאי או אמוראי שודאי כל אחד אומר שהלכה כמותו, ומאי שנא מחלוקת ב"ש וב"ה דמשמע דכאן היתה מלבד כל מחלוקתם גם מחלוקת אחרת שהללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו והללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו. והנראה לבאר הגמ', דבאמת היתה כאן מחלוקת חדשה - והיא כללית - מלבד כל פרטי דינין שנחלקו בכל התורה כולה, שב"ש אומרים הלכה כמותנו וב"ה אומרים הלכה כמותנו, כלומר שנחלקו היכא דישנו רוב ומיעוט אלא שהמיעוט הוא חריף טפי - דב"ש אזלי בתר החריפי ומשום דהחריף יכול לכוון יותר אל האמת לאמיתו, וב"ה סברי דאזלינן בתר השכל האנושי - ואף שזה אינו אמיתת האמת, אבל מכיון שלפי השכל האנושי נראה שכן הוא האמת הרי הדין כאותו הרוב. ולפ"ז נמצא דלב"ש לעולם יש להשגיח בב"ק, שהרי הב"ק בודאי הנהו האמת האמיתי, וכיון שבפלוגתא זו נפסקה ההלכה דאזלינן בתר השכל האנושי גם לדעת ב"ש, א"כ ע"כ אית לן למיפסק כדברי ב"ה בממה נפשך - דלדידהו הא לעולם הילכתא כוותייהו, ולב"ש הא לדידהו משגחינן בב"ק, ודו"ק.

ואפשר6 דלפי מושגם באמת נחלקו ג"כ בפרק האשה שנתארמלה [כתובות דף י"ז ע"א] בענין כיצד מרקדין לפני הכלה, דב"ה סברי דיאמר כלה נאה וחסודה, וב"ש ס"ל דיש בזה חשש שקר, והיינו דב"ש סברי שבשום אופן אסור לשנות מהאמת לאמיתה, ולכן אפילו אם אחד קנה מקח רע מן השוק אסור לשבחו - שהרי לפי האמת האמיתית הרי זה מקח רע, וב"ה סברי דכיון דלעולם בעינן שתהיה דעתו של אדם מעורבת עם הבריות א"כ אין זה נחשב לשקר, והיינו שצריך להתחשב עם האמת של רגשי האדם, ודו"ק היטב.

ונבין לפ"ז מה דאיתא בספרי קבלה דלעתיד לבוא תיפסק ההלכה כבית שמאי, והיינו משום דרק בעולמנו צריכים אנו להתחשב עם האמת הנראית לרוב בני אדם, אבל לעתיד לבוא שאז תתגלה האמת האמיתית בודאי תהיה ההלכה כב"ש, ודו"ק.

measles

https://www.jdn.co.il/j_world/1145162/0

אסיפה מיוחדת התקיימה בבית האדמו"ר מסאטמר שליט"א בקריית יואל לאור מחלת החצבת. בישיבה השתתפו מתנגדי החיסונים והתומכים ולבסוף פסק האדמו"ר כי הורים שמסרבים לחסן את ילדיהם לא יכולו לשלוח אותם לתלמוד תורה ולבית הספר

אסיפה מיוחדת התקיימה השבוע בבית האדמו"ר מסאטמר שליט"א בקריית יואל לאור מחלת החצבת המשתוללת בחודשים האחרונים בניו יורק, כאשר מאות הורים שמתנגדים לתת לילדיהם חיסונים גרמו להתפרצות המחלה בכל מרכזי החרדים במדינה וגררו את זעם השלטונות.

ביום חמישי הגיעו קבוצה של מתנגדי החיסונים הגרים בעיר פאלם טרי – קרית יואל, לבית האדמו"ר מסאטמר שמכהן כרב העיר, אחרי שהנהלת המוסדות של החסידות בקרית יואל החליטו לא לאפשר לילדים שלא מחוסנים להגיע לתלמוד תורה ולבית הספר לבנות. זאת אחרי שמשרד הבריאות במדינת ניו יורק התחילו לתת קנסות על מוסדות שיאפשרו זאת.

יחד עם מתנגדי החיסונים הגיע הרה"ג ר' אלי' בער וואכטפויגל שליט"א וגם פרופסור ממרכז הרפואי באוקלוהמה סיטי דוקטור מיאן שתומך באי מתן חיסונים. בנוסף הגיעו גם 3 רופאי ילדים שמטפלים בילדי העיר קרית יואל, בראשות הרופא החרדי ר' אברהם יושע ווערצברגר וראשי חברת הצלה.

