" The masses (the Pusheter Yid) may have greater access to divine revelation than Talmudic scholars. "

by Scott Kahn from Orthodox Conundrum Commentary 

Sometimes, too much scholarship can be a detriment to determining the right thing to do.

The concept of natural morality - that is, that people intuitively know certain basic moral concepts - is debated by Jewish and non-Jewish philosophers alike. 

One of the most famous examples of a Jewish scholar championing natural morality is the Ramban in his commentary to Vayikra 19:2, which we will read this coming Shabbat. He explains that the biblical directive to “be holy” prohibits actions which are not otherwise proscribed by the Torah, but which would allow someone to act in a despicable manner without technically violating any written prohibition. Many assume that we know which prohibitions are included in this mitzvah through natural morality.¹ 

This is in line with the Ramban’s explanation of why the people of Noah’s generation were punished for hamas, meaning stealing and exploitation: “Because this is a logical mitzvah, without need for a prophetic warning.”²

Beit Shemesh Leads in Combat Recruitment: New IDF Data on the City

 

According to newly released IDF data, Beit Shemesh ranks among the top major cities for male enlistment into combat roles — 60.7% of male recruits from the city (born in 2003) chose combat positions, a significantly higher rate than the national average of 48.7%. This reflects a continued upward trend in recent years.

Among female recruits, 22.6% enlisted in combat roles, compared to the national average of 14.1%.

The overall enlistment rate in Beit Shemesh for 2023 (born in 2005) stands at 28.2%, marking a 2.5% decrease from 2022.

The rate of becoming officers among male recruits in the city is low at 4.3%, compared to a national average of 7.1%. However, among female recruits, the officer rate is 8.1%, above average, and up 2.7% from 2022.

Ehud Barak Calls for Civil Insurrection to Collapse Government

 Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Saturday repeated his call for a civil insurrection to topple the Netanyahu government.

“We need to get to a civil insurrection,” said Barak, during an appearance on “Moriah & Berko,” a Channel 13 news show co-hosted by Moriah Ashraf and Eyal Bercovic. Asked to explain what that meant, Barak said he meant hundreds of thousands taking to the streets guided by political, academic, high-tech and market leaders, among others. When Ashraf asked what the limits of the insurrection should be, Barak said, “The limits are the shutdown of the country until the government falls.”

Barak, who served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, and later as deputy prime minister and minister of defense in a Netanyahu government 2009 to 2013, has become a bitter opponent of the current prime minister. Speaking at an anti-government protest rally in Tel Aviv in July 2024, Barak urged the thousands present to engage in “nonviolent civil noncompliance.” Israeli prosecutors at the time mulled whether to prosecute Barak on charges of incitement and sedition. At a rally in Jerusalem in April of last year, he said that his goal was to use mass protests as a pressure lever to bring about early elections to replace the Netanyahu government.

My message is elections now,” Barak told JNS.

Heartbreaking.... little girl who lost her father on Oct 7 singing at his grave

 She lost her father on October 7th—and now she sings at his grave. So many children became orphans that day. So many hearts shattered. The pain didn’t end on October 7th—it ripples through every child, every family, every future that will never be the same. Never forget what Hamas did. Never forget the victims. 💔

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The BBC Documentary that Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist

 

Louis Theroux’s new BBC ‘Settlers’ documentary claims impartiality. What it delivers is a slick propaganda film: Israel as aggressor, settlers as sociopaths, Palestinians as voiceless victims. Let’s talk about what Theroux really chose to show—and what he left out. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ITMjNAB5vj

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 30, 2025

 By Rachel O’Donoghue, Honest Reporting

Louis Theroux first visited Judea and Samaria in 2011 to film a documentary titled Louis and the Ultra-Zionists, part of his long-running series for the BBC. Back then, he at least seemed to possess a trace of journalistic curiosity. Even the title signaled a degree of editorial caution, framing his subjects as a small, ideological fringe rather than as representative of Israeli society as a whole.

At the time, Theroux made an effort to clarify that he was profiling a narrow segment of Israelis. He showed legally purchased Jewish homes (sold by Arab landowners, no less) and acknowledged the regular — and at times deadly — terror attacks faced by Israeli civilians living in the area, often requiring military protection. There was condescension, certainly. But there was also context.

