Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Mystery Over Melania’s Six-Figure Check for Gay Republican Event
Grenell posted on X in July about the Log Cabin Republicans event, writing that the former first lady “opened her NYC Penthouse tonight to raise money” for the group.
“It’s the first campaign event ever held at the Trump residence,” he continued. “And we raised $1.4 million in one night. Our goal is to get 50% of the gay vote for Donald Trump.”
UTJ organ Hamodia publishes op-ed blaming southern kibbutz residents for October 7
In the article, writer Menachem Klogman argued that members of kibbutzim along the Gaza border should seek forgiveness for being “full partners” in the security failures that allowed thousands of Hamas-led fighters to invade their communities on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, kidnapping over 250 more and leaving much of the Gaza border area in ruins. He also accused them of misplacing blame.
“The people of the Gaza border kibbutzim… bear heavy responsibility for the disaster that occurred on the holiday of Simhat Torah,” he wrote.
Monday, September 23, 2024
The Soloveitchik Solution
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/rav-soloveitchik-solution
In the Rav’s published writings, especially The Halakhic Mind (1984) and even more in newly published lecture notes from his teaching at Yeshiva University in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he advanced a powerful argument that the scientific revolution starting with the 17th-century formulation of the calculus was inspired by Torah. Notes on the Rav’s 1949-50 lectures on Genesis taken by R. Robert Blau and brilliantly annotated by R. Meir Triebitz were published in 2021-22 by Hakirah. I have published several monographs in Hakirah adding philosophical and mathematical context for the Rav’s writing.
Was Rav Hirsch Modern Orthodox?
https://www.torahmusings.com/2011/06/was-rav-hirsch-modern-orthodox/
R. Blau lists the following two of R. Hirsch’s views that are NOT Modern Orthodox:
Non- (or anti-)Zionism
Separation from the non-Orthodox community
I would have added R. Hirsch’s staunch opposition to the academic study of Judaism. He wrote at length against it, declaring many of its practitioners heretics — including the great Orthodox halakhist R. David Tzvi Hoffmann!
R. Blau proceeds to list the following of R. Hirsch’s views that are consistent with Modern Orthodoxy, stopping to prove the assertions that may be controversial:
Analyzing biblical characters as great but flawed human beings
Considering the legends of the Talmud (aggados) to be non-binding
Asserting that the science of the talmudic sages was occasionally incorrect
Encouraging women’s intellectual development
Embracing a Universalist belief in the spiritual value of all people regardless of race, sex, nationality or religion
Believing in the inherent value in secular studies, including the liberal arts
R. Hirsch as a Modern Orthodox Leader
Regarding two important issues, R. Hirsch differs from much of Modern Orthodox thought. He was not a Zionist and taught that the Jews should not actively try to end their exile (letter 16 in The Nineteen Letters). He emphasized the Torah as far more fundamental than the land. The bond of Israel's unity was at no time land and soil but only the common task of keeping the Torah” (letter 16). In fact, the ark of the covenant's poles were never removed in order to indicate that the Torah can always successfully transfer to another location (see commentary on Shemot 25:15). In all fairness, it must be noted that the shulchan and menora, representing the fullness of material and spiritual flowering according to R. Hirsch, have their poles removed since those goals are rooted in the land of Israel. R. Hirsch certainly did not deny the significance of our Holy Land, but it was not a major theme in his thought and he did not endorse the Zionist project.
Why Feminist Orthdox Rabbis are evil and possibly heretics
I just finished speaking with another young man whose life has been destroyed because of a divorce in which his wife was guided by a well known Chareidi Feminist Gadol. This Gadol after listening only to the wife advised her how to make her husband miserable and alienate the children from him.
Why does this problem of destructive Rabbinic advice - continue to occur as readers of this Blog have seen many times over the years. Why do these rabbis who are well respected as scholars etc. etc. feel comfortable with facilitating a hostile and cruel breakup of a once loving family. As well as the psychological harm to the children and husband.
