Sunday, May 1, 2022

An end to kosher phones? Haredi MKs decry Communication Minister's 'dictatorial' decision

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326732

After a decision in principle was made around a month ago, it has now become official: On Sunday, Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel announced that he has decided to enable "full mobility" for kosher cell phone users in order to "increase competition in the kosher cellular market."
In practice, what he is doing cancels the kosher phone option as it currently exists, permitting only a limited format going ahead.

The reform, which is due to take effect on July 31, will allow each subscriber to choose to remain with his existing package, although it is unclear whether all the phone numbers currently blocked on kosher phone packages will continue to be blocked, or whether some, or all, will be opened up to customers. The reforms follow intense lobbying by LGBT groups anxious to see hotlines affiliated with LGBT organizations unblocked to kosher phone line subscribers. Such content is considered abhorrent to haredi Jews.

According to the Communications Ministry, the reforms will open the market to competition and encourage companies to offer services at competitive prices to the haredi community. In practice, kosher phone line subscribers will be able to keep their phone numbers with their distinctive kosher prefixes and switch the SIM card into a non-kosher phone, which in the past would have voided the deal. It is not clear how the reforms will result in financial savings for haredi customers.

Evolution vs Intelligent design

 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj84PGd5b33AhXp7rsIHTyCDBcQFnoECBkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fagudah.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2FJO2006-V39-N041.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3BTFuHHKHOZLNIDu6dRKIR


And here we come to the crux of the confrontation of ideas. We understand very well the great benefits to mankind that are the result of the research and technological creativity of the scientific community. We have no quarrel with true science proven  from observable facts. Our quarrel is with this definition of science, which in considering the unobservable origin of the universe.
There is a subtle, but not so subtle, shift from saying that science, by its self-imposed convention, can only deal with empirical evidence, with that which can be observed and measured, to saying (which in effect is being said) that anything not measurable is beneath consideration'. With this, the most logical explanation of the universe is ruled out while the most improbable and fanciful theories can be accepted as science as long as they do not smack of the «supernatural."

Chofetz Chaim refutes Darwin

 אמת ליעקב ויקרא פרק יט פסוק ג

(ג) איש אמו ואביו תיראו ואת שבתותי תשמרו.

נראה לבאר הקשר בין שני ענינים אלה, דבאמת המאמין בקדמות העולם - וכמו שמאמינים אומות העולם ורשעי ישראל שבמשך הזמן נתפתח האדם מכל מיני קופים ושאר חיות וכדומה - בהכרח שסובר שכל מה שהדורות מתרחקים מהזמן הקדמון יותר הם מפותחים ויותר הם חשובים, ולכן אדרבה - הם סוברים שהדור הזקן חייב לכבד את הדור הצעיר, אבל אנו שמאמינים שהאדם הוא יציר כפיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא וככל שמתרחקים הדורות יותר אנו מתרחקים מההשפעה האלקית ומגדלותו יתברך, בודאי השומה עלינו לכבד את הדור הקודם, שהרי הם חשובים וגדולים יותר ממנו, ולכן כשבאה התורה להזהיר על "איש אמו ואביו תיראו", הוצרכה לחזור ולשנות גם את פרשת "ואת שבתותי תשמרו", דהרי השבת הוא הזכר והאות לחידוש העולם על ידי הקדוש ברוך הוא בששת מעשה בראשית, ודו"ק.

בענין זה אזכיר מה ששמעתי מהגר"א וואסרמן זצ"ל: שאילו ראה דארווין את החפץ חיים לא היה אומר שהאדם נתפתח מקופים וכדומה, אלא שהוא ראה רק אנשים כמוהו ולכן בא לידי טעות, ודו"ק.


Kedoshim: Admonish your neighbor

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326642

Israel's first Chief Rabbi: Not remonstrating wtih someone doing something wrong shows that instrinsically, you do not really object..

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Panic at the airport as US family tries to board plane with souvenir artillery shell

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/panic-at-the-airport-after-american-family-tries-to-board-plane-with-souvenir-bomb/

Panic broke out in the departure hall at Israel’s main airport on Thursday after a family of American tourists tried to board a plane with an artillery shell in their luggage.

The Airports Authority said security officers sounded an emergency alert and ordered the evacuation of the area when they discovered the unexploded shell.

The Airports Authority said the family had traveled to northern Israel’s Golan Heights, where one of the children found the old artillery shell.

