Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Rabbi Yosef Blau a Modern Say "Merageil"
by Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss
I would not normally respond to Rabbi Yosef Blau. Yet because of his past importance and influence, I feel a duty to do so — especially now, in Elul, as we prepare to stand before the Almighty in judgment. My intent is not to insult, but to ensure he is not mistaken, to encourage a return to the right path, and to mollify some of the damage his blog post may cause.
Rabbi Blau raises legitimate concerns regarding settler violence in Judea and Samaria and the need for moral clarity. Indeed, extremist acts by a minority of settlers are troubling, and their consequences for Palestinian civilians cannot be ignored. Recognizing these concerns is vital; Israel, like any society, must confront lawlessness and extremism wherever it appears.
Iran Was Behind Firebombing Of Melbourne’s Historic Adass Shul, Authorities Reveal; Ambassador Expelled From Australia
Australia is expelling Iran’s ambassador after intelligence agencies confirmed Tehran’s direct role in the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel shul last December. The shul was severely damaged in the attack, and is still undergoing repair work.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the unprecedented move alongside ASIO Director Mike Burgess. Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi will be removed from the country after investigators found “credible evidence” he orchestrated the attack on the shul as well as other plots targeting Jewish Australians.
“ASIO assesses it is likely Iran directed further attacks as well. These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese said.
“They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable, and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action in response,” Albanese added.
Burgess said: “This was directed by the IRGC through a series of overseas cut-outs, facilitators, to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians.”
He added that while it’s unlikely that all recent antisemitic incidents and attacks in Australia were orchestrated by Iran, intelligence services are looking into the possibility that the regime was behind many of them.
The attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue shocked Melbourne’s Jewish community and reignited concerns about growing antisemitism worldwide. While no fatalities occurred, the firebombing left congregants shaken and exposed alarming gaps in Australia’s counterterrorism posture.
On Tuesday, Albanese personally phoned the Rav of the Adass Shul to inform him of Iran’s role in the plot.
In a parallel move, the Albanese government is set to formally designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. If confirmed, Australia would join the United States, Canada, and several European nations in banning the IRGC.
The dual measures signal a sharp break in Australia’s policy toward Iran. Canberra has long maintained diplomatic ties even as allies downgraded or severed relations, making it one of the few Western democracies with an active Iranian mission.
Monday, August 25, 2025
Senior Shas rabbi appears to backtrack, says Charedim who don’t study full-time can serve in the IDF
Speaking with Radio Kol Hai, Rabbi Moshe Maya, a member of Shas’ ruling Council of Torah Sages, states that “if there is an arrangement whereby someone who enlists would not come to desecrate the Sabbath and would preserve his holiness and purity — why shouldn’t he enlist? But there is one condition: that it be an official IDF General Staff order. As long as it’s just declarations, it’s worthless.”
Last summer, following the High Court of Justice’s ruling ending service exemptions for yeshiva students, Maya took a very different tone, telling Kol Barama Radio that it was “forbidden for those who don’t study to go to the army,” arguing that “those who do will end up violating the Shabbat.”
This June, the rabbi was one of several senior Shas rabbis who signed an open letter expressing opposition to any enlistment compromise that would lead to the conscription of yeshiva students. In the letter, the rabbis declared that it was forbidden for those not in yeshiva to enlist, even into “the so-called ‘ultra-Orthodox’ tracks.”
However, he started softening his position not long after, stating several weeks later that while at the moment no Haredim at all may enlist, “if military frameworks are established with the approval of the rabbis, which will certainly safeguard every Haredi—and we know that this will have legal validity—then only those who do not study at all should be drafted.”
The IDF currently maintains several service tracks for ultra-Orthodox soldiers, including the Netzach Yehuda battalion (also known as Nahal Haredi) and the recently-established Hasmonean Brigade.
The post Senior Shas rabbi appears to backtrack, says Haredim who don’t study full-time can serve in the IDF appeared first on The Times of Israel.