White House asked McGahn to say he didn't believe that Trump obstructed justice

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-asked-mcgahn-to-say-he-didnt-believe-that-trump-obstructed-justice

The White House asked former White House counsel Don McGahn to say publicly that he did not believe that President Trump obstructed justice, Fox News confirmed Friday -- although McGahn’s attorney said they never perceived the request as a threat.

“We did not perceive it as any kind of threat or something sinister. It was a request, professionally and cordially made,” McGahn’s attorney William Burck said in a statement.

There Are No Trump Mysteries

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/trump-tax-lowry-226864

The surprise about the big New York Times story on Donald Trump’s tax returns is that there are no real surprises.

Trump’s taxes have been an obsession of the left since he, in violation of a long-standing and worthwhile norm, reneged on his promise to release his returns during the 2016 presidential campaign.Pieces were written urging some brave whistleblower to come forward with them. Rachel Maddow excitedly broadcast leaked (and not particularly shocking) returns from 2005, presumed to be a mere appetizer. Democrats counted as one of the advantages of taking the House that they could use an obscure law to demand the returns. Indeed, the dispute resulting from the administration’s refusal to turn them over is probably headed to the Supreme Court.

All the while, the expectation, or at least the suspicion, is that the returns contained some awful secret, perhaps evidence that he is a tool of the Russians.

And here, the Times has obtained Trump’s tax information spanning a decade from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, and the revelation is that he wasn’t doing as well as he said in public, lost a boatload of money in a period that nearly destroyed him, and made aggressive use of any tax advantage available to him.

In other words, exactly what anyone paying any attention, and not beholden to perfervid conspiracy theories, would have expected.

Yes, the amount of the reported loss, $1.17 billion is remarkable (although as Josh Barro of New York magazine points out, is surely inflated for tax purposes). Some of the details, especially Trump reporting a bigger loss than nearly any other taxpayer in this period, are memorable.

Surely, Trump doesn’t like having all the particulars extensively on the record and publicly discussed and mocked, but can anyone say that they are surprised?

Even some of Trump’s alleged obstruction, which you’d expect to involve back-channel scheming (and there was certainly that), was out in the open.

He pressured Jeff Sessions in public to unrecuse. He publicly called Michael Cohen a rat. He told Lester Holt on a TV news broadcast that he fired James Comey because of the Russia investigation (specifically that it didn’t have anything to do with him). And he’s made no secret that he yearns for an attorney general who will protect him.

You can add lurid details to this basic picture, and Robert Mueller did, but it’s hard to find a game-changer.

None of this is to defend or excuse Trump’s business practices and accounting, or his conduct in office. It is merely to say that he’s an extravagantly known quantity, and will likely win or lose in 2020 based on what we already know rather than the fruits of further investigation and fact-finding. 

the Balfour Declaration Rabbi Berel Wein

'FIGHT ZIONISM,' SAYS SHEIKH AT CALIF. U'S ANTI-OPPRESSION WEEK

jpost

A sermon to "fight Zionism" preached by Sheikh Osman Umarji concluded the Muslim Student Union's (MSU) Anti-Oppression Week event at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).

The Anti-Oppression Week was an event organized by the Muslim Student Union at UCI, aimed at supporting the Palestinians against the state of Israel.

The Rabbi and the Professor

aish

One of the regular participants was a professor at the Hebrew University, Robert J. (Yisrael) Aumann. Once a promising yeshiva student, he had eventually decided to pursue a career in academia, but made his weekly participation in Rav Gustman's shiur part of his schedule, along with many other more or less illustrious residents of Rechavia and Jerusalem.

The year was 1982. Once again, Israel was at war. Soldiers were mobilized, reserve units activated. Among those called to duty was a Reserves soldier, a university student who made his living as a high school teacher: Shlomo Aumann, Professor Yisrael Aumann's son. On the eve of the 19th of Sivan, in particularly fierce combat, Shlomo fell in battle.

Rav Gustman mobilized his yeshiva: All of his students joined him in performing the mitzvah of burying the dead. At the cemetery, Rav Gustman was agitated: He surveyed the rows of graves of the young men, soldiers who died defending the Land. On the way back from the cemetery, Rav Gustman turned to another passenger in the car and said, "They are all holy." Another passenger questioned the rabbi: "Even the non-religious soldiers?" Rav Gustman replied: "Every single one of them." He then turned to the driver and said, "Take me to Professor Aumann's home."

