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.
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.
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.
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.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein berated Tel Aviv party-goers Thursday morning, saying that those who had taken part in mass gatherings the night before, a day ahead of a nationwide nightly curfew over Purim, were responsible for future coronavirus infections and deaths in Israel.
As Israel began its vaccine rollout late last year, some activists and foreign media outlets criticized Israel for not including the Palestinians, arguing that under international law, Israel is the “occupying power” and must vaccinate them.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297474
NBC on Wednesday pulled an episode of the show Nurses from its digital platforms amid criticism over a scene that has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic for the way it portrayed a Hasidic patient who refused a bone graft from non-Jews, an Arab or a woman, Fox News reports.
The scene in question appeared on a February 9 episode of Nurses and featured a Hasidic Jewish patient who needed a bone graft from a deceased donor in order to treat a serious leg injury. The patient’s father then chimes in, "A goyim leg. From anyone. An Arab, a woman?"
The National Council of Young Israel replaces its entire executive board, a stark move away from its vocally pro-Donald Trump leadership, whose statements have led to controversy in the Orthodox synagogue association.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/patriot-party-trump/index.html
The "Patriot Party" is somewhere between a meme and a movement of Trump loyalists.
In the last days of his presidency, Donald Trump floated the idea of starting a new party, CNN has reported. The Wall Street Journal reported he wanted to call it the Patriot Party. Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller then told CNN that Trump is not currently considering launching a third party.
