In 2018, the Supreme Court approved the demolition of the village, which is located not far from Ma’ale Adumim and is believed to be home to fewer than 200 Bedouin residents. Since 2018, the government led by then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a series of delays in the demolition, the latest of which came in November 2020 in response to the Regavim petition.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
US government will run out of money by October 18, Treasury secretary says
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/28/economy/debt-ceiling-deadline-yellen/index.html
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned lawmakers that the federal government will likely run out of cash and extraordinary measures by October 18 unless Congress raises the debt ceiling.
The
new estimate from Yellen raises the risk that the United States could
default on its debt in a matter of weeks if Washington fails to act. A
default would likely be catastrophic, tanking markets and the economy,
and delaying payments to millions of Americans.
"It
is uncertain whether we could continue to meet all the nation's
commitments after that date," Yellen wrote in a letter, adding the
projection is based on estimated tax payments.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Trump lies again says Biden “didn’t win in Arizona. He lost in Arizona based on the forensic audit.”
Arizona state Senate Republicans ordered a review of 2 million ballots in Maricopa County. The review found that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Maricopa County by about 45,000 votes. That number was virtually the same as the county’s official canvass.
'No major incidents of illegal activity': DHS told Pentagon as pro-Trump mob breached Capitol
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/28/dhs-pentagon-jan-6-capitol-riot-514527
On Jan. 6, more than 30 minutes after the first attackers breached barricades erected to protect the Capitol, the Department of Homeland Security sent an incongruous update to the Pentagon.
“There are no major incidents of illegal activity at this time," read an internal Army email sent to senior leaders at 1:40 p.m. that day, referring to an update the service had just received from DHS’s National Operations Center (NOC).
Kiddush Club Is Not the Problem
https://mishpacha.com/kiddush-club-is-not-the-problem/
How are we still discussing banning alcohol when edibles are getting hechshers? A communal event without alcohol is unheard of. Rabbis ply congregants with alcohol, high school rebbeim knowingly look the other way (at best) as their students drink and vape. Can we afford not to counter these confusing messages in our communal spaces?
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Can Angels Sin?
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1055341/jewish/Can-Angels-Sin.htm
At first glance the answer seems simple enough. After all, did we not receive the Torah precisely because angels cannot sin? As Moses retorted in his winning argument to the angels during his epic debate in heaven over who should receive the Torah. "It is written in the Torah 'Thou shall not murder,' 'Thou shall not commit adultery,' 'Thou shall not steal.'" Moses said. "Is there jealousy among you!? Do you have an evil inclination!? Obviously the Torah is not meant for you."
Bereishis Rabbah (50:9) 9. AND THE MEN SAID TO LOT... FOR WE WILL DESTROY THIS PLACE (XIX, 13). R. Levi said in R. Nahman's name: Because the ministering angels revealed God's secret, they were banished from their precincts a hundred and thirty-eight years. R. Tanhuma expressed it in the word .kelah. R. Hama b. Hanina said: [They were punished] because they expressed themselves boastfully,
Behind Tucker Carlson’s white replacement rhetoric, a frightening antisemitic history
That prompted Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, to take the rare step of calling for Carlson’s removal in a letter to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott.
“At ADL, we believe in dialogue and giving people a chance to redeem themselves, but Carlson’s full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory on yesterday’s show and his repeated allusions to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far,” Greenblatt wrote.
Carlson’s comments are far from original. His invocation of “importing a brand-new electorate” was originally “le grand remplacement,” the title of a 2011 book by Renaud Camus—no relation to Albert Camus.
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Making of a Godol
Is anyone interested in purchasing a genuine new copy of 2 volume set - Making of a Godol for a reasonable price? Only restriction is it can only be obtained in Jerusalem - there is at present no shipping and supplies are limited. contact me by email
At present it is being sold on Amazon for $1200!
https://www.ebay.com/p/219895639 $3500 on ebay
Friday, September 24, 2021
Number of intubated coronavirus patients tops 200
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/313954
Children under 11 years of age constituted 40% of this week's new coronavirus cases, and on Thursday it was reported that the positivity rate among students is 6.1% - higher than that of the general population.
COVID: Overcrowded and short on ECMOs, Israeli hospitals are in crisis
The majority (about 40) of the country’s “heart-lung machines” are being used by unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. According to hospital staff, when about six or seven more patients are put on ECMO machines, hospitals will be forced to turn away others who need them.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Battle for cable car crash survivor reaches court
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/313892
First hearing on guardianship of Eitan Biran, sole survivor of Italy cable car crash, held in Tel Aviv court on Thursday.