The family had just returned from the cemetery and would now begin the week of shiva -- mourning for their son, brother, husband and father. (Shlomo was married and had one child. His widow, Shlomit, gave birth to their second daughter shortly after he was killed.)

Rav Gustman entered and asked to sit next to Professor Aumann, who said: "Rabbi, I so appreciate your coming to the cemetery, but now is time for you to return to your Yeshiva." Rav Gustman spoke, first in Yiddish and then in Hebrew, so that all those assembled would understand:

"I am sure that you don't know this, but I had a son named Meir. He was a beautiful child. He was taken from my arms and executed. I escaped. I later bartered my child's shoes so that we would have food, but I was never able to eat the food -- I gave it away to others. My Meir is a kadosh -- he is holy -- he and all the six million who perished are holy."

Rav Gustman then added: "I will tell you what is transpiring now in the World of Truth in Gan Eden -- in Heaven. My Meir is welcoming your Shlomo into the minyan and is saying to him ‘I died because I am a Jew -- but I wasn't able to save anyone else. But you -- Shlomo, you died defending the Jewish People and the Land of Israel.' My Meir is a kadosh, he is holy -- but your Shlomo is a Shaliach Zibbur – a Cantor in that holy, heavenly minyan."

Rav Gustman continued: "I never had the opportunity to sit shiva for my Meir; let me sit here with you just a little longer."

Professor Aumann replied, "I thought I could never be comforted, but Rebbi, you have comforted me."

I heard a slightly different version from one of my sons who heard it from his yeshiva rebbe who said he was there when Rav Gustman spoke

he said that Rav Gustman said that his son had come to in a dream the night before urging his father to be menachem avel because he had been reincarnated as th son who had been killed in battle

Ancient Stone Tablet Suggests The Bible Got Something Right

.iflscience

Archaeologists have recently noted an inscribed tablet dating from the 9th century BCE, known as the Mesha Stele, might contain the name of Balak. The stone, which has been heavily chipped and cracked over the centuries, is written in the ancient language of Moabite. Dating back to 840 BCE, the black basalt stone was unearthed around the ruins of the biblical town of Dibon in present-day Jordan in the 1800s. It’s now held in the Louvre art museum in Paris, although Jordan has demanded its return.

Its 34 surviving lines tell the story of how King Mesha of Moab triumphed over the Kingdom of Israel. In fact, it is also one of four known contemporary inscriptions containing the name of Israel. Reporting in Tel Aviv: The Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, archaeologists are now unsure about whether conventional interpretations may have mistranslated the name of a monarch in Line 31. Previously it was assumed to read “House of David,” but the researchers now cautiously argue it could actually read “Balak.”

The confusion is largely due to the crumbling condition of the Mesha Stele. So, the researchers used new high-resolution photographs of the stone that better highlight the original lettering. The new images appear to show that the name on Line 31 has three consonants, the first of which is the Hebrew letter "beth," which sounds like "B." The team can't be too certain this correspondents to Balek, however, this king was mentioned as being a rival of Mesha.

If their hypothesis is on the money, this would be the first reference to Balak outside of the Bible, suggesting he was a real historical figure.

AS MEASLES CASES CLIMB, OUR MISSION IS CLEAR: TAKE DOWN THE THREE-HEADED ANTI-VAX MONSTER | OPINION

https://www.newsweek.com/measles-anti-vaccination-anti-vaxxers-misinformation-monster-1420977

Finally, there is a new and scary element to the anti-vaccine movement in which some of its national leaders or organizations appear to have targeted specific ethnic groups to flood them with misinformation through pamphlets, teleconferences and hotlines.  This development may explain the recent measles outbreak in New York among the Orthodox Jewish community, resulting in many hospitalizations and sending at least six patients to intensive care.

Taking down the triple-headed American antivax monster will be a formidable task. To begin, I’ve written a book, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism, to counter the misinformation. Unfortunately, even with measles returning, as a nation we’ve not shown much appetite for standing up to the antivaccine movement or its leadership. The media empire is still mostly intact and the PACs are as active as ever.

