Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Loving wife children and master - slavery


The only clear expression that a wife is loved is

שמות פרק כא פסוק ה
וְאִם־אָמֹ֤ר יֹאמַר֙ הָעֶ֔בֶד אָהַ֙בְתִּי֙ אֶת־אֲדֹנִ֔י אֶת־אִשְׁתִּ֖י וְאֶת־בָּנָ֑י לֹ֥א אֵצֵ֖א חָפְשִֽׁי: 
 a jewish thief sold into slavery
if he is married to a Jewish woman his master can give him a non jewish slave to breed other slaves
after 6 years if he declares he loves his master his non Jewish partner ans non Jewish children 
he can remain as a slave  with this master partner and children

why is there no place where the Torah talks about a man loving his Jewish wife and children?!

could not find any discussion in the commentaries!


Yevamos(62b): Our Rabbis taught: Concerning a man who loves his wife as himself, who honours her more than himself, who guides his sons and daughters in the right path and arranges for them to be married near the period of their puberty, Scripture says, And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace.49 
 according to Ramban is a Rabbinic decree


Rambam(Hilchos Ishus 15:19): And thus our Sages commanded that a man should honor his wife more than himself and love him as himself. If he has money he should increase her welfare according to the money. Furthermore he should not place too much fear on her and he should speak with her pleasantly and he should not be sad or angry.




Making of a Gadol (page 819) Yehiel-Yankev's talmid R' Pinhas Biberfeld: When the Alter tried to convince R' Weinberg not to separate from his wife, he responded, "Where is the drugstore which sells a potion for love?" It may be assumed that R' Weinberg's purpose in repeating this conversation to his talmid was to convey this very idea - that by making the attempt to get him to stay with his wife, the Alter had demonstrated that he did not grasp what degree of compatibility was expected between couples in the new times. Even the extreme forbearance that the Alter knew R' Weinberg was possessed of could not hold a relatively modem marriage together. 

רש"ר הירש בראשית פרק כד פסוק סז
(סז) אף זו תכונה, אשר, ברוך ה', לא ניטשטשה בזרע אברהם ושרה, יצחק ורבקה! ככל שהוסיפה להיות אשתו, כן גדלה אהבתו! כדוגמת נישואין אלה של הבן היהודי הראשון, כן נוסדים הנישואין, רוב הנישואין בישראל, לא על יסוד התשוקה, אלא על פי שיקול התבונה. הורים וקרובים נמלכים בעצמם, אם הצעירים מתאימים זה לזו; משום כך גוברת האהבה, ככל שהם מרבים להתודע זה לזו. אך רוב הנישואין בעולם הלא - יהודי נגמרים על - פי מה שהם קוראים "אהבה", ואין לו לאדם אלא להציץ בתיאורי הנובילות הלקוחים מהחיים, כדי להיוכח מיד, מה רבה שם התהום בין ה"אהבה" שלפני הנישואין לבין זו שלאחריהם, איך הכל אחר - כך תפל וחסר טעם, מה שונה הכל מתיאור הדמיון, וכו'. "אהבה" זו היתה עוורת, ועל כל שעל בעתיד - אכזבה; לא כן הנישואין בישראל, שעליהם הוא אומר: ויקח את רבקה ותהי לו לאשה ויאהבה! שם החתונה איננה שיא הפריחה, אלא השורש לאהבה!


Orchos Tzadikim(Shaar 5 – Love): The love of women should be in the following manner. He should think that she is saving him from sin, and keeping him distant from adultery and through her he is fulfilling the mitzva of having children, and she raises his children, and she works for him the entire day, and she prepares food and other needs of the household. Because of her activities he is free to learn Torah and to be involved in other mitzvos. She is helping him to serve G‑d.




Kedushas Levi(Bereishis 224:67): And Yitzchok brought her into his mother’s tent and she became his wife and he loved her. What was the reason that the Torah tells us that Yitzchok loved Rivkah? A possible answer is based on the fact that there are two types of love a man has for a woman. The first type is the physical lust that a man has for a woman because he wants to satisfy his desires. Because this type of love is solely concerned with what he wants,  it is actually not love for the woman at all but entirely love of himself. The second type is the love which is not concerned with satisfying his physical lusts but rather is because she is an instrument that enables him to fulfill the commands of his Creator – thus he loves her just as he loves the other mitzvos. This is called love of his wife. That is the meaning of “And Yitzchok loved her.” He had no thoughts regarding physical lust but only loved her because she enabled him to fulfill the mitzvos of G‑d.




