Monday, April 4, 2022

Corpses 'All Over' Streets, Yards as Russia Retreats From Kyiv Area: Report

 https://www.newsweek.com/corpses-all-over-streets-yards-russia-retreats-kyiv-area-report-1694506

As the Russian military retreats from the Kyiv oblast, the carnage left behind is becoming more visible. There are reports of civilians being shot to death while there hands were tied behind their back. Bodies of naked women were found on a highway and corpses have been spotted in yards, in cars and in the streets near the Ukrainian capital.

"Russians are shooting civilians after tying their hands behind their backs," wrote Anastasiia Lapatina, a journalist for the Kyiv Independent. "Dead bodies are all over the Kyiv oblast, on the streets, in cars, in people's yards. Mass graves are full of unidentified bodies. Many families will never know what happened to their loved ones."

Lawmaker falsely claiming Trump caught bin Laden perfectly sums up today's GOP

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/03/opinions/lisa-mcclain-trump-bin-laden-obeidallah/index.html

GOP Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan was apparently so desperate to suck up to Donald Trump at his rally this weekend in her state that she falsely boasted to the crowd of adoring Trump fans that the former President had "caught Osama bin Laden." In reality, bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, when President Barack Obama was in the White House and Trump was hosting the season of "The Celebrity Apprentice" featuring Gary Busey and Meat Loaf.

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Polio outbreak in Israel caused by lack of vaccinations - Knesset Health Committee

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-703081

The recent outbreak of polio cases in Israel has been caused by a lack of vaccination against the disease, Israel’s Head of Public Health Services Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis told a Knesset Health Committee meeting on Sunday morning.

Eight children have been diagnosed with polio in Israel since a four-year-old child in the Jerusalem area was discovered to have symptoms on March 8. Since then, the Health Ministry has launched an extensive operation to detect new cases and bring up rates of vaccination in communities and areas where they are low.

During a Sunday morning Health Committee meeting led by MK Idit Silman, Alroy-Preis offered insight into the challenges that health officials are facing in trying to contain any potential outbreak of the disease.


“It is a challenge for several reasons,” she explained. “First, due to fake news, suddenly everything has a question mark over it. Even vaccines which we have had for years and which we’ve seen eliminate diseases, suddenly they are being questioned.”

Rambam rejects Chazal because he was a rationalist

 Shomer Emunim HaKadmon (1:13): It is quite obvious to us and is clearly stated in the gemora and medrash in many places that there is a power to names and amulets to do amazing things e.g., Shabbos (61a) and Yevamos (49b)…Rashba (1:220). Nevertheless, the Rambam denies that this is true and strongly ridicules those who believe in the power of names to do anything. We see this in Moreh Nevuchim (1:61–62). Thus, he does not find the testimony of the gemora credible. It is also known that our Sages received traditions concerning demons and witchcraft as is well known from the gemora and medrashim. Nevertheless, the Rambam decided that they are nonsense and stupidity and that all who believe that they are real but the Torah has prohibited them is a fool and idiot and is included amongst the ignorant women and children (Hilchos Avoda Zara 11:16)... Even though the issue of magic is mentioned in the Torah itself in a number of places - nevertheless the rationalists reject their validity and produce far-fetched explanations to these verses in order not to violate their rationalism. They are not concerned with the words of our Sages that are clearly stated in a number of places which clearly acknowledge the reality of demons and magic. Their rejection of these things is that according to the rationalistic understanding it is simply impossible that these things exist. This is the approach of the rationalists. They will simply not accept the validity of anything said by our Sages which contradicts rational human understanding…

Rambam (Tefilin 5:4) It is a universal custom to write the word Shaddai (Almighty) on the other side of the Mezuzah, opposite the blank space between the two sections. As this word is written on the outside, the practice is unobjectionable. They, however, who write names of angels, holy names, a Biblical text or inscriptions usual on seals, within the Mezuzah, are among those who have no portion in the world to come. For these fools not only fail to fulfill the commandment but they treat an important precept that expresses the Unity of God, the love of Him, and His worship, as if it were an amulet to promote their own personal interests; for, according to their foolish minds, the Mezuzah is something that will secure for them advantage in the vanities of the world.*A reproof to those who sell Mezuzoth to be worn as amulets ! 