Trump ‘Quote’ Originated as Satire

https://www.factcheck.org/2019/05/trump-quote-originated-as-satire/

Quick Take

President Donald Trump didn’t call for the “death penalty” for “suicide bombers,” as social media posts say. That’s a made-up quote from a satirical story published in 2017.

Israel's 71st Independence Day: 'We Love Israel'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262915

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Did Attorney General William Barr deceive Congress?

foxnews

William Barr, the attorney general of the United States, now faces a likely contempt citation for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena and for misleading Congress. This is about the Mueller investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Isn't the investigation now complete? How did the attorney general's veracity become an issue and thereby extend the life of the investigation?

Barr knows the DOJ is not in the business of exonerating the people it investigates. Yet he proclaimed in his letter that Trump had been exonerated. When the report revealed 127 communications between Russian agents and Trump campaign officials in a 16-month period, and the expectations of those officials of the release of Hillary Clinton's hacked emails, that is hardly an exoneration.

Was Barr's testimony before Congress deceptive? In a word: Yes.

Guest Post -Who Will Daven Here

One of the Shuls in this community put out a letter on the vaccination issue.

The letter said that unvaccinated children may not enter the Shul building. The letter was signed by both the rabbi and president of the Shul.

A friend with a young family confided his concern over this policy. He felt the policy to ban unvaccinated childten was detrimental to his family.

The issue is not whether his kids are vaccinated or not. The man is not concerned per se that anyone's kids can or can't attend services at the Shul.

The concern is this: say a family has unvaccinated kids. Say a friend of the family is getting married. There may be a Kiddush or two in honor of the marriage at the Shul. The wedding may be at the Shul.

Kids in an unvaccinated family would not be able to attend those events.

In summary, every Shul has the right and obligation to set hygienic standards. But in the process of banning unvaccinated kids, the kids are essentially banned not only from the Shul but from the Jewish community.

Now, if the case for vaccinating all kids was a slam dunk, we'd have nothing more to discuss on the subject. But the situation is more nuanced than that. Not every argument the anti-vaxers make is right; but neither are their concerns all unfounded.

I've coined a term for places that ban the unvaccinated. "Unvaxenrein" (oon-VAX-in-ryn) means free, pure, cleansed of the unvaccinated.

I note that not one case of measles has been reported to my knowledge in the Greater Washington DC area.

People with colds and the flu are not banned. People diagnosed with HIV are not banned. People who speak Lashon Hara are not banned. Yet there is more evidence of the ability of these things to infect people than there is from any illness someone unvaccinated is likely to contract at this time and place.

trump and demoxracy

As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

-H.L. Mencken,1920

Divine Providence and a Big Question: If God Was Behind the Election of Donald Trump, Is He a Cyrus (Deliverer) or Nebuchadnezzar (Agent of Judgment)?

charismanews

Another interesting thing about Trump and unlikely agents who lead wise men to Bethlehem is the mysterious and metaphysical logic some currently share involving God's possible providence in the arrival of Trump as a "savior" figure. Nowhere is this language more pronounced than in the Holy Land itself, where several respected rabbis and kabbalists have insinuated that America's new president is a forerunner of Messiah and the final redemption.

"Donald Trump (424) is the Gematria of 'Messiah for the House of David' (משיח בן דוד)," wrote Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz for Breaking Israel News on May 16, 2016. "That is not to say that Donald Trump is the Messiah, but that his presidency will usher in the Messianic era."

Others, including Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, who accurately predicted the Trump victory before the election using Bible Codes, have chimed in. He found various connections between Trump and "moshiach" (Messiah) in the codes, which in Hebrew means "anointed" and led Glazerson to conclude his election is connected to the coming of Messiah.

Rabbi Hillel Weiss is a Trump-Messiah-connection believer too, and he also sees in the president the agent of God's favor for building the third temple, another Cyrus linking.

And then there is the Sanhedrin in Israel, the nascent tribunal who has styled itself after the Second Temple-era Jewish court. This body has sent letters to Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking them to join forces to build the third temple for Messiah.

Professor Weiss is a spokesman for the Sanhedrin and notes how Donald Trump made support for Israel and recognition of Jerusalem as their capital part of public discourse during 2016. Combining that with Putin's expressed opinion that the third temple ought to be built caused him to say that both men should do what King Cyrus did 2,500 years ago and build the religious complex for the benefit of all Jews and the world. "We are poised to rebuild the temple," Weiss said, and "the leaders of Russia and America can lead the nations of the world to global peace through building the temple, the source of peace."