Footage of IAF striking Sana'a Airport

 

The Despicable Forum in The Yeshiva World News Blog!

"The Peaceful Dismantlement of the State of “Israel”

This vile forum in a Chareidie News Blog shows how low and disconnected the Yeshivishe World is from the rest of the Frum World! 

I will first post some remarks that some sane readers wrote to counter the disgusting vile ideas put forth by Yeshivaleit scum in this forum!

The Following comment by a guy that calls himself "Square Root"

If the State of Israel were dismantled, there are two possibilities:

Either the Jews remain in the land of Israel OR they leave the land of Israel.

If the Jews remain in the land of Israel, without the Israeli Army to protect them,
they would all be killed, slaughtered, annihilated, murdered and massacred.

Some of the surviving women and children would become SLAVES to Muslims.
This has actually happened before, so what I say is historical, not merely theoretical.

If the Jews would leave the land of Israel, then approximately
8 million Jews will become homeless refugees.
Which countries will accept approximately 8 million Jewish refugees?

I cannot think of any country or any combination of countries
that would accept even half that number of Jewish refugees,
or even half-of-half that number of Jewish refugees.

If millions of Jews were massacred, the nations of the world
would interpret that as G*D abandoning the Jewish people,
which would be a very great Chillul HaShem,
which would cause even more persecution against Jews.

If millions of Jews became homeless refugees, the nations of the world
would interpret that as G*D abandoning the Jewish people,
which would be a very great Chillul HaShem,
which would cause even more persecution against Jews.

Last but not least, dismantling the State of Israel,
even “peacefully”, is the fantasy of every neo-Nazi,
radical anti-Semite and fanatical Jew-hater.

The fact that UJM agrees with millions of neo-Nazis,
radical anti-Semites and fanatical Jew-haters
SHOULD be a very big warning that he is pointed
in the WRONG direction; but just as radical anti-Semites
and fanatical Jew-haters refuse to listen to logic,
the Chareidi anti-Zionists also refuse to listen to logic.

The Chareidi anti-Zionists will eventually go to the
same place in Gehinom as the millions of neo-Nazis,
radical anti-Semites and fanatical Jew-haters.
They will be neighbors and roommates in Gehinom.

PS: The so-called “peaceful” dismantlement of the State of Israel
would soon result in the complete destruction of:
[1] Every synagogue in Eretz Yisrael.
[2] Every yeshivah in Eretz Yisrael.
[3] Every mikvah in Eretz Yisrael.
[4] Every stone in the Kotel.

Again Square Root comments:

Trying to dismantle the State of Israel peacefully is like
grabbing an ax, and using the ax to cut a lamb’s head off,
without killing the lamb.

Just as it is NOT possible to cut a lamb’s head off,
without killing the lamb, it is also NOT possible
to dismantle the State of Israel peacefully.

This should be obvious to every person whose IQ is above 75,
but some Jews have been brainwashed by extreme anti-Jewish hate.

UJM and HaKatan have still not explained where 8 million
Jewish refugees are supposed to go to,
after they dismantle the State of Israel “peacefully”.

I cannot think of any country or any combination of countries
that would accept even half that number of Jewish refugees,
or even half-of-half-of-half that number of Jewish refugees.

Thugs charged with savage murder of Israeli businessman in his LA home are illegal immigrants

 The three men who allegedly murdered an Israeli businessman late last month in his Los Angeles home are all illegal immigrants from Georgia — one of whom was released after an earlier crime by a sanctuary city, sources told The Post.

The three attackers allegedly broke into Alexander Modebadze’s Los Angeles home, where they held the 47-year-old captive for hours before savagely beating him to death, police said in a statement.

Cops later arrested Pata Kochiashvili, Zaza Otarashvili and Besiki Khutsishvili and charged them with murder — and all three now have federal immigration detainers lodged against them, according to sources.

They are now being held on a $2 million bail.

Otarashvili and Khutsishvili were released into the US after crossing the southern border illegally under the Biden administration, according to sources.

Otarashvili was arrested by border agents after crossing the Yuma, Arizona, border illegally on July 3, 2022, and was swiftly released and instructed to report to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New York.

