Abarbanel (Rosh Amana 12)Concerning
the Second question which was why the Rambam included in his fifth principle of
faith that it is prohibited to make intermediaries between man and G-d I replied that I already mentioned in the
introduction to the fifth principle that it includes true faith in G-d
First of all G-d is the only being that acts with free will
as opposed to even the angels,celestial spheres,stars and fundamental matter and
all things made from this matter. While all these things have control over
their activities they don’t decide what
to do. In contrast G-d acts solely according towhat He wants to do. That is why
worship and praise is only directed to G-d.
Secondly G-d is the only being that is omnipotent without
any limitations, That is what is meant by saying “they all have domain and
activities”. In other words all thes beings are limited and restricted to
specific tasks. In contrast G-d can do anything He desires as it states in
Tehilim (135), “All that G-d desires He does in the Heaven and Earth.” That is
why He alone is worshipped since only He can accomplish anything like clay in
the hand of the artisan. There is no thing who tells Him what to do.
The third point is that all the peoples and nations are uniquely dependent on the celestial powers that control them. In other words as has been stated there is the celestial ruler of the Greeks, Persians and all other nations except for the Jews who are not dependent on a celestial master or star Instead the Jews are uniquely dependent on G-d. This is as our master Moshe has said (Devarim 4:19-20) And lest you lift up your eyes to the skies, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the skies, should you be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole sky. But the Lord has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as you are this day. Ibn Ezra wrote it has been established that each people has
a unique star and mazel. This is also true for each city. G-d gave the Jews a
major and superior status in that He directly directs them and not through a
star. Jews belong to G-d. Concerning this idea we find in Pirke de rabbi Eliezarthat the 70 celestial leaders cast a lottery as to
which one of the 70 nations they would rule while G-d got the Jews by this
lottery. That is why it says that the Jews are the property of G-d. In other
words the relation of each nation to its celestial leader is that which G-d has
with Jews without any intermediary of a star or any celestial being. This is the basis for the absolute avoidance
of idolatry
The handover of Poland’s 28 Soviet-made MiG-29s would signal Western resolve to do more to deter Russia. Militarily, it would be unlikely to be a game-changer. The number of aircraft is relatively small. The MiG-29s also are inferior to more sophisticated Russian aircraft and could be easy prey for Russian pilots and missiles.
Russia has warned that supporting Ukraine’s air force would be seen in Moscow as participating in the conflict and open up suppliers to possible retaliation.
It would also weaken Poland’s own air force at a time of heightened danger in Eastern Europe.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced on Tuesday that Israel is ready to take in up to 5,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, allow 20,000 other Ukrainians who arrived prior to the fighting to remain temporarily, and will no longer require refugees arriving at Ben Gurion Airport to deposit 10,000 shekels ($3,028) in order to enter the country.
Instead of paying a deposit, those who enter will merely have to sign a declaration pledging to leave Israel once the state of emergency in Ukraine is over.
The deposit applied to Ukrainian refugees without first-degree relatives in Israel.
The decision ends a point of controversy over asylum provisions. Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk, along with critics within the Israeli government, had demanded that the deposit requirement be lifted as unduly onerous in a time when people are fleeing for their lives.
People have rightly been asking why Chabad worldwide has come under so much criticism over the actions of Biderman and his Chabad infrastructure in Vienna. Biderman doesn't act alone, he acts with the backing of his Chabad colleagues in Vienna, the backing of Chabad in crown heights, and the backing of every Chabad shliach in the world who fails to publicly denounce Biderman's actions.
Chabad run a tight ship and regularly delist shluchim all the time if they fail to adhere to the standards of the Chabad brand. Yet Biderman is still very much a celebrated member with virtually no public criticism from anywhere in Chabad.
Over the last ten years, there have been many hundreds of conversations with Chabad Rabbis all over the world about the custody case of the Schlesinger twins in Vienna. One recurring theme during those conversations was that even if there was a public acceptance by Chabad that Rabbi Biderman’s actions were part of the problem, and causing a public disgrace to Chabad (in many cases directly influencing people to “withdraw their donations from Chabad, because of the way Chabad has behaved in this case“), there is no central Chabad authority able to intervene or discipline Rabbi Biderman in any way.
The head Chabad Shliach in Austria, Rabbi Jacob Biderman has been undeniably involved in the case in support of the father having full custody of the children. In an article in 2012, Rabbi Jacob Biderman told Beth that her husband would be prepared to grant her a get only if she dropped her battle for custody of the children, and was “willing to leave him in peace”.
Chabad Central offices and leadership have been lobbied and after many hours of reluctant conversations over a two year period, this was their response:
“It is ultimately up to Rabbi Biderman to make a determination as how to best address this issue consistent with the facts on the ground.”
Does Chabad have any central authority from Crown Heights or accountability to their colleagues in other regions?
In 2017, a group of Rabbis met with the pope, and a video went viral showing those Rabbis dancing with the pope afterwards. According to the article, “A Chabad dot org list of “official emissaries” no longer contains the address of Chabad of Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, whose leader, Rabbi Dovber Pinson, was on the trip.”
In 2021 a Chabad house in Manchester, England was removed from Chabad dot org website after being listed for many years. If anyone wishes to know more details, they should contact the Jewish Telegraph https://www.jewishtelegraph.com/ .
The opposite is also true. Sometimes, there is pressure from local communities to have the incumbent Chabad leadership step down in favour of a replacement board. Here is an example of Central Chabad in Crown Heights stepping in to intervene.
On an informal level Chabad Rabbis from all over the world meet up for their Kinus conference where friendships are cemented, ideas exchanged and favours called in. To suggest that there is no communication between Chabad Houses in different regions is absurd.