This Gadol was asked why he gave advise to the wife after hearing only her side of the story? He responded by saying this is the way psak works - you given an answer according to the facts that are presented. If the husband got to him first he would simply accept everything that he was told. In other words he is not responsible for the wife's destructive behavior since he was simply following Standard Procedure. It is not his job to find out the truth
It is like going to a brain surgeon and telling him not only the diagnosis but how and where he needs to operate.
One possible answer other than saying they are too busy to care about the horrible consequences of their intervention is to say they are ashamed that the halacha favors the husband. Since they are chareidi they can't change the halacha so they counterbalance it with legal and psychological solutions in order to make the sides more equivalent. However the result is Frankenstein's monster which benefits no one
Thus the concern is not truth or justice but rather viewing the husband as an evil male bully who needs to be taught a lesson - even if it means sacrificing the psychological and spiritual well being of the children
It is time for all rabbis (and therapists) to accept that what is needed and required is what is best for the children and not view themselves as champions for the damsel in distress or the nebach husband. It is time to acknowledge that once a hostile family breakup has happened it is often impossible to undo the harm.
Trump is getting wilder and wilder, but the White House race remains a toss-up
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/23/politics/trump-harris-tight-race-analysis/index.html
Trump’s comeback attempt is, after all, a stunning story considering he left office in disgrace after inciting an attack by his supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and after refusing to accept he lost the election. Trump, who was twice impeached, is a convicted felon who is facing more grave criminal charges. It’s inconceivable that any other politician could have survived such a torrent of scandal and still be within reach of the Oval Office again.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Scholars are Respected Even if Poor
Esther Rabbah (02:04) You scholars command respect through your learning, but we--if we have not the money, no one respects us.
Netanyahu planning to remove 200 NIS bill from circulation
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/396470
Knesset's Subcommittee on Advancing the Fight Against Crime in the Arab Sector recommends canceling 200 NIS bill, as part of efforts to eradicate black money.
Lindsey Graham Gives Donald Trump Advice About Jewish Voters
https://www.newsweek.com/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-jewish-voters-election-1957482
On Meet the Press, Graham, a staunch Trump ally, encouraged the former president to focus on persuading Jewish voters on the issues.
"I'm sure Jewish American voters are concerned about the same things as all voters are. To the Jewish American, I'm sure they do care about Israel. there's been no better friend of Israel [than the U.S.]," Graham told host Kristen Welker.
He continued, "Talk about crime, talk about inflation, talk about border. That's the way you persuade people in this country. We have an obligation to persuade people to vote for us."
Tucker’s Problem and Ours
https://mishpacha.com/tuckers-problem-and-ours/
WHY DOES THIS MATTER? For one thing, Tucker Carlson is widely considered one of the most influential right-wing voices in America, particularly among young listeners whose knowledge of history in general, and of World War II in particular, can be assumed to be minimal.
He sat in the same box with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance at the Republican convention. Finally, J.D. Vance is slated to participate in the Tucker Carlson Live tour in Hershey, Pennsylvania on September 23.
That participation by Vance is political malpractice of a type increasingly common in the Trump campaign. Another of Tucker’s guests on that tour is the infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. That alone should have been enough to alert Vance to stay far away from such a freak show.
But Carlson did not just associate with Cooper; he promoted his views with his effusive praise of Cooper as a historian and by failing to push back against him at any point.
Were Vance just appearing with someone with a different stance on tariffs than that of the Trump campaign, no one would object. But by appearing with Tucker Carlson, he risks legitimizing what the great historian of anti-Semitism once called “the lethal obsession.”
That should not happen.
Police arrest doctor from Haifa for allegedly starting wave of forest fires in the Carmel
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/crime-in-israel/article-821071
The police suspect that Bashir is behind more arson attacks, including a series of arson attacks at several hotspots that caused fires in a park in Carmel on Sunday and possibly previously.
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