Thank you for standing with Israel ..Queen Katrina
Thank you for standing with Israel 🙏🇮🇱
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) August 23, 2025
How amazing is she? pic.twitter.com/sCtDqWkScD
The brave German woman ,Karolion Preisler,was attacked today for standing against anti Israel protest in Germany!
the bravest woman in Germany. She has been attacked todayhttps://t.co/zWFicLDuEv
— aufdiezwölf (@aufdiezwolf) August 23, 2025
An Answer to the Modern Ortodox Rabbis who called for "Moral Clarity" in Gaza
by Avi Abelow
To say that this headline infuriates me is an understatement. This is an embarrassment for the Jewish people and the whole freedom loving world.
I want to speak honestly but gently, not out of anger, but out of deep sorrow.
Recently, a group of rabbis signed a letter criticizing the conduct of Israel's war in Gaza. The letter calls for more humanitarian restraint and suggests Israel is responsible for a moral failing in the war’s execution. On the surface, it speaks in the language of Jewish values, compassion, justice, and dignity.
But with all due respect, and with a heavy heart, I must say: this letter is a painful and dangerous mistake.
If they weren’t Rabbis, my response would be much more forceful.
It causes real damage, not just to Israel’s image, but to Am Yisrael itself, especially as we remain in the middle of a multi-front war for our survival.
Let’s be clear: this war is not over. Not even close.
Gaza is only one front.
- In the north, Hezbollah continues to exist as an Iranian proxy to infiltrate Israel and massacre more Jews.
- In Judea and Samaria, armed attacks on Jews are a weekly reality, that Jews have to defend themselves from then erroneously called “settler violence” by anti-Israel voices
- Globally, Jews are under siege, on college campuses, in the streets, even in synagogues.
- Iran is watching and preparing for its moment to attack again
- And Hamas still holds Israeli hostages , torturing and starving them underground, in inhumane conditions.
And into this painful and urgent moment, a group of rabbis, many or all of whom were raised or educated in the Diaspora, issued a public letter that parrots the exact accusations used by those who seek to delegitimize and destroy Israel.
They repeat phrases like “collective punishment,” and “blockaded aid,” without any reference to the reality of the enemy we are fighting, or the context of a war forced upon us by genocidal terrorists that we have to win to protect 10 million Israeli citizens.
Moreover, their inclusion of 'settler violence' in their letter underscores a deeply flawed perspective, one that reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of our reality and a troubling inability to discern truth from the falsehoods promoted by the anti-Israel agenda, that they as well believe.
It reflects a mindset deeply shaped by Galut (exile) thinking, a psychological residue of Jewish life in the Diaspora. A life where we survived by keeping our heads down, by appeasing those around us, by proving over and over again how moral we were, often at the cost of our own ability to defend ourselves. That might have helped us survive in exile. But it’s dangerous now, when we are defending Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael, as the frontline for Jews work wide and the freedom-loving world.
But it goes deeper.
These rabbis speak of justice and ethics, yet completely ignore the origins of this conflict.
They ignore the fact that we experienced an Oct 7th massacre in Hebron 1929, when the term “Palestinians” referred to Jews; they ignore the Palestinian national identity itself was then manufactured in the 1960s by the Soviet Union, further weaponizing Islamic jihad as a political weapon to undermine Israel’s legitimacy and cloak terrorism in the language of “liberation.” It was never about building a nation, it was always about destroying ours.
They ignore how this conflict is not just political, it's ideological. It's religious.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran are all part of a 1,400+ year religious movement rooted in conquest and domination. They see Israel as an outpost to be removed, not because of settlements or borders, but because of what we are: a sovereign Jewish state in the heart of the Middle East.
And we see the consequences of this every day. At anti-Israel protests in the West, people chant: “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud” — a chilling reference to the massacre of Jews in the 7th century by Muhammad’s army in Khaybar.
This is not about justice. This is not about human rights. This is about celebrating Jewish bloodshed, and too many turn a blind eye, including these Modern Oftgodox Rabbis who prefer to virtue signal with this letter.
And yet these rabbis, in their letter, say nothing of this. Nothing of the enemy’s goals. Nothing of the ideological war we’re in.
Nothing of Egypt’s responsibility in forcing Gazans to remain in Gaza instead of abiding by international asylum law to allow them to escape a dangerous war zone, forcing Israel to act as no other in a war, and provide aid to an enemy population.
Nothing.
