A Eulogy for Lost Truth Within the Torah Community

 

We are in the middle of an era of unprecedented upheaval, fury and dissent to the point of violence. But underneath the loud boisterous anger and arguments, we are also – and predominately – in an era of mourning.

Obviously, we are mourning the physical loss of loved ones to this relentless virus. We mourn the financial losses and terrifying instabilities that accompany it. The psychological toll of these losses is beyond measure. That deep-seated sorrow is generating much of the current political upheaval.

And yet beyond those physical losses we are also mourning the metaphysical loss of truth. Truth is a fragile creature. We have seen it twisted, manhandled and quite frankly, slaughtered like some sort of a choice sacrifice. On the altar of what? Fear and fear-based thinking. On the altar of fear without facts. In short, on the altar of conspiracy theories.

Conspiratorial ideas no longer seem to be merely whispered along the fringes. Rather they are increasingly becoming the dominant narrative in many pockets of the Torah community. Even more concerning, they are very often shared in the context of Torah teachings and wisdom.

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Biden Warns His Staff to be "nice" after Having Just recently threatened Pres Trump that he "would have beat the Hell out of Trump if they were still in High School!

President Biden warned new members of his administration Wednesday that he’ll fire them "on the spot" if they fail to treat others nicely.

"If you’re ever working with me, and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot," Biden told new aides during a swearing-in ceremony following his inauguration. "On the spot."

He told the appointees that part of it is that he wants to root out systemic racism and that failing to maintain his standards of decorum would cost them their jobs.

"My dad used to have an expression: He said everyone, every single person, regardless of their background, is entitled to be treated with dignity," Biden said. "I expect you to do that for all the folks you deal with, all the folks we work for, the American people."

"No ifs, ands or buts – everybody, everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity," Biden concluded during his remarks Wednesday. "That's been missing in a big way for the last four years."

The stern call for workplace pleasantness comes after a 2020 presidential campaign in which he said he’d "beat the hell" out of his opponent, former President Donald Trump, if they were in high school together.

"If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him," Biden said on the campaign trail in March 2018, taking issue with some of Trump’s past remarks.

The statement prompted a fiery rebuke from Trump and stood out as Biden tried to campaign on a platform of unity and normalcy – concepts he mentioned during his inaugural address Wednesday.

"We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature," he said. "For without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward." 

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Rabbi Bans the "5 Towns Jewish Times" Gets Threatened

In the picture, Gila Jedwab, a "Five Towns Jewish Times" columnist, is seen standing outside the Capitol building with the protestors in the background smiling broadly and with her hands outstretched.

 Rabbi Kenneth Hain and other leaders of Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence, New York, banned the 5 Towns Jewish Times from their synagogue because the newspaper featured a front-page photo of one of its columnists at the January 6 protests in Washington, DC

When the paper arrived Friday on Hain’s doorstep, the front page was obscured by a threatening note calling on the rabbi to resign from his pulpit.

“You are aligning your behavior with the radical anti American Democrats who are now in full gear to destroy not only America, but who are poised to target Israel and all Jews,” the note read.

The note was not signed, but its author apparently is known to the Hain family, according to the Long Island Herald.

It’s the latest sign of the divisions within Orthodox communities over the results of the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath.

The photo that spurred the synagogue ban was of a local dentist and Trump supporter standing in front of the protests on the same day that a mob would descend on the Capitol. 

“The photo that appeared on the first page of the 5 Towns Jewish Times this week was an outrageous Chilul Hashem,” Beth Sholom leaders wrote to the synagogue’s members on January 8, using a term that means a desecration of God’s name.

Larry Gordon, the editor of the 5 Towns Jewish Times, apologized for the photo choice, but not before Beth Sholom and one other large local synagogue, the Young Israel of Woodmere, banned the newspaper from their buildings.

Supporters of the paper took out an ad in the newspaper the week after the controversial front page.

“We stand proudly with the 5TJT in the face of silencing and censorship,” the ad, paid for by “friends of the 5TJT,” read.

According to the Long Island Herald, Hain’s wife, Nancy, reported the note addressed to her husband to the Jewish Alliance for Dialogue and Engagement, a local group that has focused on promoting the coronavirus vaccine, in a WhatsApp group.

“We will secure the photo and other info sent to the local Rabbi to give [to] police for follow up investigation,” she wrote. “Will let you know when/if there is more. Thanks for the support & good wishes. This is being taken very seriously by the Shul, its security & us.”

* it should be noted that the good rabbi did not ban any newspapers that reported the BLM riots and anarchy in good light.... 

 

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Mark the Day Biden Got Inaugurated

 

As our President Donald J. Trump prepares to leave the White House, I am making this post so it will show back up as a future memory on my timeline. This isn’t a political dispute. I am genuinely curious what the next 4 years will bring:

Today is the Biden/Harris Inauguration.

• Gas is currently $2.55 per gallon.

• Interest rates are 2.25 percent for a 30-year mortgage.

• The stock market closed at 30829.40 though we have been fighting COVID for 11 months.

• Our GDP growth for the 3rd Qtr was 33.1 percent.

• We had the best economy ever until COVID and it is recovering well.

• We have not had any new wars or conflicts in the last 4 years.

• North Korea has been under control and has not been testing any missiles.

• ISIS has not been heard from for over 3 years.

• The housing market is the strongest it has been in years.