Rabbi Yosef Berger, who oversees King David's tomb in Jerusalem, takes it a step farther. He believes Trump actually won the election through "the power of Moshiach [Messiah], which gave him the boost he needed" and is "connected to the Messianic process which is happening right now."

NY Times reporter responds to Trump's story denial

HAMAS, ISLAMIC JIHAD AGAIN CELEBRATE ‘VICTORY’ - ANALYSIS

jpost

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials see the ceasefire agreement that was reached with Israel early on Monday as a “big achievement.”

In their view, the latest round of fighting – during which the two groups fired some 700 missiles toward Israel – has “deterred” Israel and forced it to commit to the implementation of previous Egyptian-sponsored understandings, which include easing restrictions imposed on the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

The Law of War Permits Israel to Destroy Hamas

nationalreview

As of this moment, a fragile truce holds in southern Israel. After Hamas volleyed 600 missiles at Israeli civilian targets on Saturday and Sunday, prompting Israel to attack hundreds of targets in Gaza, the air-raid sirens have fallen silent, for now.

But over the weekend, when the rockets fell, we saw all the old arguments against Israel’s acts of self-defense crop up. The air raids were “disproportionate,” we were told. There were arguments over individual civilian casualties, as if it would somehow discredit Israel if its precision strikes killed more than a handful of noncombatants. Yes, there were rote condemnations of Hamas’s efforts to kill as many civilians as it could, but once again all too many voices on the left rose at once, demanding that the nation under attack — the nation defending its schools, hospitals, and homes from an indiscriminate rocket barrage — exercise restraint.

Trump Would Have Been Charged With Obstruction If He Weren't President, 370 Former Prosecutors Say

time

Nearly 400 former federal prosecutors say in a new letter that President Donald Trump would have been charged with obstruction of justice for his acts if he were anyone other than president.

The letter was signed by more than 370 ex-prosecutors who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations. It was released by Protect Democracy, a nonprofit organization critical of the Trump administration.

Finding a New Path Israel wakes up to the needs of ex-Haredim

Tabletmag

Leaving the ultra-Orthodox community is nothing new in Israel. Everyone, secular or religious, knows someone who used to be on, but is now “off the derech.” But the phenomenon hasn’t been well studied. Most of what we know comes from individual stories of people making the difficult transition from the insular Haredi world to mainstream Israeli society.

Now there is data to flesh out these stories, in the form of a report commissioned by the Israeli nonprofit Out For Change. The report provides a picture of ex-Haredim in unprecedented detail, estimating how many people leave Haredi communities each year, and describing who they are and why they leave. It also discusses new programs to serve the needs of ex-Haredim, many of them partnerships between nonprofits and the Israeli government. Still, it argues that much more must done to support ex-Haredim in the ways they deserve.

Previous attempts to study Haredi disaffiliation have been limited in scope. For example, a 2009 survey from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics included a single question asking whether respondents’ level of religious observance had increased, decreased, or remained unchanged over their lifetime. The new report, which Out For Change co-CEO Yossi Klar called “the first major research about this phenomenon in Israel,” takes a broader and deeper approach.

Neri Horowitz, author of the report and chairman of the Agora Policy Think Tank, took on the topic from many angles. He conducted in-depth interviews with former Haredim, about 100 individually and 100 in focus groups. He also spoke to “almost every person involved in supporting ex-Haredim” in Israel, said Klar. This included directors at Out For Change and Hillel: The Right To Choose, the other Israeli agency serving ex-Haredim, who provided data on the number of new people they serve each year. He interviewed less obvious sources, too, including welfare department employees in cities with large Haredi populations, who receive government subsidies based on the number of youth they’ve identified as “at risk,” many of whom are ex-Haredim.

Cosmology Has Some Big Problems

Scientificamerican

What do we really know about our universe?

Born out of a cosmic explosion 13.8 billion years ago, the universe rapidly inflated and then cooled, it is still expanding at an increasing rate and mostly made up of unknown dark matter and dark energy ... right?

This well-known story is usually taken as a self-evident scientific fact, despite the relative lack of empirical evidence—and despite a steady crop of discrepancies arising with observations of the distant universe.

In recent months, new measurements of the Hubble constant, the rate of universal expansion, suggested major differences between two independent methods of calculation. Discrepancies on the expansion rate have huge implications not simply for calculation but for the validity of cosmology's current standard model at the extreme scales of the cosmos.

