Nod or blunder? No CPAC 2021 apology for a stage shaped like a white supremacist symbol

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/02/cpac-2021-stage-design-public-high-five-white-supremacy-column/6883518002/

As difficult as it is to get your head around, the stage at CPAC 2021 last weekend was built in the shape of a rebranded swastika, something called an odal or othala rune. This symbol was incorporated into SS uniforms and is frequently used by white supremacists. Neo-Nazis get tattooed with this thing. It was even on display at the 2017 Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville. Here’s a picture of the CPAC stage next to a picture of a Nazi uniform. Judge for yourself.

 And how do I know about this neo-Nazi imagery? Have I been trawling through the disreputable, sordid underbelly of the Internet? Sort of. There was an article about it over four years ago in the New York Times. After Trump’s election, what was then one of the largest neo-Nazi organizations in the country, the National Socialist Movement, decided to do some rebranding and replace the swastika with the odal rune in an effort to make white supremacy more “mainstream.” Since Trump stood in the middle of one at CPAC to declare his return to politics, I guess it worked.

Six Dr. Seuss Books Will Stop Being Published Because of Racist Imagery

 https://time.com/5943429/dr-seuss-racist-images/

Dr. Seuss Enterprises will no longer publish or license six of the author’s books, including his first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) and If I Ran the Zoo (1950), because of racist and insensitive imagery.

On Tuesday, the company released a statement on their website explaining their decision to stop publishing these books, citing that they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” In addition to those two books, McElligot’s Pool (1947), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953), On Beyond Zebra! (1955) and The Cat’s Quizzer (1976) will no longer be published.

 

Father of man hit, killed by minibus during protest says he doesn’t blame driver

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/father-of-man-run-over-by-minibus-during-protest-says-he-doesnt-blame-driver/

 The family of a man who hit and killed by a minibus fleeing an allegedly anti-Arab, ultra-Orthodox mob in Jerusalem on Sunday said that they do not blame the driver.

Ibrahim Hamed said he was attacked by a group of protesters and was attempting to escape when he plowed his vehicle on Sunday night into Itamar Ben Abu, 47

Purim agada -Rashba

 מה שכתוב בהגדה: ואני כאשר אבדתי אבדתי (אסתר ד, טז) כשם שאבדתי מבית אבא כך אבדתי ממך. הקשו בתוספות יגרשנה ויחזירנה אחר כך שאינה אסורה לו מחמת זנות, וכדמוכח בפרק שני דסוטה (יח, ב) לא היה מתנה עמה לא על קודם שתתארס ולא על לאחר שתתגרש, דאינו מתנה אלא מה שאוסרה עליו, והלכה והיתה לאיש אחר כתיב (דברים כד, ב) נשאת אסורה לחזור לו זנתה מותרת לחזור לו. ותירצו שהיה ירא לגרשה לפי שכל מעשה הגט בעדים וירא שמא יתפרסם ויודע הדבר למלך. ואינו נכון בעיני, ויכתוב לו בכתב ידו שהוא כשר דאורייתא, וטוב היה לו לעשות כן דהא אסתר היכי עבדה הכי דהשתא ברצונה נבעלת ותהרג ואל תעבור ואילו היה מגרשה בכתב ידו לא היתה עוברת על איסור עריות החמור ולא היתה נאסרת למרדכי. אלא שדברי אגדה הן ואין משיבין עליהן

Garnel Ironheart

The same Chazal who came up with this midrash also knew the Megillah off by heart. They knew that Achashverosh only wanted virgins and if Esther was taken, it's because she was a virgin. So if they came up with this midrash anyway, knowing that it violated the whole point of the story and turned Esther into a huge sinner, there must have been a reason.
One could say "Well, they couldn't accept that Mordechai would do yichud with Esther since she was just an adopted daughter so they had to explain that they were actually married." Which is worse? That Mordechai lived with his adopted daughter and probably took proper precautions or that Esther out and out committed adultery?

.

Court rules: Recognize Reform, Conservative conversions done in Israel for citizenship

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/israel-to-recognize-reform-conservative-conversion-for-law-of-return-660592

 An expanded nine justice panel of the High Court of Justice ruled on Monday to recognize conversions by the Reform and Masorti (Conservative) movements in Israel for the purposes of citizenship, ending a 15-year legal saga.

 The decision set off a firestorm of criticism from Orthodox political parties who vowed to pass legislation to overturn the ruling and threatened not to enter any coalition without promises to do so, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party also denounced the ruling.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Vaccines, COVID and Dr. Fauci: 'I Read the Science'

 https://www.newsweek.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-vaccines-covid-dr-fauci-i-read-science-1572688

 Have people who received the vaccine died from COVID?

Nobody can tell you whether they have or they haven't, since the vaccine has been issued under an emergency use authorization, which is not an approval. This is an unapproved drug. By definition, it's a mass population experiment. There was nobody, for example, over 80 in the clinical trial, there's only 20 people over 70. Those are the people who are most likely to die, the big deaths that we're seeing now in the nursing homes all over the world, in Gibraltar or in England, where they've had a 46 percent increase in nursing home deaths since the vaccine was issued; in Toronto and Montreal and Belgium, Spain, New York; all these places where you're seeing these mass deaths in nursing homes after the vaccination regimen starts. Within a week, you're seeing large, large numbers of death.