Netziv(Bereishis 24:64): And Rivkah lifted her eyes – and she saw Yitzchok while he was still praying and he was at that moment like an angel of G‑d – extremely awesome. and she fell off her camel – Because of her great fear and awe. However she did not know who she was afraid of. If she had been sitting with Eliezer the servant on the same camel and she had been sitting behind him then she would have relaxed when she would have seen the man go and greet the servant and seen them talking together like all men. Then eventually when she would have been informed who it was – her fear would already have dissipated. But since she was sitting together with Eliezer she didn’t wait – but asked immediately who it was out of great fear. Who is that man - that makes me agitated and frightened? We see in Bereishis Rabbah that the term “that” implies someone fearsome and frightening. Therefore when she heard that it was her husband she took out her veil and covered her face out of her great fear and embarrassment because she realized she wasn’t fit to be his wife. From that moment on that fear was permanently planted in her heart and she was not able to have the relationship with Yitzchok that Sarah had with Avraham and Rachel had with Yaakov. In particular when the others objected to something their husbands had done they were not embarrassed to speak firmly with them.  Rivkah was different. All of this served as a necessary preliminary to the events that would follow in Parshas Toldos when Yitzchok and Rivkah had strongly different views. Nonetheless Rivkah could not find the courage to stand up to Yitzchok and defend her views – even though it was true that Esav was a fraud. The same thing happened at the time of giving the berachos. In fact all of this was the means by which G‑d caused the berachos to be given to Yaakov in this manner as we will explain later. All was done with Divine Providence from the beginning - that Rivkah should arrive when Yitzchok was praying and thus she should see him as an awesome and frightening spectacle – it all happened according to G‑d’s Will.



Rav S. R. Hirsch(Bereishis 24:67):... A man’s love for his wife grows with time. An example is the marriage of the son of the first Jew. This is the way it is with the majority of Jewish marriages. They are not built on the basis of lust (cheshek) but rather on careful deliberations. The parents and relatives make the decision as to whether these young people are compatible with each other. As a consequence of this objective compatibility, love grows with the marriage as the couple spends more time together. In contrast the majority of non-Jewish marriages in the world are based on what they call “love”. One has only to look around to have clear proof that there is a great chasm between the “love” prior to marriage and that which exists after the marriage. One sees how quickly things change after marriage and are so different than what people imagined they would be. This “love” is blind and false. In contrast the Jewish marriages are described by this verse, “And he took Rivkah and he married her and he came to love her.” The Jewish wedding is not the result of the flowering of love but is the cause of it.



Rav Chaim Paltiel(Bereishis 24:67): And Yitzchok loved her This statement of the Torah is surprising – does that mean that originally he hated her? A possible answer is when he had the first sexual intercourse with her - he did not find signs of virginity. That was becasue she had fallen off the camel when she first saw him and this caused her to lose the signs of virginity and therefore she had the halachic status of one was lost the signs because of a physical blow (muchas eitz) – not because of intercourse. As a result of not finding the signs of virginity he hated her because he suspected that she had had relations with other men. She protested that she had done nothing wrong with any man. Eliezar also defended her innocence of wrong doing. She explained that when she fell of the camel, the force had caused her to lose the signs of viriginity. She added, “Perhaps G-d will do a miracle and I will find the signs of virginity.” They went to the field where she had fallen and they found the signs of virginity on a stone and a dove was sitting on them in order to preserve them from the sun.





Netziv(Bereishis 24:67): And he loved her – This that it says that he married Rivka is not proof  that he loved her. That is because he was forced to marry her since it was not easy to find a virgin specifically from his family. Therefore it was necessary for the Torah to inform us explicitly that in fact he found a special loving relationship with her that led to his being comforted from the distress of the death of his mother.



Yad Rama(Sanhedrin 76b): The braissa says that if a man loves his wife as himself – that means that he should have mercy on her as he is merciful to himself but more than himself is not relevant. That is because love is something which is in the heart and a person is not able to love another more than he loves himself. However regarding honor that is something for which it is possible that he can honor her more than himself with clothing which is nicer than what he gets for himself.

Netanyahu still 'King Bibi' on Israel's margins

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/276513

 Mizrahi voters and more recent immigrant groups like Russian speakers have felt their Jewish identity threatened by the left's conception of Israel as "a modern, Western state," he said.
"Likud gives [Mizrahim] the impression that their individual lives are part of the great history of Israel and the Jewish people," the professor added.
Mizrachi voters also personally trust Netanyahu and believe "he can defend the interests of Israel and theirs," he said.
As for the Prime Minister's upcoming trial on accusations of accepting improper gifts and offering a media mogul benefits in exchange for positive coverage, Matslaoui was dismissive.
"Bibi got cigars and champagne and his wife got some jewelry... So what!" the trader said.
"Bibi is our prince."
 