Another recent probe found galaxies inconsistent with the theory of dark matter, which posits this hypothetical substance to be everywhere. But according to the latest measurements, it is not, suggesting the theory needs to be reexamined.

It's perhaps worth stopping to ask why astrophysicists hypothesize dark matter to be everywhere in the universe? The answer lies in a peculiar feature of cosmological physics that is not often remarked. For a crucial function of theories such as dark matter, dark energy and inflation, which each in its own way is tied to the big bang paradigm, is not to describe known empirical phenomena but rather to maintain the mathematical coherence of the framework itself while accounting for discrepant observations. Fundamentally, they are names for something that must exist insofar as the framework is assumed to be universally valid.

Donald Trump's 'Kentuky Derby' tweet makes literally no sense

CNN

 It's easy to dismiss any one of Donald Trump's tweets as ephemera because, well, there are just so many of them. That goes double for a Trump tweet about a sporting event given the fact that he, uh, isn't an expert in that arena.

hem. 

And yet, there's just something about the President's tweet on Sunday about the result of the Kentucky Derby that makes it impossible to simply ignore. Because it's about more than the tweet. It's about the man behind the tweet. A man who also happens to be the leader of the free world.

First, the tweet:

"The Kentuky Derby decision was not a good one. It was a rough & tumble race on a wet and sloppy track, actually, a beautiful thing to watch. Only in these days of political correctness could such an overturn occur. The best horse did NOT win the Kentucky Derby - not even close!?" (Trump later corrected his original tweet -- spelling "Kentucky" properly.)

Man freed from prison after 30 years faces new rape charge

Nypost

A Massachusetts man who spent roughly 30 years in prison for rape before being freed in 2016 is facing new charges in connection with a January sex assault, authorities said.

George Perrot, 51, was arraigned Monday in Salem Superior Court on charges of rape, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and open and gross lewdness after police said he was found unconscious on top of a partially naked woman who was also unconscious.

Perrot, according to the Boston Globe, became a “symbol for criminal justice reform advocates” after his release in 2016 based on flawed testimony about microscopic hair evidence. He was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison for raping a 78-year-old woman in her Springfield home two years earlier when he was 17.

Perrot was then granted a new trial in 1990 after a court ruled that prosecutors improperly presented evidence during his trial, The Republican reported. Two years later, he was convicted a second time and was again sentenced to life in prison.

But he was later released on bail in 2016 after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that testimony during that second trial “exceeded the foundational science” of hair analysis, according to The Republican. The guilty verdict was overturned and a third trial was ordered, but prosecutors decided against it since the victim had died and other factors.

Perrot’s release at the time was lauded by criminal justice reform advocates, including those at The Innocence Project and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and Brandeis University, according to The Republican.

On Venezuela, Trump sides with Putin over his own team

msnbc

A few months ago, Axios had an interesting report on Donald Trump’s perspective on Venezuela, which had been shaped in part on the president’s interactions with “the Venezuelan expats who frequent his golf club” in south Florida. As crises in the South American country mounted, this did not inspire confidence in the future of the administration’s policy.

Late last week, however, anxieties grew more acute. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the case that Russia had effectively “invaded” Venezuela, and as a consequence, Moscow was exerting undo control over developments in the country. It was a message Pompeo – the United States’ chief diplomat and the man responsible for executing the American president’s foreign policy – had pushed repeatedly in a variety of forums.

Similarly, White House National Security Advisor Michael Bolton thought it was his job to push back against Russian interference in Venezuelan affairs. All of which made this Oval Office exchange between a reporter and Donald Trump on Friday afternoon that much more notable.

Q: Mr. President, you spoke with Vladimir Putin earlier today.

TRUMP: Yes, I did.

Q: What options are you looking at to get humanitarian assistance to Venezuela?

TRUMP: Yeah, I had a very good talk with President Putin – probably over an hour. And we talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. And he is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela.

President Trump Is Spending $20 Billion on an Aircraft Carrier. The Navy Wanted That Money for Cybersecurity

time

In March, a report to the Secretary of the Navy warned that the service is preparing for the wrong war, one fought not with bombs and artillery but with terabytes and artificial intelligence.

“We find the Department of the Navy preparing to win some future kinetic battle, while it is losing the current global, counter-force, counter-value, cyber war,” the report says.