Avoda Zara (11a) When Onkelos the son of Kalonymus became a proselyte, the Emperor sent a contingent of Roman soldiers after him, but he enticed them by citing scriptural verses and they became converted to Judaism. Thereupon, the Emperor sent another Roman cohort after him, bidding them not to say anything to him. As they were about to take him away with them, he said to them: ‘Let me tell you just an ordinary thing: In a procession the torchlighter carries the light in front of the torchbearer, the torchbearer in front of the leader, the leader in front of the governor, the governor in front of the chief officer; but does the chief officer carry the light in front of the people that follow?’ ‘No!’ they replied. Said he: ‘Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, does carry the light before Israel, for Scripture says. And the Lord went before them . . . in a pillar of fire to give them light.’ Then they, too, became converted. Again he sent another cohort ordering them not to enter into any conversation whatever with him. So they took hold of him; and as they were walking on he saw the mezuzah which was fixed on the door-frame and he placed his hand on it saying to them: ‘Now what is this?’ and they replied: ‘You tell us then.’ Said he, ‘According to universal custom, the mortal king dwells within, and his servants keep guard on him without; but in the case of the Holy One, blessed be He, it is His servants who dwell within whilst He keeps guard on them from without; as it is said: The Lord shall guard thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and for evermore.’ Then they, too, were converted to Judaism. He sent for him no more.

Zohar (3 266b)  R. Abba further discoursed on the verse: “The Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and for evermore” (Ps. CXXI, 8). He said: ‘That God shall keep thy going forth we understand; but what need is there to say, “thy coming in”? For when a man goes into his house he is in no danger? What it means, however, is that he who affixes the holy sign to his house with the words of the Holy Name is protected against all danger. The one who dwells at the door of his house accompanies him when he issues forth, and when he returns it proclaims before him: Have a care for the honour of the image of the Holy King-all this on account of the Holy Name which is impressed on his door, so that not only is a man protected in his house, but God protects him both when he goes out and when he comes in, as it is written, “The Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming in”, etc. But as for the evil spirit that abides between the doorposts, woe to the man who does not know how to guard against it by impressing on the door of his house the Holy Name that it may be with him, for this spirit has three hundred and sixty-five assistants, one for every day of the year, which accuse him above and below, trying to mislead him by day and troubling his dreams by night. When he goes out they accuse him; when he comes in they place their hands on his shoulders and say: Woe to So-and-so who has thrown off the control of his Master, woe to him in this world and in the world to come! Therefore the sons of the true faith should be stamped throughout with the impress of their Master to scare away all the sides of the “evil species”, that they may be protected in this world and the next.’


Divine Spirit and Physical Power: Rabbi Shlomo Goren and the Military Ethic of the Israel Defense Forc


This claim explains why, in order to create the aforementioned corpus of military ethics, Rabbi Goren utilized a broader and significantly different variety of sources than generally used in Jewish legal literature. He turned directly to the narrative portions of the Bible, an approach that is not accepted in rabbinic literature, which views the Mishnah and Talmud as the essence of the canon. Similarly, Goren was wont to quote and rely on apocryphal pre-rabbinic literature from the Second Temple period, such as The Books of the Maccabees and Megillat Ta’anit, works that are not recognized as normative sources by the Rabbinical Sages and are perhaps even considered illegitimate as sources for rabbinic decisions. He also referred to the works of the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus Flavius to derive information on the conduct of war during the Second Temple period. There is a logic behind Goren’s use of these sources. First of all, as mentioned, the legitimization of the use of force, its purposes, and its limitations lies at the heart of the Biblical experience. In addition, these are sources from politically active periods in Jewish history — the First Temple and Second Temple periods — and therefore relate to the issues that arose with the renewal of Jewish sovereignty, discussions of which are lacking from the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods and certainly from the later rabbinic period.38 It seems,

Daily Update – Poliovirus (Poliomyelitis) Infection and Vaccination

 https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/27022022-04

The following positive/suspected poliovirus (poliomyelitis) samples have been collected in Jerusalem and its surroundings so far:
Children with positive culture and symptoms – 1 unvaccinated
Children with positive culture and without symptoms – 3 unvaccinated
Children with suspected initial test and without symptoms (final testing stages) – 3 unvaccinated.

All positive/suspected children are unvaccinated.

Putin is making the same mistakes that doomed Hitler when he invaded the Soviet Union

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/02/world/putin-invasion-mistakes-hitler-blake-cec/index.html

"The evidence suggests that Putin thought he could win a quick victory with the deployment of special forces and airborne units," says Ian Ona Johnson, a professor of military history at the University of Notre Dame. "So when they were forced to go to a much more traditional war involving essentially most of the Russian army along the Ukrainian border, they weren't prepared for some of the logistics."