• Homes have appreciated at an unbelievable rate and sell well.

• And let’s not forget that peace deals in the Middle East were signed by 4 countries—unprecedented!

• Unemployment sits at 6.7% in spite of COVID.

#Biden takes over on 1-20-21. Let's see how the next four years fair. God bless America! 🇺🇸🙏🏻 Thank you President Trump!

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G-D sends Rainbow to Beit Shemesh ......

These were filmed by DIN yesterday .... 

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Chareidie Radio Station asks: How Will a Child React When he Grows Up Finding out that He Murdered His Grandfather by Going to School Against Regulations

Haredi host Dudi Shwamenfeld from Kol Barama radio, who on Tuesday buried his father who was a victim of Covid-19, went on Reshet Bet radio Wednesday morning to express his anger at the repeated violations of the pandemic regulations in the Haredi sector.

Kol BaRama is a Haredi radio station based in Bnei Brak, broadcasting since 2009 seven days a week, from Saturday night until Friday afternoon.

“These are murderers and people who understand that this can kill,” Shwamenfeld told Reshet Bet. “I don’t understand what’s happening here around me, especially when it comes to the Haredim, because the sanctity of life is our greatest value.”

“You are righteous,” he said about Israeli Haredim, “Is there anything you won’t do to save every life? What’s happened to us?”

Shwamenfeld said his father was probably infected by his brother, who is mentally disabled.

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Chareidie from Givat Shaul Begs Cops to "break hands of feet" of his fellow Chareidim Who Don't Follow Covid Regulations

חרדי משכונת גבעת שאול בירושלים תובע מן המשטרה לשבור לחרדים את הידיים ורגליים

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Being Silenced is Not Golden

 Virtually all major media, the intelligentsia, all the Democrats, and even many Republicans tell us that the man we supported for President is guilty of "sedition." That he led an "insurrection" in an "attempted coup" or "putsch" that sought to destroy democracy in America.

We are guilty by association with cretins wearing "Camp Auschwitz" shirts who attacked the high citadel of America. We should cower in silence and shame over the travesty and horror that we aided and abetted. We must be fired from our jobs, cast out of polite society, and have our social media accounts shut down. Even more so, if we dare to continue asserting that there were serious questions about the election that were never properly resolved.

In fact, all such claims have been thoroughly “debunked”; all the lawsuits Trump’s team brought were tossed out of court for lack of evidence. Senators Cruz and Hawley, who (while denouncing the rioters in the strongest terms) persisted in objecting to the certification of the elections, should be thrown out of office and perhaps charged with sedition.

Moreover, as religious Jews, we are being scolded that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for supporting such a monster – whom the smart people knew all along was the second coming of Hitlerימ"ש . We should engage in a cheshbon hanefesh (personal spiritual accounting) for the terrible 'חילול ה (desecration of G-d’s honor) that we caused by advocating for such an obvious degenerate. We must hang our heads in shame before the wiser, all-knowing liberals who always knew that Joe Biden and the Democrats were morally superior. After all, they have long been warning us that Trump is a rabble-rousing, incompetent, corrupt, arrogant white supremacist who has now proved to be the greatest imaginable danger to America and the world. We must submit to the silencing of our voices and accept our deserved lot as defeated and "canceled," while our political opponents use their now unbridled power to change America forever.

I believe that it is crucial for us – the 71 million who voted for Donald Trump and against Joe Biden – to refuse to allow ourselves to be written off due to the awful actions of a relatively tiny bunch of criminals. (They were only one or two percent of those who came to the Trump rally, let alone the many millions who were not there at all.) Those misguided morons did so much damage – not so much to the United States – but primarily to Trump supporters and the legacy of Trump himself.

It is crucial that 70 million-plus people not feel that their voice has been stolen from them – which is exactly what the left is now trying to do in every possible way.

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"Blood on rabbis’ hands," ZAKA Head Yehuda Meshi Zahav Slams Violators Of COVID-19 Regulations: ‘Worse Than Holocaust Deniers’

 Yehuda Meshi Zahav, the director and founder of ZAKA, lost his mother Sora Zisel to coronavirus this week, less than a month after his brother died from a serious illness. The pain of losing his mother is worse however for Meshi Zahav, who says that for ten months his parents were protected “like an Esrog” by their children.

“My mother was perfectly healthy, active, constantly giving, she’d never had a problem with her lungs before.,” Meshi Zahav said in a Ynet interview. “My brother went away before Chanukah and family members made a Chanukah party with my parents. Everyone at the party got sick and she gradually became more sick until she passed away.”

With coronavirus rates skyrocketing in Israel, the Chareidi public is suffering the most from the third wave, with an estimated 1 in 3 of those infected belonging to the Chareidi sector. Meshi Zahav does not mince words about Chareidim who ignore COVID-19 regulations.

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President Trump’s Grandson Sings Hashem Melech As Ivanka Looks On and "sheps nachos"

 A clip showing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s son singing Jewish songs in his classroom as his parents watch him on Zoom has emerged on social media sites. The clip demonstrates the Chabad-style Jewish education being given to former president Donald Trump’s Jewish grandson.

Jared and Ivanka had pulled their children out of the school they were studying in three months ago since it did not have many in-person classes during the pandemic, whereas their current school, the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in suburban Maryland, offered more such classes. However it appears that the children will once again be changing schools as the parents intend to relocate to Florida in the near future.

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