He reported to ICE’s New York office roughly three weeks later and was told to come back a year later, which he failed to do.

The illegal migrant applied for asylum in October 2022, but his immigration court hearing was cancelled for an undisclosed reason.

Israel has no choice but to take control of Gaza and at last destroy Hamas

Israel has called up tens of thousands of reservists in advance of plans to capture — and this time hold — all of the Gaza Strip, should Hamas refuse to agree to a cease-fire by May 16.

The escalation is understandable; indeed, almost inescapable: What other choice does Israel have?

Hamas won’t agree to any serious deal short of a permanent end to the war that allows it to survive and maintain its death-grip on Gaza — which it has vowed time and again to use to stage more Oct. 7, 2023-style attacks on the Jewish state.

So Israel can’t permanently halt the war with Hamas in control of Gaza, yet no other nation has offered a realistic plan to end the Hamas threat, nor to govern Gaza.

So Jerusalem is giving Hamas one last chance to agree to permanently surrender control of the strip, or to get a temporary cease-fire if it frees the last hostages, including an American, Edan Alexander.

If Hamas doesn’t bite by the time President Donald Trump wraps up his Middle East trip next week, the IDF will once again order evacuations, starting in Gaza’s north, and systematically clear and retake control of all Gaza.

The Jewish state would then hold those areas indefinitely to prevent Hamas’ return — though a government spokesman says the plan isn’t meant to produce a permanent occupation.

Operation Gideon’s Chariots will roll out gradually, but won’t stop until Jerusalem controls all of Gaza — and Hamas has no place to hide. Good.

Israel will also seek to deprive the terror group of humanitarian aid, which it has used to maintain its control over Gaza’s population. And it vows to destroy Hamas infrastructure and target its leaders.

All this will help force the release of the remaining hostages, or pave the way for their rescue by IDF forces.

Israeli military officials believe now is the time to “launch the concluding moves” of the war, explained Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

No one with any compassion wants the war in Gaza to drag on, but Israel can’t end by accepting an eternal threat of periodic Oct. 7-style massacres.

Hamas still needs to be eliminated and Gaza secured; with the full support of the US president, Israel now has a chance to do that.

It’s time to get it done.

 

Israeli Military Analyst On Houthi Attacks: “We’re Caught In An American Trap”

 I24NEWS military analyst Tzvi Yechezkeli referred to the Israeli preparations for an attack in Yemen as an “American trap.”

“The trap we are in is mainly an American trap,” Yechezkeli said. “The Americans have taken it upon themselves to attack the Houthis with very, very serious and intensive attacks. But in practice, we’re getting what we already know from before—that it’s impossible to subdue the Houthis from the air.”

“And no matter how much the Americans try, including bringing in Yemeni forces opposed to the Houthis on the ground, it’s not working.”

“If we didn’t have the interception means, we might have already rolled up our sleeves and dealt with the problem, but the trap is that we gave it to the Americans, and this must be seen in the Iranian context. It’s not just an incident between us and the Houthis; Iran is involved. And the Americans are dragging their feet on negotiations with Iran.”

Yechezkeli continued: “I’ll just mention a few things about Trump’s first 100 days. He promised that if there’s no deal after two months of negotiations with Iran, he’ll attack. We’re reaching that deadline very soon. He promised hell in Gaza – it’s not happening. The issue of the deal and everything he pressured Hamas for – it’s also not happening.”

“Trump’s tweets and reality are separate. The reality says that he, Trump, is following in Obama’s footsteps. He’s moving toward an agreement with Iran and therefore, they’re getting this energy and this approval that it’s possible to attack Israel.”

Yechezkeli concluded: “The Houthi spokesperson said that they attacked Israel because Israel is recruiting reservists. And I wonder – if the Houthis are in such a state, they probably weren’t harmed. And therefore it goes back to this, to the issue that it’s an American trap.”

“If the Americans give up the negotiations, give the green light – it’s time to attack Iran, the Houthis will disappear. And if not, we’re in a trap. We’re waiting for the Americans, and Trump is excellent—in tweets. But in the field, we’re still waiting. It’s not happening, and every day that passes is a blow to prestige, deterrence, and certainly to the blow that will come, and I really hope it will come.”