In conclusion, it is factually incorrect to say that Chabad Centres around the world are independent. The actions of one Chabad Rabbi will have implications on the Chabad global brand. Chabad can choose to distance themselves from such a Rabbi, as has been demonstrated in other situations, or alternatively, accept that the actions of this Rabbi is representative of what Chabad stands for in practice. If they allow one of their representatives to remain on their Chabad shliach directory, then that is an endorsement of him and everything he has done in his capacity as Chabad shliach.
It started when the controversial lawmaker posted a tweet on Sunday claiming “Biden’s poor decision making leading up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin declaring war on Ukraine.”
“Nope. It’s because you and your pro-Putin party encouraged Putin to invade, by cheerleading him,” Vindman responded.
Even so, leadership’s lack of action marks a shift for House Republicans. Some in the GOP say former Speaker John Boehner would have told Greene and Gosar immediately to cut it out, as would former Speaker Paul Ryan. Back in 2019, McCarthy stripped then-Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) of his committees after he questioned why the term “white nationalist” was considered offensive — though only after years of such rhetoric from King.
“There is a strategy of, ‘If we don’t talk about it, it will go away, and it won’t get attention.’ And sometimes that works,” said another rank-and-file Republican, also addressing the handling of Greene and Gosar on condition of anonymity. “But in the long run, I’ve always found that backfires, so they’re playing with fire by doing that.”
He insists that the image of Ukraine as a hotbed of antisemitism is absurd.
“I don’t practice, but still everyone knows I am Jewish — I have such a Jewish face! And I never experienced antisemitism from Ukrainians,” he insisted. “The military guys I am working with now really don’t care that I am a Jew.”
He does not have similar feelings toward his Russian neighbors. “I did have a Jew-hating Russian first-grade teacher who mockingly called my long hair payos,” recalled Batozky, using the Hebrew term for the long side curls kept by many Hasidic men. And he said he heard more slurs against Jews from Russians Moscow State University, which he attended in the 1990s, then he ever heard back home.
A case of polio was discovered in Israel for the first time in several decades, the Health Ministry said Sunday, raising fears of an outbreak of the nearly eradicated disease.
A mutated form of the virus, which can cause illness in the unvaccinated, was discovered in a 4-year-old boy in Jerusalem, the ministry said. He had not been vaccinated against the disease.
The case was believed to be the first polio diagnosis in Israel since 1989, after Israel largely wiped out the disease through an aggressive inoculation campaign.
In 2013, traces of the virus were detected in sewer systems across Israel, but no human diagnoses were made. The discovery, however, pushed Israel to launch a mass vaccination drive among young children.
Like much of the world, Israel administers polio vaccines to children as part of its standard vaccine regimen, with four doses given between the ages of 2 months and around 7 years.
It is a marvel that Moscow was either so convinced civil disobedience would not be a problem or decided that they simply did not need a plan to deal with it. The Kremlin's attempt to film Russian aid trucks handing out the solution to the problem its invasion created was greeted with local scorn and profanity. The protests go on.
Over the weekend, the former President provided a glimpse into how he may have handled on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine -- and it is a doozy.
According to audio obtained by The Washington Post, Trump told a group of Republican donors in New Orleans that the United States should paint Chinese flags on its F-22 planes and then use those planes to bomb Russia.
"And then we say, 'China did it, we didn't do it, China did it,' and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch," Trump concluded.
The Post reports that the Republican donor audience laughed when Trump proposed his "pretend-we're-the-Chinese" strategy. What's far less clear is whether Trump was actually joking.
But there is no agreed-upon definition of “woke” or a formal political organization or movement associated with it. Nor is there an exact definition of what constitutes being “canceled” or a victim of “cancel culture.” However, despite their vagueness, you now see conservative activists and Republican politicians constantly using these terms. That’s because that vagueness is a feature, not a bug. Casting a really wide range of ideas and policies as too woke and anyone who is critical of them as being canceled by out-of-control liberals is becoming an important strategy and tool on the right — in fact, this cancel culture/woke discourse could become the organizing idea of the post-Trump-presidency Republican Party.
Take someone like Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s obviously very bright. She knows how to draw a headline. In my opinion, some of her political aspirations are impractical and probably not going to happen. But that’s probably the worst thing that you can say about her.
Now take someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the new Republican congresswoman from Georgia. She’s absolutely loonier than a tune. We all know it. And yet, for some reason, the Democrats pay a bigger political price for AOC than Republicans pay for Greene. That’s the problem in a nutshell. And it’s ridiculous because AOC and Greene are not comparable in any way.
Republicans, looking to dent President Joe Biden and win back Congress next year in part by rousing a voting base animated by culture war issues, have increasingly settled on a single word to describe what it is they stand against: "woke."
Conservatives en masse have blasted "woke" companies that spoke out against Republican-led voting restrictions — a move that publicly aligned much of corporate America with Democrats on the issue, even if many of the businesses stressed their beliefs that access to the ballot shouldn't be a partisan issue.
Once a rallying cry for Americans to be alert to racism, "wokeness" has become the political term of the hour, co-opted by culture warriors to denigrate "political correctness" and leftist orthodoxy."The radical left is trying to replace American democracy with woke tyranny," former US president Donald Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida during his keynote speech Saturday.
Speaker after speaker at CPAC invoked rightwing betes noires from "cancel culture" to the policing of pronouns. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, joined in the barrage of accusations, telling the crowd that "the woke is the new religion of the left."
The concept has metastasized from its US origins to penetrate the global body politic, from the English-speaking world to newsrooms, university boards and parliaments in Europe, Asia and South America.