FALL OF ANGELS:
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5998-fall-of-angels
But it is especially Samḥazai and Azael of whom the fall is narrated. In Targ. Pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. vi. 4 they appear as the "nefilim" (A. V. "giants"), undoubtedly in consequence of an incorrect interpretation of this word as "those that fell from heaven." The story of these two angels is found in brief form in Yalḳ., Gen. 44; it has been published by Jellinek ("B. H." iv. 127; originally in Midrash Abkir; comp. Rashi, Yoma 67b; Geiger, "Was Hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume Aufgenommen?" p. 107).
Angels lack free will
Rambam 13 Principles
The fifth principle That He is the One that is fitting to serve and to exalt and to make His greatness known and to do His commandments; and not to do this to that which is below Him in existence - from the angels and the stars and the spheres and the elements and what which is composed of them. As they are all designed and there is no judgement and no free choice in their actions - only to Him, may He be blessed. And so [too], it is not fitting to serve them in order that they be intermediaries to bring them closer to Him, but rather to Him alone should they direct their thoughts and leave everything besides Him. And this fifth principle is that idolatry (worship of others) is prohibited, and most of the Torah prohibits this.
Declare that all Rabbinic mitzvos are really Torah Mitzvos
Chasam Sofer[i](Kovetz Teshuvos #58): I wrote to you previously that “Innovation is prohibited by the Torah.” [chadash assur] I did not write that Orlah or Kelayim…but innovation. That is because I understood from our Sages that it is required to be one who preserves the Torah. They warned against those who provide an opening and seek leniencies for the radicals of our people who desire them. If these radicals find a minute crack, they will greatly expand it into a breach…. Therefore, it is best to elevate and exaggerate the nature of the prohibition [and say that Rabbinic prohibitions are Torah prohibitions]… That is because due to our many sins there is a great increase today of people who say they have no concern with Rabbinic prohibitions since G‑d did not command them… We find the wicked writing on Shabbos because they claim it is only a Rabbinic prohibition. They have no concern with anything which has been commanded only by our Sages and not by G‑d Himself…
[i] חתם סופר (קובץ תשובות סימן נח): על מה שכתבתי במכתבי הקודם החדש אסור מן התורה הנה לא כתבתי ערלה וכלאים ופגול לא ירצה, כי אם החדש, כי מזקנים אתבונן שראוי להיות ממקימי התורה, ונזהרו מלפתוח פתח ולחפש קולות לפריצי עמינו, אשר אותם הם מבקשים, ואם ימצאו סדק כמחט של סדקית, יפרצו פרץ על פני פרץ,... וטוב להעלות האיסור.... כי בעוה"ר רבו אלו בזמנינו עד שיאמרו אין אנו חוששין לדברי רבנן ה' לא צוה... והרשעים כותבים בשבת על דעת שהוא דרבנן, והם אינם חוששין לאיסור דרבנן ה' לא צוה...
Alarmed by COVID spike, Orthodox move to make the sukkah safer
A sukkah is something of a paradox.
It’s a symbol of safety. In prayer, the word is literally translated as shelter — often, a shelter of God’s peace, spread over the supplicant.
Yet its occupants are also not supposed to feel too safe. The roof of a sukkah must be sparse enough to see the stars, and it must be a temporary structure. In this way, it’s a reminder of the fragility of life, and the human need to rely on the Almighty.
Indeed, a sukkah usually has such an airy feel that Orthodox Jews thinking about sitting in one during a pandemic might have reasonably thought that it would be safer than sitting in synagogue. But they would have been wrong.
To Save a Stranger’s Life
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/to-save-a-strangers-life
Kidney donations are on the rise among Orthodox Israelis
One day more than a decade ago, Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber, an Israeli school principal and yeshiva teacher, suddenly felt too weak to walk up the stairs. He went to his doctor, who sent him to the hospital, where he soon learned that both of his kidneys had stopped working. He began dialysis, a time-consuming and painful process that was brightened only by his roommate, a teenage yeshiva student named Pinchas Turgeman. After about a year on dialysis, Heber received a kidney from a friend. Then, as he recovered, he helped locate a willing donor and match for Turgeman, who had also lost his brother in Israel’s Second Lebanon War in 2006. But Turgeman passed away a few weeks before the scheduled transplant. The loss hit Heber hard.