They speak as though this is merely another political conflict, revealing their personal discomfort with confronting Jewish power acting to protect global Jewry in a morally complex reality, made harder with deadly libelous media campaigns.
As if both sides just need to be more careful.
As if this is a time for “balance.”
But this isn’t balance. This is blindness.
It ignores the reality of this war and who started this war.
It ignores what our enemies say, in Arabic, in Persian, and on the streets of Europe and America.
And it ignores the devastating consequences this kind of letter has, not just morally, but practically.
Because when spiritual leaders issue public rebukes of Israel in the middle of a war, they embolden the very people trying to destroy us.
They validate the lies being told about us.
They embolden our allies. And they demoralize our own people, soldiers, survivors, and families of hostages, who so desperately need strength, not sermons.
Some of the signatories have said, “If you’re hurt by the letter, it wasn’t meant for you.”
But that’s not how it works.
When you speak in the name of Torah and Jewish morality, every Jew is your audience.
And when your words bring confusion, division, and grief to your own people, it’s not “divisive” to push back. It’s a moral responsibility.
Once again, I write this with deep sorrow.
Because I believe these rabbis are sincere, while very wrong and doing tremendous damage and a true chillul Hashem.
But sincerity is not enough when the result of your words weakens and endangers your own people, at our most vulnerable hour.
We need leaders who understand that compassion begins with our own nation.
We need leaders who see through the fog of propaganda and remember the real roots of this conflict.
We need leaders who speak from strength, not guilt. From truth, not fear.
We are still in the fire. This war is not over.
Now is the time for clarity. For courage. And for a return to leadership that doesn’t speak from exile, but from Totah, not an exile mentality.
May we all merit the strength to stand with our people, unapologetically, and to rise above the confusion of our times, with truth, unity, and unshakable love for Am Yisrael.
How disappointing that instead of using their Rabbinic voices to strengthen Am Yisrael all over the world in this multi-front war, they preferred legitimizing the uncomfortable feelings of Jews uncomfortable with us doing what we have to do against a barbaric enemy. We will overcome this internal weakness as well.
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
Israeli transportation minister Regev against El Al: 'We must allow the public to fly at reasonable prices
Prices are too high;
it can not be that Israeli citizens are captive customers in the hands of Israeli companies."
She said, "The reports that El Al will close do not intimidate me. The Israeli public is important; we must allow them to travel abroad at reasonable prices. I have full backing from the Prime Minister to advance this issue; I don't intend to blink for a moment. No one can come and threaten."
Heiress to $31B Hedge Fund Fortune Gives $250K to Zohran Says “Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist”
The collision of wealth and ideology in New York City’s turbulent mayoral race reached a new pitch this week after Elizabeth Simons, daughter of the late hedge fund titan James Simons, made a $250,000 contribution to the pro-Zohran Mamdani super PAC New Yorkers for Lower Costs.
The gift, revealed in campaign finance disclosures, represents the single largest donation received by the socialist nominee’s outside support group, which has already amassed close to $2 million from nearly 300 contributions. As The New York Post reported on Wednesday, the Simons gift not only bolsters Mamdani’s longshot mayoral bid but also underscores the paradox of billionaires’ heirs fueling the campaign of a candidate who has openly called for the abolition of billionaires altogether.
Elizabeth Simons serves as chairwoman of the board of directors of the Heising-Simons Foundation, the philanthropic vehicle she co-founded with her husband, Mark Heising. The foundation, headquartered in California, has poured hundreds of millions into progressive causes ranging from climate research to criminal justice reform.
The fortune behind that largesse traces directly back to her late father, James Simons, founder of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and one of the most successful investors in modern history. With a net worth estimated at $31.4 billion at the time of his death last year, Simons was as celebrated in philanthropy as he was in finance.
He and his wife Marilyn gave more than $1 billion to Stony Brook University, part of the SUNY system and the school where he had once been a mathematics professor. That landmark donation—the largest ever to an American public university—cemented the Simons name as a philanthropic powerhouse.
26 Year-Old Frum Bochur Who was Engaged Takes His life in Airmont
A 26-year-old from Boro Park, who was engaged to be married, was found niftar from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car in Airmont.
The Crisis Text Line serves anyone, in any type of crisis, The process is very easy, all you have to do is text LEV to 741741 to get connected.
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