Tomer Devorah (Chapter 6) Man should view his wife as standin for the Shechina

How should man train himself to acquire the quality of Power (Gevurah)? Know that all actions which incite the evil inclination (Yetzer ha Ra) actually stir up the (Gevurot Chazakot) strong Powers. Therefore, man should not incite the evil inclination, so as not to awaken the Powers (Gevurot). The reason is that man is created with two inclinations, good and bad: the one belongs to Loving-kindness (Chesed), the other to Power (Gevurah). However in the Zohar Ha Kaddosh, (Bereshit 49a) it is stated that the good inclination was created for the sake of man himself, the evil inclination for the sake of his wife. See how sweet are his words. Behold Beauty (Tiferet), the quality of mercy, turns to the Right and all its conduct is with the Right, the good inclination. But the Female is of the Left and Her conduct is with Power (Gevurah). It is, therefore, proper not to bestir the evil inclination for man's own sake because this bestirs the Power (Gevurah) in Supernal Man and so destroys the world. Hence, every incitement of man towards (Gevurah) Power and the evil inclination makes a flaw in Supernal Man. From which one can observe how ugly is anger and the like, for it causes the strong Powers (Gevurot Chazakot) to prevail. 

In truth the evil inclination should be bound and tied down so that it is not incited to any bodily act whatsoever, not for the desire of cohabitation, notthe desire of money, nor towards anger, nor towards honor in any way. However, for his wife's sake he should gently bestir his evil inclination in the direction of the sweet Powers (Gevurot Metukot), to provide her with clothes and with a house, for example. And he should say: 'By providing her with clothes I adorn the Shechinah,' for the Shechinah is adorned with Understanding (Binah) which is the Power – Gevurah that includes all Powers – Gevurot and these are sweetened in Her abundant mercies. Therefore, all the needs of the household are the Tikkunim of the Shechinah, which is sweetened from the evil inclination, which was created to do the will of his Creator and for no other purpose. 

Therefore, a man should not intend to derive any kind of pleasure from the evil inclination but when his wife appears before him in her beauty in a fine house he should have the intention of adorning the Shechinah, for She is adorned by the good Powers of the Left from whence come wealth and honor. For this reason he should bestir his evil inclination to love her and he should then have the intention that the Left bestir itself to draw Her near, according to the secret of (Shir ha Shirim8: 3): 'His left arm is under my head' (for She does not at first bind Herself except towards the Left). And then (Shir ha Shirim8: 3): 'And his right arm embraces me,' he should intend to sweeten all those Tikkunim with the good inclination and to really perform the Tikkun for Her, to make her happy in performing the divine command for the sake of the Supernal Union. Behold in this way he sweetens all the judgments (Gevurot) and performs their Tikkunim with the Right. This method applies to all desires which derive from the evil inclination. These should be directed chiefly towards the benefit of the wife whom G-d has chosen to be a help mate for him and afterwards he should turn them all towards the service of G-d to bind them to the Right. 

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Terumah 74 - The Shulchan - table and Collaborative Living by Allan Katz

Guest post by Allan Katz

The parasha- portion reading of Terumah deals mainly with the Mishkan-tabernacle and its components. The table – shulchan was placed near the north wall of the Tabernacle's outer chamber, had 12 specially baked loaves of ' show-bread' on it at all times, in 2 columns of 6 each. Frankincense was placed on the loaves. They were baked on Friday and put on the table on the Sabbath. The old loaves miraculously remained fresh, were divided amongst the priests- cohanim.