'Sadistic’ man who ‘tormented’ wife is first in England to be jailed over get refusal

 https://www.thejc.com/news/news/sadistic'-man-who-'tormented'-wife-is-first-in-england-to-be-jailed-over-get-refusal-1WkHeCtIkaXV3m9cDcSYQT\

For the first time an English court has jailed a man for coercive behaviour that included obstructing a get – or religious divorce - for his wife.

Alan Alti Moher received an 18-month sentence at Southwark Crown Court on Friday after having pleaded guilty to one count of coercive or controlling behaviour in a private prosecution brought by his wife Caroline.

Judge Adam Hiddleston accepted that he had “tormented” Mrs Moher - from whom he has been civilly divorced since 2016 - over a number of years.

תקדים: בית הדין קבע - האישה גרושה, הגבר לא

 https://www.ynet.co.il/judaism/article/r14yu5mmc

גט סלקטיבי: ל-ynet נודע שבית הדין הרבני בירושלים קבע כי אישה שנפרדה מבן זוגה, תוכל להינשא לאחר – אך הגבר שעיגן אותה במשך שנים, יישאר כלוא בנישואיהם הכושלים. כך הגיעו הדיינים להכרעה התקדימית

In first, Britain jails businessman for refusing to grant his wife a Jewish divorce

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/manchester-businessman-imprisoned-for-refusing-to-grant-wife-jewish-divorce/

An English court on Friday sentenced a Jewish businessman to 18 months in prison for refusing to grant his wife a religious divorce.

Alan Moher, 57, and his wife Caroline separated in 2016 after 20 years of marriage. The couple, who have three children, were granted a civil divorce in 2019.
However, the Manchester property firm owner refused to grant his wife a get, which Jewish law mandates must be given freely without coercion and prevents her from remarrying until he does.

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Can a godol be evil?

 Sanhedrin (36a) Rabba, son of Rava, says, and some say that it was Rabbi Hillel, son of Rabbi Valles, who says: From the days of Moses and until the days of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi we do not find unparalleled greatness in Torah knowledge and unparalleled greatness in secular matters, including wealth and high political office, combined in one place, i.e., in a single individual.

Trumpian Conservatives Hold an ‘Emergency’ Meeting Over Russia

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/02/trump-conservatives-emergency-meeting-gop-russia-00022419

When it came to the actual events in Russia and Ukraine, the panelists grappled with the issue more uneasily. Some castigated the media for demonizing anyone who had the audacity to suggest that America should not rush to war. Lee Smith, who writes for Real Clear Investigations and Tablet, defended conservative commentator Candace Owens, who, among other things, blamed America for the war in Ukraine. According to Smith, the true implication of the brouhaha stirred up by Owens’ remarks is that “Donald Trump supporters are disloyal. American voters, at least half the country, are disloyal.” This “rolls over” into Jan. 6, he added. “Anyone who didn’t vote for Biden” ends up being unfairly branded as “an insurrectionist or a domestic terrorist.”

Friday, April 1, 2022

Fighting Austrian court and heartbreak, UK mom renews decade-long battle to see kids

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/fighting-austrian-court-and-heartbreak-uk-mom-renews-decade-long-battle-to-see-kids/

It is every mother’s nightmare. For more than a decade, Beth Alexander has been largely unable to see her two sons as she has fought a complex and seemingly never-ending legal battle to gain custody of the twin boys through the Austrian courts.

Alexander’s story — a whirlwind romance which turned into a bitter tussle over her children, allegations of foul play in Viennese legal circles and a dramatic intervention by Britain’s chief rabbi — has attracted international headlines, while her plight has won her strong support in the UK Jewish community and parliament.

But, as she launches a new campaign to gain access to her children, the Austrian judge overseeing the case has rebuffed Alexander’s latest legal efforts — and gone a step further, barring all contact between mother and children — saying it is not in the 12-year-olds’ interest to see their mother.

Rabbis blast Disney over pledge to increase LGBT content

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325046

An organization representing over 2,000 Orthodox American rabbis and other Orthodox community leaders issued a statement Friday morning condemning entertainment giant Disney, after the company protested a recently passed bill in Florida barring teachers from having certain conversations with young children on issues of sexuality and their reproductive organs.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law this week, prohibiting classroom instruction in sexual orientation or gender identity through third grade, and requires that parents have access to information regarding the physical and mental health of their children.

Disney employees staged a walkout in response, complaining that LGBT content was cut from films and that Disney had not done enough to protest the bill, which some critics erroneously characterized as the "Don't Say Gay" bill.