Pence Refusing to Get in Secret Service Car on Jan. 6 'Chilling': Raskin

 https://www.newsweek.com/pence-refusing-get-secret-service-car-jan-6-chilling-raskin-1700341

After being taken to an undisclosed portion of the Capitol during the riot, Pence's Secret Service agents, whom Raskin suspected were reporting directly to Trump's security detail, asked him to enter an armored limousine. The intent, some have theorized, was to drive Pence away from the building, preventing him from certifying the election results, after he had signaled his unwillingness to go against his duties and keep Trump in power.

"[Pence] uttered what I think are the six most chilling words of this entire thing I've seen so far: 'I'm not getting in that car,'" Raskin said. "He knew exactly what this inside coup they had planned for was going to do."

Friday, April 29, 2022

Demons

 Bamidbar Rabbah (12:03) R. Simeon b. Yohai further said: The Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel at Sinai a weapon upon which the Ineffable Name was written. Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night (Ps. XCI, 5), namely of Igrath, daughter of Mahalath, and her chariot, and of any of the demons who hold sway at night. Nor of the arrow that flieth by day (ib.). R. Berekiah explained that there is a kind of demon who flies through the air like a bird, and darts like an arrow. What will deliver you from him? The act of sending away the mother bird from a nest when you wish to take the young; for in accordance with this it is written above, ‘He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler’ and ‘snare’ cannot but allude to a bird; as is borne out by the context which says,  Will a bird fall in a snare upon the earth? (Amos III, 5). Now it says,  If a bird's nest chance to be before thee... thou shalt in any wtse let the dam go... that it may be well with thee (Deut. XXII, 6 f.).3 Of the pestilence that walketh in darkness (Ps. XCI, 6) implies that if a man's deeds are in the dark the pestilence gains mastery over him. In a like strain it says,  Before Him goeth the pestilence, and fiery bolts go forth at his feet (Hab. III, 5). So here too it says, Of the pestilence that walketh in the darkness. Nor of t/ze destruction (keteb) that wasteth at noonday (Ps. Ioc. cit.). Our Rabbis explain that ‘keteb’ is a demon. And why was he called keteb’?’ R. Abba son of Kahana said: Because he breaks into the daily studies from the beginning of four hours of the day to the end of nine.8. Levi said: Because he robs pupils of their noonday lessons from the end of four hours to the beginning of nine hours. He holds sway neither in the shade nor in the sun but between the shade and the sun. His head is like that of a calf and a horn grows out from the centre of his forehead, and he rolls like a pitcher. R. Huna, in the name of R. Joseph, said: ‘Keteb meriri’ is in form covered with scales, hairy all over, and full of eyes. And, said R. Simeon b. Lakish, he has one eye set in his heart, and anyone who sees him can never survive, whether it be man or beast. Anyone who sees him drops down dead. ‘Meriri’ holds sway during the period between the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Ab. Hezekiah saw him and dropped down on his face and died. R. Phinehas the priest said: It is related that one saw him and was stricken with epilepsy They reported that Judah b. R. Samuel saw him and did not drop down. Nevertheless, it is reported that he died. R. Abbahu was once sitting and studying in a certain synagogue in Caesarea. He noticed one man pursuing another having in his hand a rod with which he wished to strike the other He [R. Abbahu] saw that a demon also followed after the same man having in his hand an iron rod. R. Abbahu went out and followed the pursuing man and said to him: ' Do not strike him, lest he die! ' Said the other: ‘Master! Can he die by this?’ He answered: ‘There is a demon following behind you, and he has an iron rod in his hand. If you strike him with this and he strikes him with that he will die.’ R. Johanan used to tell teachers of Scripture and of Mishnah not to lift the strap against the children on these days. R. Samuel b. R. Isaac used to tell teachers of Scripture and of Mishnah to dismiss the children after four hours on these days. A thousand shall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand (Ps. XCI,7) tefillin, it is written, ‘A thousand shall fall at thy side’; for a thousand angels have been placed there to protect him. Of the right hand, however, which has control over many commandments, it says, ‘ Ten thousand at thy right hand’; myriads of angels are charged with the care of it  R. Hanina son of R. Abbahu expounded- The text does not read, ‘Shall be delivered unto thee but ‘Shall fall’, as much as to say: If a thousand demons come against thee, they will fall at the side which has charge of one commandment, and if a myriad demons come, they will fall at the side which is in charge of many commandments. It is the usual practice in this world that if a person is entrusted to the care of a thousand men it is his duty to feed them. Why? Because they are assigned to him for the purpose of protecting him. The Holy One, blessed be He, however, assigns to a man a thousand angels to be on his left side and ten thousand on his right for his w elfare and for the purpose of protecting him, yet He shall not come nigh thee (ib.) with the request that you should feed them. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold (ib. 8) thy prosperity, And see the recompense of the wicked (ib.); you will see how the Holy One, blessed be He, will requite the wicked for their deeds. For Thou, O Lord, art my refuge; Thou hast made the most high Thy habitation (ib. 9). R. Hanina expounded: Israel said to the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Thou givest the Torah to us here below, but causest Thy Shechinah to abide on high.’ Thus the meaning of the text, ' For Thou, O Lord, art my refuge ' is, ' Thou hast given us Thy Torah’; and ‘Hast made the most high Thy habitation ’ means, ‘But Thou hast made Thy abode in the high heavens.’ There shall no evil befall thee (ib. 1O). This accords with the text, There shall be no mischief befall the righteous (Prov. XII, 21). Neither shall any plague come nighthy tent (Ps. loc. cit.). R. Johanan expounded: Before the Tabernacle had been erected the demons were wont to vex mankind in this world. From the moment when the Tabernacle was erected, and the Shechinah took up its residence here below, the demons were exterminated from the world. Thus the text, ‘Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent’ alludes to the Tent of Meeting. Said R. Simeon b. Lakish: What need for you to trouble with the book of Psalms? Surely, there is nothing wanting in the original1 context, which reads The Lord bless thee, and keep thee (Num. VI, 24), i.e. from the demons. When would that be? IT CAME TO PASS ON THE DAY THAT MOSES HAD MADE AN END (KALLOTH) OF SETTING UP THE TABERNACLE. What is the signification of KALLOTH? It denotes that the demons were exterminated (kallu) from the world.