 

Kennedy is wrong about the number of elderly participants in the Phase 3 clinical trials for Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines. Moderna's Phase 3 trial included 1,300 participants between the ages of 75 and 84, and 90 participants aged 85 or older. The Phase 3 trial for the Pfizer vaccine included 1,700 participants aged 75 and over.

Rabbenu Tam and the Case of Gentile Adultery

 https://www.etzion.org.il/en/rabbenu-tam-and-case-gentile-adultery

 The gemara in Sanhedrin (74b) questions the appropriateness of Esther’s behavior, and particularly her willingness to marry Achashverosh even though she was married to Mordechai (according to Chazal).  In questioning her behavior, the gemara claims that her behavior was unacceptable because the public was aware of her conduct.  Even minor mitzvot must be kept under pain of death if their commission is public knowledge.  Although the gemara’s question is relevant, Esther’s conduct could have been questioned on more basic grounds - she was committing giluy arayot!! This conduct must be avoided EVEN IN PRIVATE.  Why was the gemara only concerned with the public nature of her conduct and not with her decision to violate giluy arayot?

Idol Worship | The Obvious Biblical Beef With the Golden Trump

 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-obvious-biblical-beef-with-the-golden-trump-1.9575808

 It’s kinda baffling how often the people who insist on having oversized Ten Commandments outside government buildings forget this one. (Remember that the Israelites didn’t worship the Commandments themselves, just kept them in a portable litter they brought to all their battles — and that may or may not be able to melt Nazi faces.)

Passover reliefs could be at risk as thousands break Purim guidelines

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/covid-19-hundreds-party-in-jaffa-many-without-masks-as-curfew-looms-660405

Police had feared underground parties or haredi (ultra-Orthodox) tisches would keep them busy over the Festival of Joy, and indeed there were reports of packed synagogues against violations and yeshiva events that broke restrictions on gathering. However, the Jaffa Flea Market turned out to be the greatest challenge for police.

 

 

Why didn't Mordechai divorce Esther?

 One of the most dramatic moments in the Megila happens when Mordechai tells Esther to take the initiative and go to the King with the hope of persuading him to help save the Jewish people

 Esther (chapter 4)

13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not yourself that in the king’s palace you shall escape, any more than all the Jews.
14. For if you remain silent at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
16. Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my girls will fast likewise; and so will I go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.

The gemorah Megila (15a)R. Abba said: It will not be she said according to the custom of every other day. Till now I have associated with Ahasuerus under compulsion, but now I will do so of my own will.  And if I perish, I perish. As I am lost to my father's house so I shall be lost to thee.

The gemorah is saying that Esther was married to Mordechai and up to this point she was vied as being raped by the king and thus was still allowed to remain married to Mordechai.  But now 

Mordechai is ordering her to go of her own free will to the king and commit adultery thus henceforth she will be forbidden to Mordechai. Tosfos asks why Moredchai doesn't simply divorce her 

He answers because the king might find out about it since all gittin require witnesses. the Nodah beyehuda says he could divorce her without witnesses.

תוספות מסכת מגילה דף טו עמוד א
כשם שאבדתי מבית אבא כך אבדתי ממך - וא"ת אמאי לא היה מגרשה ותהא מותרת להחזירנה י"ל לפי שכל מעשה הגט הוא ע"פ עדים והיה ירא פן יתפרסם הדבר למלכות.

The Equality Act Poses an Unprecedented Threat to Religious Freedom

 https://www.christianunion.org/publications-media/christian-union-the-magazine/past-issues/summer-2019/2388-the-equality-act-poses-an-unprecedented-threat-to-religious-freedom

AW: At its core, the Equality Act is not viewpoint neutral. It says that progressive understandings of sexual orientation and gender identity are government orthodoxy. By default, it must treat the historic Christian sexual ethic as a force for animus and discrimination. Any person, or any institution, on the wrong side of this orthodoxy will, by necessity, find themselves on the wrong side of government policy and cultural opinion.

 

Gay conservative: Equality Act would crush religious freedom. Trump is right to oppose it.

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/05/20/lgbtq-equality-act-fails-fair-religious-freedom-provisions-accommodation-column/3731197002/

 The bill purports to protect LGBT Americans like me by prohibiting discrimination “based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit and the jury system.” On the surface, this sounds unobjectionable — after all, no one deserves to face discrimination. Yet the bill defined “public accommodations” so loosely and called for regulations so sweeping that it would crush religious freedom and radically reshape American society.

Rabbi Avi Shafran Biden and Democrats in Congress voting for Equality Act are undermining religious rights

 https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/biden-democrats-congress-voting-equality-act-are-undermining-religious-rights-ncna1258787

 Now, no religious American of goodwill wants to see gay or transgender people threatened in any way. But millions of religious Americans of goodwill have deep, faith-based convictions about marriage and sexual identity, including, for example, that marriage is a holy commitment made by a man and woman to each other before God and that the Creator bestowed DNA and morphology as the only arbiters of gender identity. By vilifying those ideas, the Equality Act would vilify all who hold them to be true.

פורים שמח אזרחי ישראל