Like the Ark, the table had a crown – the rim. The crown of the table symbolized the ' crown of kingship'. God's material blessings flowed through the table and its loaves topped up with fragrant frankincense, to the people and ensured material well- being and abundance which came with ease and comfort. The table had some complete measurements indicating that people can be ' complete' as far as their material needs are concerned and their ' inwards' be blessed so a little satisfies a lot. But the height of the table- shulchan was a broken measure 1.5 cubits warning against haughtiness and encouraging continuous spiritual growth. The table was made out of wood depicting the dynamic nature of economic growth and blessing. The wooden table was plated with gold to remind us that our intentions in striving for material success must be holy and pure and for the good of people. The protective rim or crown was a barrier reminding us to keep out baser motives and that our material success stands upon purity and holiness. The 12 loaves , representing the 12 tribes , were shaped like a letter ' U'- a flat bottom and ends turned upward with a slight fold on the tops, so that the' arms' of each loaf seemed to support the loaf above it. Each individual loaf was supported by metal tubes so that their 'outstretched arms' would be able to bear the burden of the other loaves. This paints a picture of material success based on a commitment to the well- being of the community as a whole as well as ourselves and other individuals. This means attending to the needs of others, but at the same time making sure that our own economic concerns and needs are being met.

The table is symbolic of material well- being and abundance based on our commitment to ourselves and also the family, classroom or community. But when we look around we witness family fights about who is going to sit where and when it comes to food – either it looks like that some kids have never seen food in their lives or some kids are such ' picky' eaters that can never be satisfied.

We can use the CPS – collaborative problem solving approach to ensure that the spirit of the table – meeting the concerns of the group as a whole and its individuals – can be expressed by our families.

Seating at the table. - Problems should be solved in a pro-active way and not in the moment – in the heat of the moment. We can arrange a family meeting to discuss the issue. The focus must be first on ' concerns' - where I want to sit is a solution to a concern. Possible concerns – the need to sit next to somebody who would offer help , feel left out of the conversation because of the seating , need access to the kitchen , bathroom etc. We should try to speak in the plural – we and us. This helps kid see themselves as part of the family and that individual choice per se may be limited , but not choice itself , as there are so many more opportunities when we work as a family .

Picky or gluttonous eating habits – We should try and encourage Mindful Eating where the focus is on tasting food rather than filling one's stomach and cleaning the plate. Kids are asked just to taste the food , they don't have to finish and clean their plates. It helps to have small quantities but plenty of variety. The taste of food is considered the spiritual part of food. Mindful eating helps kids focus on the process of eating, and this has enormous benefits for the digestive system and obesity . Kids also develop a taste for different foods. It is also helps people to practice mindful eating when there is no talking while people are eating.Mindful eating thus facilitates God's blessing - our insides are blessed so a little goes a long way.

When the holy temple existed , the altar would be an atonement for the people of Israel. Today , as the temple and the altar no longer exist , our tables atone for us. They atone for us when we use our tables to feed the poor or needy , and for families to connect in a way , that shows caring and dialogue which is filled with words of Torah.

Justice Department confirms that Attorney General Sessions lied about not meeting with the Russians during the campaign

Washington Post

Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.

When Sessions spoke with Kislyak in July and September, the senator was a senior member of the influential Armed Services Committee as well as one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers. Sessions played a prominent role supporting Trump on the stump after formally joining the campaign in February 2016.

At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.

“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak.

“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman.

In January, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Sessions for answers to written questions. “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?” Leahy wrote.

Sessions responded with one word: “No.”

In a statement issued Wednesday night, Sessions said he “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”

Justice officials said Sessions met with Kislyak on Sept. 8 in his capacity as a member of the armed services panel rather than in his role as a Trump campaign surrogate.

“He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign — not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee,” Flores said. [...]

The Washington Post contacted all 26 members of the 2016 Senate Armed Services Committee to see whether any lawmakers besides Sessions met with Kislyak in 2016. Of the 20 lawmakers who responded, every senator, including Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), said they did not meet with the Russian ambassador last year. The other lawmakers on the panel did not respond as of Wednesday evening.

“Members of the committee have not been beating a path to Kislyak’s door,” a senior Senate Armed Services Committee staffer said, citing tensions in relations with Moscow. Besides Sessions, the staffer added, “There haven’t been a ton of members who are looking to meet with Kislyak for their committee duties.”