Exercise is good for joints with wear-and-tear arthritis

 https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61255733

Spokeswoman Dr Wendy Holden said: "Many wrongly believe that exercise can harm the joints, so this guidance is very important and will hopefully empower patients, and give them more confidence to make healthy lifestyle changes that will really help improve their pain and quality of life."

What the Science Says About the Health Benefits of Vitamins and Supplements

 https://time.com/6171584/are-vitamins-supplements-healthy/

In some cases, supplement use could even be harmful. A 2015 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that there are an estimated 23,000 emergency department visits every year in the U.S. for adverse events related to the use of dietary supplements, many involving cardiovascular issues from weight-loss or energy products. “Particularly when we use very high dose implementations, sometimes we might be doing more harm than good,” says Eliseo Guallar, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

DeSantis aims at Disney and hits Florida's taxpayers

 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/desantis-aims-disney-hits-florida-s-taxpayers-n1294756


Those on the right who support these maneuvers are not shy about telling you why they think they’re necessary. These companies enjoy outsize influence over the national discourse. They are imperious and unresponsive to democratic contrivances. They say the right’s refusal to fight fire with fire — especially in deference to abstract principles like the value of limited government and free enterprise — represents unilateral disarmament in an existential cultural struggle.What they don’t say is what these measures are supposed to achieve, especially after the courts invalidate them. If a simple gesture of hostility in the general direction of a particular problem satisfies these right-leaning critics of cultural progressivism, then they are only in the market for theatrics.

Don't throw away your mask just yet: Experts weight in on pros of discarded mandate

 https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/hk285jmsc

At-risk populations include infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and those who have a weakened immune system. Some of them cannot be identified that easily, especially young people with underlying illnesses who appear healthy. You could make them extreme ill and even pose a life threat to them if you're maskless around them - while infected.
At this point, with COVID still around and Health Ministry's infection data being only partial, it is a good idea to continue wearing masks in confined places with large gatherings.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Strauss expands recall to all products made at factory where salmonella first found

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-april-27-2022/

Food manufacturer calls on Israelis to return range of chocolate items made at facility in northern Israel after confirming presence of bacteria in consumer-ready goods

Health Ministry launches polio vaccination campaign for children, teens

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-705152

The Health Ministry has launched a polio vaccination campaign for children across the country ages six weeks to 17 years, the ministry announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of a number of polio cases being detected in Israeli children, all of whom were unvaccinated. As of April, at least eight children in Israel have been found to have polio, seven of whom have no symptoms. The poliovirus was detected in sewage samples taken from Jerusalem and the surrounding areas after a four-year-old child exhibited symptoms of the disease in early March.