Trump tightens his grip on intelligence

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/26/trump-tightens-his-grip-on-intelligence-117451

 But it also revealed a deeper trend: namely, the steps Trump has taken to shield the public from intelligence that could be politically damaging for him, and keep the flow of information coming out of the agencies firmly under his control.
 

With Hawks Like This, Who Needs Leftists?

BS"D

With Hawks Like This, Who Needs Leftists?


1 Adar, 5780 °°  Feb. 26, '20
Opinion and Perspective,

By Binyomin Feinberg,

FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~

To check for updates, on first view of this article, as well as throughout the week,  please visit https://saveHischildren.blogspot.com -

or/and see updates for month of Shvat '80:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lddXuWtrhFZxLVA4__PVS7Zo53zNRPk8Cz7nIfxSXBE
~~~~~ 


The Israeli Army recently released a new Five-Year Plan for a major military upgrade, named "Momentum" (https://www.meforum.org/60436/the-idf-implements-mef-victory-concept ). Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who approved the plan and presented it to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, explained that the plan "will allow the IDF to strike the enemy faster, more intensely, with a stronger destructive capacity, thus overcoming the enemy and bringing victory," adding that "The plan puts the principle of victory back at the top of the list of priorities." It is designed to increase offensive and defensive capabilities sevenfold.

The cost is projected to be NIS 30 billion ($8.75 Billion) - annually - to bolster Israeli military "air, ground, sea, and cyber capabilities, its intelligence superiority, and technological prowess."

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi presented the plan, stressing the urgent nature of the threats Israel now faces, saying "they won't wait" for Israel to resolve its electoral crisis. Israelis are expected to vote at the beginning of March, for the third national election in a year, although without much prospect of differing results (perhaps illustrating Einstein's famous maxim, regarding repetition of the same actions while expecting different results).

It was reported that "Momentum focuses on strengthening the military's war readiness, placing an emphasis on the operational edge of the IDF's elite point units in all corps, upgrading the quantity and quality of the munitions used but the Air Force, and transforming the army into a deadly and multidimensional technological force across all spheres of battle, including cyber and electronic warfare."

"Implementing this plan will make the IDF exponentially faster, more precise, and deadlier," Kochavi was quoted.

However, the tough talk bubbling over this ambitious plan appears to contrast a bit with another IDF milestone, of sorts. As Michael Peck reported in The National Interest (January 28, 2020), in an article titled "The Israeli Army Is Unprepared for a Ground War with Iran and Hezbollah" (https://www.meforum.org/60343/the-israeli-army-is-unprepared-for-a-ground), the Army is suffering from an acute neglect of some basic military needs.

The article opens:

"If Israel has to go to war tomorrow against Iran or its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, there's a problem. The Israeli mechanized division that would defend Israel's northern border, or enter Syria or Lebanon to eject Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, [is] in bad shape.  The 319th Division, stationed in northern Israel, is short of equipment such as tanks, and the equipment it does have is in poor condition, according to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) audit cited by Israeli news site Ynet.

"According to the audit's findings, 52 percent of combat vehicles are unfit for use and there is a 20 percent shortage of weapons and night-vision equipment for soldiers," Ynet said.

"The auditors found that many armored vehicles were lacking during proper maintenance checks, with 68 of them sitting uncovered and unprotected against the elements. Dozens of other vehicles were found unusable due to faulty tires and broken engines, ...

According to an audit by the IDF itself, 52 percent of the 319th Division's combat vehicles are unfit for use."

The Ynet expose  sported photos of dilapidated military vehicles, and vehicles unprotected by tarps against the elements.

Auditors identified similar neglect of the 319th Division's support units, as well. "The Northern Command's logistics unit, upon which the 319th Division relies in times of war, has a shortage in communications equipment and vehicles for medical evacuation, and the division's medical unit hasn't had a commanding officer or lieutenant for almost a year."

"One reason for the 319th Division's woes is that there isn't enough equipment to meet both operational and training needs. 

'The audit found that about half of the 319th Division's Mark 4 Merkava tanks and almost 100 communication devices have been lent to the Armored Corps training unit, located more than 350 kilometers [217 miles] from their main storage and maintenance areas in the north," Ynet said.

"These tanks are worn out, impairing their emergency and combat capabilities. A high-ranking officer in the IDF Northern Command said that the issue of lending equipment and armored vehicles is a military decision, citing the Mark 4's production lines being incapable of accommodating both the standard and training units."

