Shem MShmuel (Veschanon 678) It is well known that the forces of impurity are not known or have dominion over anything other than what is manifest; Thus, a concealed area does not contract impurity. Consequently, when it appears outwardly as though the Name of God—which dwells among the people of Israel—has departed from them, the forces of impurity and the "external forces" step in and attach themselves to them, drawing them ever deeper into sin and transgression. This differs from the case of the nations of the world: just as they do not transmit impurity through death, neither do they become further degraded by sin; they remain in their natural, material state, lacking the intensely powerful force of attraction toward evil that exists among the people of Israel. This is akin to the impurity of the dead—which surges upward to the heavens—so too is the nature of the forces of impurity and evil that are drawn in upon the departure of God’s Name; they possess a potency far greater than that of the natural, material forces of evil.
Friday, September 11, 2026
Skeptical Vance reportedly sought direct intel from US generals on state of Iran war
‘Sobering private assessments’ were often quite different from Trump’s boastful public rhetoric on US performance in the conflict and deeply alarmed the VP
Rabbi Sacks' 10 Short Ideas about Rosh Hashanah
https://aish.com/what-rosh-hashanah-says-to-us/
What then does Rosh Hashanah say to us? How can it transform our lives? The genius of Judaism was to take eternal truths and translate them into time, into lived experiences. Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the creation of humanity, invites us to live and feel the human condition in graphic ways.
The first thing it tells us is that life is short. However much life expectancy has risen, we will not, in one lifetime, be able to achieve everything we might wish to achieve. Untaneh Tokef tells the poetry of mortality with haunting pathos:
The historian Paul Johnson once wrote: “No people has ever insisted more firmly than the Jews that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny.” He concluded: “The Jews, therefore, stand right at the center of the perennial attempt to give human life the dignity of a purpose” (Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, Prologue). That too is one of the truths of Rosh Hashanah.
Top Republicans didn’t expect Trump’s dividends. Now they’re scrambling.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/10/republicans-split-trump-payouts-midterms-01071816
Top Republican lawmakers had no idea President Donald Trump was going to promise $5,000 checks to every adult American so long as his party keeps control of Congress. Now, they’re grappling with how to handle the fallout.
GOP leaders have privately pushed back on similar Trump promises of giving money to Americans in the past year, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of closed-door meetings. Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill were blindsided by Trump’s Wednesday night announcement in Dallas, and are trying to manage lawmakers’ and voters’ expectations about a trillion-dollar-plus proposal they cannot deliver.
No one is falling for Trump’s budget-busting ‘dividend’ check gimmick
Socialism will not be stopped with more socialism.
President Donald Trump’s proposal to pay every adult citizen $5,000 if the GOP holds the House and Senate this fall is a desperate gimmick that betrays a profound lack of seriousness about the looming fiscal crisis. “If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000,” Trump said Wednesday night at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas.
This would cost an estimated $1.2 trillion next year, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The money would need to be borrowed on top of the $40 trillion national debt — and paid back with interest.
LevinAt11: Erev RH 5787
בס"ד
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
Email: torahjewsfordecency@
Direct: 771.215.8892
Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337
Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
"... The greater the difficulty, the more biting the ridicule and sarcasm, and the more numerous the opponent -- then the holier is the principle, and the more sacred is our duty to defend it.
In my opinion, the halachic dictum bishas gezeras ha-malchus afillu mitzvah kallah ke'gon le-shinuyei Arkesa de-mesana, ye'hareg ve'al Ya'avor ... applies not only to political and religious persecution originated by some pagan ruler, but also to situations in which a small number of G-d-fearing and Torah-loyal people is confronted with a hostile attitude on the part of the majority dominated by a false philosophy."*
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
Direct: 771.215.8892
Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337
Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]:
Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2
Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).
~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Trump Dividends Would Cost $1.22 Trillion. How Will He Find the Money?
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-dividends-would-cost-1-22-trillion-how-find-money-12424329
President Donald Trump has promised a $5,000 "dividend" to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress in November. But he has yet to explain where the money would come from.
"If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them," Trump said at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, "I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000."
Trump pledges $5K ‘Trump dividend’ if Republicans hold onto Congress - Buying Votes
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6080741-trump-dividend-november-pledge/
“Here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them … because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” he said at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas, Texas.
