Everything is a Miracle

 Ramban (Toras HaShem Temima) And when we take a good look, we see that a person has no part in the Torah of Moses until he believes that all our words and actions are miracles  there is no worldly nature in them. That is because the essence of the Torah is complete miracles and wonders, because there is no difference for those who take a good look between a righteous man who lived eighty years quietly and safely and without illness, ... and between the splitting of the Red Sea. …The general rule is everything in the Torah are either miracles or potential miracles and that is why G-d specifies them in the Torah. ..For example, , no man knew that the deliverance of so-and-so from an illness was from charity he gave, and the death of a healthy person was due to eating prohibited fat, but both are equivalent. That is why astonishment was expressed regarding the Rambam because he is always minimizing miracles and emphasizing the natural. He also claimed that miracles are only temporary aberrations when in fact they are permanent – as he himself admitted in his  Letter on Resurrection of the Dead. 

Rabbeinu Bachya (Shemos 30:12) In fact it is axiomatic to remember that a person is not a true believer, i.e. does not really have a share in Moses’ Torah unless he is absolutely convinced of the fact that G-d performs such hidden miracles all the time, that there is no accident and no coincidence in the universe. G-d is aware of all that occurs and has had a hand in it 

Sefer HaChinuch (132) The thing is known amongst us and among every sage that the great miracles that God does for people in His great goodness, He always does hiddenly. And these matters appear a little as if they were truly done by way of nature, or close to nature. 

Palm reading

 Rav Sternbuch (1:454) It seems that there is no prohibition to ask and investigate with a palm reader. In fact  there is a basis in Zohar (Yisro) which states 'and you will see' that in the human body in the palm of his hand that there are hints to his status and luck. Nevertheless he must be fully aware that for Jews everything depends on prayer and good deeds. In addition these non Jewish palm readers their knowledge is not clear and certain in what they see from the palm and they mix truth with falsehoods. It is best not to ask them anything but rather to rely on G-d regarding the future. Through many prayers and giving charity and other good deeds He will have mercy on us in this World regarding children lifespan and parnossa and we should merit the World to Come. 

Is This What True Friendship With Israel Looks Like, America?

 https://www.newsweek.com/this-what-true-friendship-israel-looks-like-america-opinion-1883323

By abstaining rather than an explicit veto, the U.S. allowed the Security Council to put Israel in the defendant's docket, alongside Hamas. It's an astounding degree of moral equivalency between an Iran-backed terrorist organization and the democratically elected government of the State of Israel.

Or, as Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan put it, "It was the Hamas massacre that started this war... Nearly six months has passed, and the Security Council still has not condemned the child-murdering rapists that started this war. The resolution just voted upon makes it seem as if the war started by itself... Israel did not start this war, nor did Israel want this war."

Unrealitic belief in being Safe

Making of a Godol (page 365)

 This author came across another instance of blind faith in the safety of Torah sites during times of war in another episode conveyed by Hayyah-Miriam Shulman. She related that her father, R' Isaac Scher, and R' Moshe-Mordkhai Epstein did not believe World War I would erupt because they "could not picture the dismantling  of the essence of holiness  that the Slabodka yeshiva represented

UN Security Council resolution will only harden Hamas stance in hostage talks, envoy says

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hyv8irk1a#autoplay

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan on Monday night slammed the UN Security Council's call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan.

“Although the American ambassador said they see it as contingent upon the release of hostages, it is no coincidence that Hamas welcomed this and the Palestinians celebrated,” he said in an interview with Ynet.

PM calls off delegation to Washington after US abstains on UNSC resolution

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/03/25/un-security-council-passes-ceasefire-resolution-as-us-abstains/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled Monday a planned trip to Washington by his senior aides Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi after the United States abstained in a United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution that was passed.

The UNSC demanded a ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, its first demand to halt fighting.

Trump’s Weird Israel Rant: ‘You Shouldn't Be Doing That’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-weird-israel-rant-you-shouldnt-be-doing-that?ref=home?ref=home 

Days after claiming Jewish Democrats who criticize Israel “hate” the country and hate “their religion,” Donald Trump went on a confusing rant in which he both criticized Israeli military actions in Gaza as a “big mistake” and indicated he would have responded similarly to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Biden Abstains on Israel and Hamas

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-abstains-united-nations-security-council-vote-israel-hamas-ceasefire-biden-6dd91dee?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

The U.S. withheld its veto and abstained as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that demanded a cease-fire in Gaza but didn’t make the cease-fire contingent on Hamas releasing its 134 hostages. That condition, on which the U.S. had previously insisted, has been dropped.

Perplexed by ‘overreaction,’ White House says PM stirring crisis in US-Israel ties

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/perplexed-by-overreaction-white-house-says-pm-stirring-crisis-in-us-israel-ties/

The White House suggested on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to manufacture a crisis in US-Israel ties after he canceled plans to send an Israeli delegation to Washington over the Biden administration’s decision to allow the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.

Netanyahu said the US abstention marked a divergence from Washington’s policy linking a ceasefire to Hamas releasing the hostages it abducted on October 7, but US officials asserted that this wasn’t their interpretation of the resolution and that their position in favor of that conditionality has not changed.

“It seems like the Prime Minister’s Office is choosing to create a perception of daylight here when they don’t need to do that,” White House National Security Council John Kirby said in a press briefing.

Can Gedolim err?

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387377

An opinion of our Sages teaches that the evil decree in the Purim story came when the Jews of Shushan attended the feast of Achashverus which celebrated his false understanding that the Jews would not return to Eretz Yisrael to build the Beit Hamikdash. Apparently, Mordechai was the only Jew who protested. He begged the Jews not to participate, but they were happy to attend, insisting that the food and drink would be glatt kosher.

The cause for the celebration – the belief that the Jews were freed of the obligation to return to the Land of Israel and to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash did not seem to bother anyone save Mordechai. There is no record that the other great Rabbis of the time, of which there were many, supported Mordechai’s vehement protest. Perhaps they dd and perhaps they erred and attended the gala party which celebrated the disconnection from Eretz Yisrael and an open door to acceptance amongst the Gentiles and assimilation, believing it would cement good relations with the powers that be.

Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern charged with sexual assault

 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/golders-green-rabbi-chaim-halpern-charged-with-sexual-assault-br2xu8bc

Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern has been charged with two counts of sexual assault of a woman after a police investigation.

Police launched inquries after the unnamed woman alleged in a broadcast interview in December 2022 that she had been a victim of sexual offences in London.

Halpern, who is 65, was arrested in March last year in connection with the incident which allegedly took place on June 1 2022 and a file submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service last December.

He has been bailed to appear at Willesden Magistrates Court on April 19.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN JEWS IS ENDING

 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/us-anti-semitism-jewish-american-safety/677469/

Anti-Semitism on the right and the left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans—and demolish the liberal order they helped establish.

Preaching to the Choir

 Everybody knows about the dybbuk and the Chofetz Chain. Rav Elchonon Wasserman used to tell the story at the Purim Seudah, But he said only those who believe in these things should be invited.

In other words these stories are meant as spiritual chizuk not as a means of convincing anyone about spirituality. In Making of a Godol (page 363-354) he also notes that his father was against telling spooky tales even about the Golem as it convinces some that Judaism is full of bizarre superstitions The above probably is true of Agada medrash and chassidic miracle stories

Lies exposed | Fmr. Al Jazeera director says rape allegations against IDF false

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387313

Yasser Abu Hilala says the woman who alleged in an interview that IDF soldiers raped women in Shifa Hospital admitted that she fabricated the story to incite fury.