“I decided I needed to do something,” he recalled, and he thought up the idea of forming an organization to help encourage and facilitate live kidney donation. “So the day that Turgeman died is also the day Matnat Chaim was born.”
Covid disbelief amongst Chareidim
I heard an eyewitness that Hadassah hospital is filled with young unvaccinated Chareidim with Covid. The minyanim have very few who wear masks. The following was recentlty published in Family First of Mishpacha magazine - no mention of masks or vaccination
Against minhag of Arizal Rav Moshe Feinstein
שו"ת אגרות משה אורח חיים חלק ד סימן צט
וגם בלולב שנוהגין הרבה מדקדקין לברך קודם התפלה, תמיהני מהא דתדיר קודם, ואולי טעמם הוא מהא דהביא המג"א בסימן תרנ"ב סק"ג דהשל"ה כתב שינענע בסוכה וכשיחכו עד אחר חזרת הש"צ דשחרית יהיה טירחא דצבורא גדול לצאת מביהכ"נ להסוכה ולברך שם, שלכן דחו מעלת תדיר מפני מעלה זו, אבל תמוה לדחות מעלה המפורשת במתני' וילפינן מקרא, מפני מעלה זו דלא תניא במתני' ובשני התלמודים. אך אולי כיון שיש מעלה לאחוז הלולב כל היום שזה הוזכר בגמ' סוכה דף מ"א ע"ב שאר"א בר' צדוק מנהגן של אנשי ירושלים, והרמ"א כתב בסעי' א' שהוא גם לאחוז הלולב כשנכנס מביתו לביהכ"נ וגם בשעת התפלה, שודאי הוא כוונה לאחוז כל הד' מינים כאופן קיום המצוה, וממילא מוכרח לברך קודם לעשייתן, שבשביל זה לא קשה מתדיר קודם, שדין הקדימה הא פשוט שאינו למנוע מעשיית מצוה שהוא בכל היום אף שהוא רק מעלה בעלמא ולא לחיובא, אלא להקדים למצוה שג"ז נעשית רק פעם אחת ביום אף שהיא דאורייתא, שבתדיר איכא רק ענין קדימה ולא בטול בשביל זה אף מזמן קטן למצוה אחרת שאינה תדירה שנוהגת כל היום. אבל א"כ בזמננו שאף המדקדקים במצות אין נוהגין במעלה זו של אנשי ירושלים לבד יחידי סגולה הרי יש לאלו שאין נוהגין במעלה זו לברך על הלולב אחר חזרת הש"צ קודם ההלל מדין גמור דתדיר קודם, ואולי זהו כוונת המחבר שכתב ועיקר מצותו בשעת ההלל.
To appreciate this properly it is important to know that Rav
Moshe apparently held the view if the Gra that the Arizal was not Divrei Kabbalah as opposed to the Bal HaTanya
Monday, September 20, 2021
Angels - free will and punishment
There seems to be a widespread belief that angels don't have free will and yet there are clear sources that state that they are subject to punishment for wrong behavior
Bereishis Rabba (68:12) 12. AND HE DREAMED. R. Abbahu said: Dreams have no influence whatsoever. A certain man went to R. Jose b. Halafta and said to him: ' I was told in a dream, " Go and bring your father's labour [i.e. wealth] from Cappadocia."’ ‘Did your father ever visit Cappadocia?’ he asked him. On his answering ' no ‘, he bade him: ' Go and count twenty boards in the flooring of your house and you will find it.’ ‘But there are not twenty boards there,’ he rejoined. If so, count from the beginning to the end and back again, and you will find it.’ He went, did so, and found it. And whence did R. Jose b. Halafta deduce this? From the word Cappadocia.1Bar Kappara taught: No dream is without its interpretation. AND BEHOLD A LADDER symbolises the stairway; SET UPON THE EARTH-the altar, as it says, An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me (Ex. XX, 21); AND THE TOP OF IT REACHED TO HEAVEN-the sacrifices, the odour of which ascended to heaven; AND BEHOLD THE ANGELS OF GOD-the High Priests; ASCENDING AND DESCENDING ON IT-ascending and descending the stairway.AND, BEHOLD, THE LORD STOOD BESIDE HIM (XXVIII, 13)-I saw the Lord standing beside the altar (Amos IX, 1). The Rabbis related it to Sinai. AND HE DREAMED, AND BEHOLD A LADDER symbolises Sinai; SET UPON THE EARTH. as it says, And they stood3 at the nether part of the mount (Ex. XIX, 17); AND THE TOP OF IT REACHED TO HEAVEN-And the mountain burned with fire unto the heart of heaven (Deut. IV, 11).4 AND BEHOLD THE ANGELS OF GOD alludes to Moses and Aaron. ASCENDING: And Moses went up to God (Ex. XIX, 3); AND DESCENDING-And Moses went down from the mount (ib. 14). AND, BEHOLD, THE LORD STOOD BESIDE HIM-And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai (ib. 20).Shalmoni said in the name of Resh Lakish: He showed him a throne of three legs.6 R. Joshua of Siknin said in R. Levi's name: [God said to him]: ‘Thou art the third leg.’ That indeed is the view of R. Joshua in R. Levi's name, who said: For the portion of the Lord is His peoplc, Jacob the cord1 of His inheritance (Deut. XXXII, 9): as a cord cannot be woven of less than three strands [so there were not less than three Patriarchs].2 R. Berekiah said: He showed him the world and a third of the world, for ASCENDING cannot refer to less than two [angels], while AND DESCENDING likewise must refer to two, and each angel is a third of the world [in size]. And how do we know that an angel is a third of the world?-His body also was like the beryl (tarshish), and his face as the appearance of lightning, etc. (Dan. X, 6).’R. Hiyya the Elder and R. Jannai disagreed. One maintained: They were ASCENDING AND DESCENDING the ladder; while the other said: they were ASCENDING AND DESCENDING on Jacob.5 The statement that they were ascending and descending the ladder presents no difficulty. The statement that they were ascending and descending on Jacob we must take to mean that some were exalting him and others degrading him, dancing, leaping, and maligning him.6 Thus it says, Israel 7 in whom I will be glorified (Isa. XLIX, 3); it is thou, [said the angels,] whose features are engraved on high8; they ascended on high and saw his features and they descended below and found him sleeping. It may be compared to a king who sat and judged in a judgment chamber; people ascend the basilica and find him sleeping, they go out to the judgment chamber and find him judging. In heaven, who speaks in his [Israel's] favour is exalted; in his disfavour, is debased; but on earth, he who speaks in his favour is debased; in his disfavour, is promoted. Those angels who escort a man in Eretz Israel do not escort him without the Land. Thus ASCENDING refers to those who had escorted him in the Land,1 while DESCENDING refers to those who were to escort him without the Land. R. Levi said in the name of R. Samuel b. Nahman: Because the ministering angels revealed God's secrets, they were banished from their precincts a hundred and thirty-eight years. R. Tanhuma expressed it in the word Kelah. R. Hama b. Hanina said: [They were banished] because they boasted and said, For we will destroy this place (Gen. XIX, 23). When did they return? On this occasion, ASCENDING first and then DESCENDING.
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Rabbinic Halacha - Consequence of violating or ignoring?
Recently was asked whether aside from Rabbinic lashes there are consequences for violating or ignoring Rabbinic halacha. For example not keeping the 2nd day of Rosh HaShanna or a gambler serving as a judge or witness
Friday, September 17, 2021
Israeli study:3rd shot gives 10 times more antibodies protection
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/313613
A serological study carried out at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan has found that the antibodies levels in people who have received the third dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine are ten times higher than in people who received the second dose.
The study was conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Ministry of Health, the Technion, the Hebrew University, the Gartner Institute at Sheba Medical Center and the KI Institute, and measured antibody levels a week after the administration of the vaccine.
The findings were published today (Thursday) in The New England Journal of Medicine.
According to the study, the third dose restores the vaccines effectiveness against the coronavirus to 95% after the level of protection drops in the months following the administration of the second vaccine dose.
Cyprus appeal opens for Briton convicted of falsely claiming Israelis raped her
A Cypriot court’s conviction of a young British woman for lying about being gang-raped by Israeli tourists was a miscarriage of justice, lawyers appealing the ruling said on Thursday.
The unnamed woman, who was 18 at the time of her arrest, alleged that she was raped by up to 12 Israelis in a hotel room in the seaside holiday resort of Ayia Napa in July 2019.
She has accused Cypriot police of having forced her to sign a retraction statement, after which the Israeli suspects were released.
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