Last month, The Post reported that Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with Kislyak during the month before Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, and other top Trump officials. Flynn was forced to resign the following week.[...]

Donald Trump’s Obsession With Applause

NY Times   It’s no secret that President Trump is obsessed with his own popularity, as measured by polls, ratings and Time magazine covers. But last night, the president revealed that this obsession goes even deeper than his constant tweets about poll numbers would suggest.

During his address to Congress on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump paid tribute to Chief Petty Officer William (Ryan) Owens, a Navy SEAL who was killed during a raid in Yemen in January. “Ryan laid down his life for his friends, for his country and for our freedom,” he said. “We will never forget him.”

When the audience gave Carryn Owens, Chief Owens’s widow, a standing ovation, Mr. Trump added, “Ryan is looking down right now, you know that, and he’s very happy, because I think he just broke a record.” He was referring, presumably, to the length of the applause.

Mr. Trump has been praised in some quarters for Tuesday’s address, during which he took a more conciliatory tone than he has in recent public appearances. But his comment about Chief Owens showed that even if his language changes slightly, his fundamental outlook stays the same.

In fact, the comment offered a useful peek into the president’s psyche: When he imagines a deceased veteran gazing down from heaven at his widow, the president and the assembled Congress, he sees that veteran measuring the length of his own ovation, and patting himself on the back for breaking a record. In other words, when asked to take the perspective of someone who has “laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom,” Mr. Trump assumes that what would gratify such a person is the same thing that gratifies him: adulation.

The fact that Mr. Trump engaged in this little reverie, a rare unscripted moment during Tuesday’s address, is revealing.[...]

But when he goes off-script, when he speaks from the heart, as it were, he reverts to what he knows: the language of popularity, ratings and records. His use of that language with respect to Chief Owens shows it to be not merely an obsession, but an entire worldview. Not only is Mr. Trump motivated by popularity in the barest, most numerical sense — he believes everyone is. [...]

After costs for surgery to repair a serious heart defect, bride's family has no funds to pay for her upcoming marriage.

Arutz 7

"Hello,My name is Rachie. I was born with a serious heart defect. Life hasn't been easy for me. I spent my childhood in and out of hospitals. But baruch Hashem, after very complicated surgery, I'm now able to move to lead a normal life, marry and hope to start a family of my own. 

Baruch Hashem, now I'm a kallah - bride! Except that my experience of being engaged hasn't only been simcha -- I've also had to face the sad truth that due to the expenses incurred for my serious health issues my parents have no money with which to help us. 

PLEASE HELP MARRY OFF A SICK KALLAH 

There are now only a few days left until my wedding, and we have nothing. I'm embarrassed to say that it is truly an emergency. We're lacking the basics needed for a chossen and kallah (groom and bride). 

I have already endured a great deal of pain in my life. Now all I want is to start my new family, without being afraid of becoming homeless or going hungry.. If you are able to help us, there are no words for how grateful I would be. To you I am a stranger, but to me you are the person who could change my life.

Thank you so much.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL CAMPAIGN

Trump says his budget will make government ‘lean.’ It’s really a scam.

Washington Post   The president's numbers are too good to be true.

What if I told you that I could save you thousands and thousands of dollars a year, and you don’t even have to cut back on anything important in your life? What if I promised you that, just by saving a penny a day, your whole life could change for the better? What if I said you could improve your overall finances by working less and spending more?

You’d probably think that sounded too good to be true. You’d probably suspect that I was trying to scam you. You’d be right on both counts.

If early reports are accurate, President Trump’s budget blueprint will be trying to run that same scam on the American people. His budget will pretend that he can achieve huge savings without any pain. He’ll try to focus attention on huge cuts to relatively small programs — cuts that’ll be devastating for the people those programs serve but won’t make a dent in the overall budget picture. He’ll promise that he can provide public services, fund the benefits on which American families rely and make the critical investments that grow our economy, all with less tax revenue, even as he increases spending on things like a border wall. Just like all scams, this one will sound good on the surface, but it will leave us all worse off in the end.