Mr. Peck cogently provides a broader perspective, adding the observation that "the 319th Division's woes reflect a larger pattern in the IDF. In the 1973 October War, Israeli units hastily mobilized to stem the surprise Arab invasion found themselves with shortages of equipment and gear that had been poorly maintained."

Mr. Peck doesn't address this point, but we'd be amiss to omit the fact that the leftist Israeli Establishment was considered criminally negligent in ignoring warnings about a serious Arab attack prior to the Yom Kippur war. Arab invaders and leftist Jewish arrogance together killed over 2,500 of the Israeli Army's best young soldiers, many of whom were killed fighting heroically while being massively outnumbered. Reports like these raise the question of whether the Israeli government is repeating history.


"In the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, Israeli troops suffered from shortages of basic items, from food and waterto ammunition, as well as poorly trained logistics personnel.

"The IDF may have only hours to prepare for battle along Israel's northern border.

"Ironically, the IDF – which prides itself on flexibility to rapidly adapt to the chaos of battle – bases its approach on the mission-oriented tactics of the World War II German army. Yet despite being a virtuoso on the battlefield, the Wehrmacht's logistics skills were often lacking: German troops constantly ran out of fuel, ammunition and food during Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.

"... as this writer learned while observing an Israeli armored brigade on maneuvers along the Golan Heights in February 2019, the IDF may have only hours to prepare for battle along Israel's northern border.  Time to fix mistakes is a luxury Israel does not have," the article concludes.

(The author of that article, Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest, and a Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum.)
***

However, the exquisitely blended blundering bluster of the Army should be measured against the tangible steps the Army has indeed been courageously taking in confronting impending national security threats: All-Women tank crews.  Last week (at the approach to the consummation of the Holy Weeks of Shovavim), it was reported that the Israeli Army is introducing all female tank combat crews, apparently to protect the country from ISIS attacks in the South, and the like. No, we couldn't have made this up: https://www.jns.org/the-idfs-pioneering-all-female-tank-crews-provide-strategic-protection-for-israels-south/#

Apparently, the Israeli Army has upgraded the religious standards of their military "Equality" crusade. No "Ta'aroves" (gender mixing) in these tanks, R"L, nor any need for those pesky mechiztos, like those hanging in some Chareidi buses.

Why in the world? Has recent exposure of the human-trafficking agenda of the Army's female draft prompted Teshuva (repentance) at the highest levels? Has Draft Office Commander of Vice Avner Lotati finally been sent to work in Hollywood?   Well, if so, why are there an estimated several dozen girls still languishing in military prisons Four and Six, wishing to avoid conscription into the Mizron Tzahali Paradigm?

Well, perhaps, this Army frumming initiative may have been reciprocal in nature.  Perhaps this overture is the Army's way of telegraphing "hakarat hatov" (a "thank you") in response to recent cooperation by a handful of trailblazing frum women, who've lately been spotted providing the IDF free headhunter services, by naively sending ostensibly "weak" girls into Rayon Dat interrogations.  (Presumably, this is being done with the best of intentions - to save the "weak" girls from falling into the Army (the latter being the very goal-by-design of the Rayon Dat).)

But questions still abound. Will the female tank personnel be provided tefillin, to actualize Spiritual Equality with the men? Will there be an accompanying Yo'etzet attached to every unit? What about an Ayin-Horah lady on call, if fighting ever gets really difficult for these neshei chayil? Another major question remaining is: will these Equality-showcasing units units be open to heterosexual women as well?...

Survey: every fifth European believes a Jewish cabal runs the world

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/ryftAnm4U

 Fifth of respondents also say Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for personal gain; 1 in 4 say Israel's policies make them understand anti-Semitism

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President.



How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election.

Trump’s Most Dangerous Destruction Yet

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/trumps-most-dangerous-destruction-yet/607021/

What the president is doing to America’s intelligence community could have enormous repercussions for the 2020 election and the country’s preparedness for threats from around the world.

 

Trump's wishful thinking won't stop coronavirus impact

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/25/opinions/trump-downplay-coronavirus-ghitis/index.html

 President Donald Trump keeps telling us not to worry, that the fast-spreading COVID-19, the coronavirus, is "going to go away," soon, probably by "April," and that a vaccine is "close." The experts, including federally-employed top scientists, say he's wrong on all these counts. (Please don't fire them!)