The legality of this disbursal is unclear. There are about 270 million adults in the U.S.
Trump told attendees Wednesday that the administration can disburse the proposed “Trump dividends” “because we’ve done so well and because our country is making so much money.”
He added that the payments could only be used in the U.S. but did not outline any specifics.
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Trump Repeats Disputed Yarn About His 9/11 Role
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-repeats-disputed-yarn-about-his-9-11-role.html
The president told the assembled crowd that he had been working on a “big building” when the attacks took place and that he took the entire construction crew down to ground zero “right after this happened.” It was then, Trump claims, that a pair of firefighters rushed him to safety out of concern that the nearby U.S. Steel Building, which is now known as One Liberty Plaza, was at risk of collapse. Trump said Tuesday that the building was “creaking” at the time. It wasn’t clear if by “right after” he meant the day of the attacks or sometime in the following days.
On Tuesday night, Trump defended his remarks in a Truth Social post, attacking our coverage and writing that everything he said at the Ellipse event was “exactly accurate.” But the president notably clarified that while he did visit ground zero, he was there “obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers.”
Trump’s latest rendition of his 9/11 stories raised eyebrows. CNN’s stalwart fact checker Daniel Dale quickly responded to the president’s claims. “President Trump was not in the vicinity of the World Trade Center when it was hit. He was in Trump Tower, miles away from the towers and nearby One Liberty Plaza, which is/was also known as the US Steel building,” he wrote on X.
Similarly, PolitiFact noted that while there were concerns at the time One Liberty Plaza might collapse and it had to be evacuated on September 12, Trump was not mentioned in recollections about it. In addition to his retelling on the 2016 campaign trail, Trump also appears to have told a version of this story during a 2021 Newsmax interview, calling it a “scary situation.”
Red Heifer
Kli Yakar (Bamidbar 19:21) Why the red heifer, which purifies the impure, would make the pure impure. We find that no food is susceptible to impurity until water falls upon it. How is it possible that water, whose source is purity, would cause impurity? The explanation of the matter is as follows: It is natural that everything is only affected by its opposite, not by what is of its own kind. This is similar to how the evil inclination provokes Israel more than the nations, and Torah scholars more than anyone else, because they are all opposite to it, therefore it wants to overcome them. This is the reason why darkness intensifies just before dawn, because everything is affected specifically by its opposite. Therefore, no food or seed is affected by impurity to make an impression until water, which is all purity, comes upon it. Then the impurity wants to defeat the purity, overcomes it, and makes an impression on it. Similarly, the water of sprinkling contains water which is all purity, and the ashes of the red heifer which is all impurity, and they are mixed together. Therefore, if the water of sprinkling is thrown on an impure person, the person is not affected by the ash because it is of his kind both being impure, but he is affected by the water which is opposite to him, because he is impure and the water is pure. Therefore, the water acts upon him and overcomes the impurity. But a pure person who carries the water of sprinkling is not affected by the water because it is of his kind, as both are pure, but he is affected by the ash which is opposite to him, because he is pure and the ash is impure. Therefore, the ash acts upon him and makes an impression to make him impure.
Trump leans into trolling critics as GOP midterm anxiety grows
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6077459-new-mexico-name-controversy/
President Trump is leaning into online trolling, off-color attacks and picking fights over geographical names as his approval rating sinks just weeks out from November’s midterm elections.
“Do I think it shows he’s not focused on what matters? Yes. Do I think he’s doing it to motivate his base? I don’t know. But in either direction, I don’t think it matters,” the strategist added. “It’s going to come down to how people feel overall [about] how the economy is doing, and is he and the admin truly focused on it.”
Polls show a majority of Americans are unhappy with the administration’s handling of the economy. According to a poll released by the Financial Times and Focaldata on Tuesday, Trump’s approval sat at 33 percent among registered voters. The same poll also showed that 66 percent said they believed the economy was going in the wrong direction.
Trump Reveals Who’s Really Going to Pay for His Obscenely Large Arch
https://newrepublic.com/post/208744/trump-arch-dc-taxpayer-dollars
The president had promised that donors would foot the bill. A new report suggests otherwise.