In January, the Hill reported that Trump was crafting a budget plan with more than $10.5 trillion in cuts over the next decade, a deliberately eye-popping number. At the same time, Trump administration officials are promising that popular and critical programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will remain untouched, and that he will actually increase military spending significantly. These goals are all but impossible to reconcile. If he exempts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (which he can’t cut, even if he wants to, without persuading Congress to change existing laws), there’s only $13.7 trillion in spending even available to cut over the next 10 years. That means Trump’s budget would have to reduce all other public services and programs — everything from veterans benefits to health-care research to highways to special education — by more than 75 percent to meet his spending-cuts goal. Like all great scams, the claim of massive cuts with no pain falls apart the moment you look a little closer.

And like all great scam artists, Trump is hoping you won’t look closer. Instead, he is hoping to distract you by focusing attention on enormous cuts to relatively small programs.

Most of the reporting in the lead-up to Trump’s budget has prominently mentioned a few notable public services that are on the chopping block. These often include the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Legal Services Corporation. Regardless of whether you support the mission of these agencies, their budgets are comparatively tiny: Even combined, they will make up just 0.03 percent of all federal spending in 2017. Fully eliminating them is exactly the same as saving a buck on a $3,333 purchase. Moreover, these sorts of programs have been essentially flat-funded for a decade. These four, for example, will spend less this year than they did in 2007, after accounting for inflation. Trumpeting big cuts to select parts of the budget — parts that just happen to be already small and already shrinking — sounds good in a tweet, and it’s all part of the scam.

“We are going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people,” Trump said Monday morning. “We can do so much more with the money we spend.”

But the biggest part of the budget swindle happens on the other side of the ledger. Trump is throwing around huge numbers and promising to eliminate a list of relatively tiny programs, all in the hopes that you won’t notice or care that he’s trying to give an enormous tax cut to the richest people in America. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the Trump campaign’s tax plan would reduce federal tax revenue — and thereby increase federal debt — by at least $6.1 trillion. Roughly half of that money would go directly into the bank accounts of the richest 1 percent.

Of course, Trump will argue — as good snake-oil salesmen do — that picking your pockets is good for you. You can be sure he will try to sell you on the idea that enormous tax cuts for the wealthy will boost the economy for everyone. Never mind that we’ve tried that before, both at the national level with President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and at the state level — for instance, in Kansas — to no measurable effect. Never mind that the last thing a giant, multinational corporation making billions in profits and already paying little in taxes needs is another tax cut. And definitely ignore the fact that the primary beneficiaries of such a tax cut will be people like Trump and his family (though we can’t be sure how much he will profit, because Trump has still not released his tax returns).[...]

Georgia couple gets prison for racist threats at child's birthday party

CNN

A Georgia couple who rode with a Confederate flag-waving group that made armed threats against African-Americans at a child's birthday party were sentenced to prison Monday.

Jose "Joe" Torres, was sentenced to 20 years, with 13 years in prison, after a jury convicted him on three counts of aggravated assault, one count of making terroristic threats and one count of violating of Georgia's Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.

Kayla Norton was sentenced to 15 years, with six years in prison. She was convicted on one count of making terroristic threats and one count of violation of the Street Gang Act.

"Many people tried to make the case about simply flying the Confederate Battle Flag," Douglas County District Attorney Brian Fortner said in a statement. "This case was about a group of people riding around our community, drinking alcohol, harassing and intimidating our citizens because of the color of their skin."

On July 25, 2015, Torres and Norton, joined about a dozen other people in a convoy of pickup trucks waving large Confederate flags as they drove around Douglas County, a suburban Atlanta community. Most of them belonged to a group called "Respect the Flag."[...]

The party-goers said the people in the trucks yelled racial slurs as they passed, the statement said.