Why is the President lying? Take a guess. Because he thinks the virus, and fear of contagion, is bad for him. On that count, he's absolutely correct. Unfortunately, claiming that the virus is not a big problem does nothing to ease the infection rate or the economic impact that is sure to span the globe before long.
 

Jewish academic: Under attack, US ultra-Orthodox are misunderstood, ‘terrified’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-academic-under-attack-us-ultra-orthodox-are-misunderstood-terrified/

 Do these communities feel the anti-Semitism coming from the right and the left?
Yes. There is a perfect storm right now of many factors. There seems to be something in our society that is allowing these ideas to intensify.
Trump is a complicated thing because on the one hand a lot of Orthodox Jews really like him for their perception of his support for Israel, but at the same time he gives press passes to virulent anti-Semites. He’s winking at anti-Semitism.
On the left Louis Farrakhan has gained pronounced influence. He was gone for years but recently his profile has grown. And if you don’t know better, if you don’t know anyone Jewish, you just sort of accept what he says.
It’s a scary time. On the one hand, Jews have never had it better. On other hand, they are under daily attack. It’s a paradox, but it’s true.
 

Syrian Refugees Fleeing Assad's Onslaught in Idlib Have Nowhere Left to Hide

https://time.com/5790278/syria-idlib-humanitarian-catastrophe-assad/


Although President Trump said in a Feb. 15 phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Russia should halt its support for regime “atrocities”, the White House has been near silent on the bloodbath in Idlib, where human rights groups have documented the death of nearly 2,000 civilians in the past year.
“The Trump Administration has publicly assured the Russians and the Assad regime that they will not have to deal with U.S. military strikes aimed at protecting civilians from mass homicide and state terror,” Frederic Hof, who advised President Barack Obama on Syria told TIME recently. “For people like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, this is a bright green light to do as they wish.”
 

Would Sanders, Bloomberg or Warren move the US embassy back to Tel Aviv?

https://www.jpost.com/Us-Elections/Would-Sanders-Bloomberg-or-Warren-move-the-US-embassy-back-to-Tel-Aviv-618842

"What I happen to believe is that right now, sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country," Sanders said.


 

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Trump and Weinstein are both on trial. Only one is still considered too powerful to fail

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/26/16526922/donald-trump-impeachment-harvey-weinstein-sexual-assault

“It’s not only the Republicans in Congress” who were willing to give Trump a pass, said Lawless. “It’s also the country. People think this behavior is unacceptable, but when push comes to shove, there are circumstances under which they’ll tolerate it because there are other things that matter more to them.”

Trump lashes out at liberal supreme court justices and demands recusals

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/25/trump-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-ruth-bader-ginsburg

 It would be exceptional for any supreme court justice to recuse themselves from all cases involving the White House.
otomayor’s dissent was written in the style justices use after losing a divided ruling. It depicted accurately how the Trump administration has asked the supreme court to intervene in cases playing out in lower courts at a higher rate than George W Bush and Barack Obama combined.
“Claiming one emergency after another, the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each,” Sotomayor wrote. “And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow.”
Sotomayor was critical of the court allowing this to happen, and wrote that such interventions usually fall in the Trump administration’s favor.

 In November 2018, Trump’s relentless focus on the courts prompted supreme court chief justice John Roberts to intervene. After Trump said a federal judge was biased because of the president who appointed him, Roberts denied the assertion.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” said the conservative appointed by George W Bush in 2005. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
Trump ignored the rebuke.

 

"Orthodox" gay marriage and the path to destruction

https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-endorsing-same-sex-marriages-a-us-orthodox-rabbi-performs-his-first/   


Rabbi Avraham Gordimer,
 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25249

 Last week, Avram Mlotek, a graduate of Open Orthodoxy's  Rabbinical Training Instittue,Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT),, posted:
“I had the privilege of officiating a wedding on Sunday. In many ways, it was like any other simcha I've officiated: joyous, Jewish, spiritual, full of love. What made it different was that they were two men who joined in sacred, covenantal relationship. This coming week Jewish communities will hear two words uttered in synagogues across the globe: naaseh v'nishma, we will do and we will listen. We will act and we will understand. As I shared to the chatanim, the grooms, it is their passion, charge and desire for action which made this holy day possible. While some may not yet or ever fully comprehend, it is their actions, deeds and maasim tovim, their mitzvot, which will speak for themselves with inherent worth and value. Mazel tov!”