President Donald Trump, however, this week ordered the Navy to continue preparing for the last war, surprising Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, on Tuesday by reversing his February decision to retire the 21-year-old nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.

President Trump's Tariffs Will Hurt America More Than China

forbes

Let’s stop pretending. An import tariff is nothing but a tax on consumers and businesses. Not in the exporting country, but the importing one. So the 10% tariff on $200bn of Chinese imports that President Trump has just imposed is in reality a new tax on Americans. And it will hurt America much more than China.

Stocks tumble as Trump threatens to raise Chinese import tariffs

.ft

US stocks opened sharply lower on Monday after Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on all Chinese imports to 25 per cent, sharply ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to make concessions in trade talks and sending global equities markets sliding.  The US president made the threat in a number of tweets on Sunday and Monday just a few days ahead of a make-or-break round of trade negotiations scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

cbsnews

In renewing a threat to sharply raise tariffs this week on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from China, President Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that the levies have had little impact on U.S. consumers -- it is the Chinese who are bearing the brunt of the trade war between the world's two biggest economies, he claimed.

Yet research suggests otherwise, showing that American consumers and businesses are taking the biggest hit in the form of higher prices and costs. That's especially true in areas of the country that typically vote for Republican candidates, like farming communities in the Midwest, according to one recent study by economists from UCLA, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University and the World Bank.

bloomberg

Trade wars are good, and easy to win. So President Donald Trump said last year as he embarked on his first round of tariffs on foreign imports.

It seems that things have proven so good and easy that he’s readying for another bout. Trump is prepared to increase a 10 percent levy on $200 billion of imports from China to 25 percent on Friday, he tweeted on Sunday — instantly popping any hopes that trade talks were on their final approach toward an amicable resolution.

The president had a justification for casually slapping a $30 billion trade impost via tweet — the Chinese will pay anyway:

RASHIDA TLAIB SLAMS 'NYT' FOR HEADLINE ON GAZA VIOLENCE; OMAR SILENT

.jpost

  

Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. (photo credit: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK AND ERIC MILLER/REUTERS)

US Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib slammed a New York Times headline that framed the violence in Israel as being initiated by a barrage of rockets from Gaza.

"When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free?" she tweeted. "Headlines like this & framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress & target Palestinian children and families."

Hostilities flare up as rockets hit Israel from Gaza

bbc

Militants in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 200 rockets into Israel, the army says, prompting air strikes and tank fire on the Palestinian territory.

Three Israelis were wounded by the rockets. Israeli fire killed three Palestinians, including a mother and her baby daughter, Gaza officials say.

EU calls for halt to rocket fire from Gaza into Israel

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262668

The European Union (EU) on Saturday called for rocket fire from Gaza into Israel to "stop immediately" and threw its backing behind efforts by Egypt and the United Nations to calm the situation.

"The rocket fire from Gaza towards Israel must stop immediately. A de-escalation of this dangerous situation is urgently needed to ensure that civilians' lives are protected," EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said in a statement.

"Israelis and Palestinians both have the right to live in peace, security and dignity."

Gaza terrorists on Saturday fired over 200 rockets at Israel, which responded by striking Hamas and Islamic Jihad military targets, officials said, as another escalation between them threatened a fragile ceasefire.

Despite Israel's best efforts to avoid civilian casualties, three Gazans including a baby and her mother died in the strikes, the Gaza Health Ministry claimed Saturday.

The latest flare-up came with Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, seeking further concessions from Israel under the ceasefire.

"Only a political solution can put an end to the violence," the EU statement said

Obama Didn’t Give Iran ‘150 Billion in Cash’

https://www.factcheck.org/2019/03/obama-didnt-give-iran-150-billion-in-cash/

Quick Take

A viral meme distorts the facts about the Iran nuclear agreement. The deal, approved by six countries and the European Union, gave Iran access to its own frozen assets.

Full Story

As a candidate during the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump criticized the international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons’ program — formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — that had been adopted the year before. He suggested that the U.S. had returned $150 billion to Iran as part of the deal.

That’s not true. We’ve written about this issue before. PolitiFact and the Washington Post have, too.

But Trump has repeated the claim as recently as December, when he tweeted: “The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?”

Trump’s bogus claim now has been repeated in a meme that references the president’s declaration of a national emergency to redirect federal funds for a proposed wall on the southern border.

Secular Education in Hasidic Yeshivas - Panel on "Deep Dive" Fox Nation