The drivers parked the trucks near the house, prosecutors said. Torres was part of a smaller group that "threatened to kill the party goers while repeatedly using derogatory racial slurs against them," said the statement.

"Torres, who had retrieved a shotgun from his vehicle, pointed his shotgun at the group of African American party-goers and stated he was going to kill them while his co-defendants stated that 'the little ones can get one too,' referring to the young children at the party," the statement said.

Norton was accused of making similar threats. The victims said some member of Torres' group was armed with a knife and a tire tool.[...]

Father of Commando Killed in Yemen Refused to Meet Trump - was it just a political show?

NY Times

The father of the commando killed in a Special Operations raid in Yemen last month said in an interview published this weekend that he had refused to meet with President Trump on the day his son’s body was returned home, and criticized the White House over the mission, saying, “Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation.”

“The government owes my son an investigation,” the father, William Owens, told The Miami Herald, referring to Chief Petty Officer William Owens, 36, a member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6.

The death of Chief Owens on Jan. 29, in the first Special Operations raid approved by Mr. Trump, came after a chain of miscues and misjudgments that plunged the elite commandos into a ferocious 50-minute firefight with Qaeda militants in a mountainous village in central Yemen. Three other Americans were wounded, and a $75 million aircraft was deliberately destroyed.

In a risky mission where almost everything that could go wrong did, the Pentagon has acknowledged that several civilians, including some children, were also killed. The dead included, by the account of relatives interviewed by human rights groups in Yemen, the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Qaeda leader who was killed in a targeted drone strike in 2011.[...]

But the comments by Mr. Owens, his first public remarks since his son’s death, cast a new spotlight on whether the mission’s risks — to the American commandos and to Yemeni civilians — had been considered fully enough by Mr. Trump and his top aides.[...]

“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why?” said Mr. Owens, who told The Herald that he had not voted for Mr. Trump. “For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?”

The operation was the first known American-led ground mission in Yemen since December 2014, when members of SEAL Team 6 stormed a village in southern Yemen in an effort to free an American photojournalist held hostage by Al Qaeda. That raid ended with the kidnappers killing the journalist and a South African held with him.[...]

Shortly after the raid, Trump administration officials called the mission a success, saying that criticisms like those from Senator John McCain of Arizona, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who called the mission a failure, dishonored Chief Owens’s memory.[...]

U.S. Refugee Vetting Process

Trump falsely claims credit for debt drop - will he next claim responsibility for the tides?

NY Times

In a message posted on Twitter on Saturday, President Trump highlighted a dip in the national debt during his first month in office, contrasting it with an increase in the first month of the Obama administration.

Follow

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.

The numbers are broadly accurate, but the lack of attention to them is for good reason: Neither president bore responsibility for changes in the federal debt in his opening month in the White House. The slight decline cited by Mr. Trump — a drop of 0.06 percent, according to Treasury data — is a temporary fluctuation, not a change in direction.

The federal debt is determined by the government’s decisions about taxing and spending, and by the strength of the American economy. The debt was increasing rapidly in early 2009 because the economy was in free fall, and because of policy decisions made during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The debt is rising more slowly now because economic growth has strengthened and because of policy decisions made during Mr. Obama’s administration. But the debt is on a clear upward trend. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in January that the debt would increase by $559 billion in the current fiscal year, ending in September.

The exact amount of the debt bounces around that trend line because the Treasury borrows money by selling securities with maturities — or repayment dates — ranging from 28 days to 30 years. That creates an irregular pattern of inflows and outflows from the federal cash box.[...]

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, issued a statement applauding the president for focusing on the national debt while noting that “the improvement this early in his term has to do with normal fluctuations in spending and revenues rather than new policies he has implemented.” [...]

The national debt increased sharply during Mr. Obama’s first term as the government increased spending in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The debt grew more slowly during his second term as the economy improved and tax increases brought more money into the government’s coffers.