Listen to R' Yisrael Stuel trying to keep the father of the girls to shut up!
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
"Israel ranked fourth happiest country in world " Gallop Poll
Based on Gallup World Poll data, the study leverages six key factors to help explain variation in self-reported levels of happiness across the world: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.
The report was released on Monday to mark the International Day of Happiness, which was established when the U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281 in June 2012.
The report named Finland the happiest country in the world for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel and the Netherlands.
This year’s Happiness Report found that despite several overlapping crises, most populations around the world continue to be remarkably resilient, with global life satisfaction averages in the COVID-19 years 2020-2022 just as high as pre-pandemic.
“The happiness movement shows that well-being is not a ‘soft’ and ‘vague’ idea but rather focuses on areas of life of critical importance: material conditions, mental and physical wealth, personal virtues and good citizenship,” said Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, who worked on the study.
“We need to turn this wisdom into practical results to achieve more peace, prosperity, trust, civility—and yes, happiness—in our societies,” he added.
Afghanistan and Lebanon were the two unhappiest countries in the survey, with average life evaluations more than five points lower (on a scale running from 0 to 10) than in the 10 happiest countries.
Rounding out the top 10 countries on the list were Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand.
The United States ranked 15th, Britain 19th and France 21st.
Israel placed ninth in last year’s report.
Monday, March 20, 2023
Fury at Manhattan’s Bragg over Looming Trump Charges Dominates House GOP Retreat
Asked by Breitbart News during the press conference, as the House GOP wrapped the first day of its three-day retreat, what he would say to the 75 million Americans who voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election, McCarthy said his message is even broader than that.
“I wouldn’t just talk to 75 million Americans — I would talk to 330 million Americans,” McCarthy said. “I would say it doesn’t matter what side of the issue you’re on. It doesn’t matter if this was President Trump or if this was a Democrat. It should be equal justice in America. And stop going after people because you have political differences. I see people all the time who I have political differences with. I respect their opinion. I may disagree with it. But why would you ever try to use the law for it? It goes directly against everything this Manhattan DA has professed. He brags about lowering felonies to misdemeanors as a prosecutor. We’ve watched crime in New York where people are afraid to walk the streets. We’ve watched campaigns. I will tell you one of the reasons we won races in New York is based upon this DA, of not protecting the citizens of New York — and now he’s spending his time on this? The statute of limitations are gone. It doesn’t matter what side you’re on. This is the type of thing America hates and divides us and is wrong.”
Review of a Sefer That Debunks the Satmar Shita on the Three Oaths PART 2
A good portion of Rabbi Burton’s book pivots on the intriguing dialogue between Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yohanan in Tractate Yoma of the Babylonian Talmud.
Reish Lakish had great disdain for the Jews of Babylonia, as he held them responsible for the fact that in the Second Temple era there was not the level of full-fledged prophecy that flourished during the First Temple era. All that remained was a reduced level of divine inspiration known as “bat kol,” an “echo.”[1]
Said Reish Lakish: “If you had made yourselves as a wall (ke-homah)[2] and all of you had ascended [to the Land of Israel] in the days of Ezra,” then prophecy would have resumed.
Rabbi Yohanan’s rejoinder reads:
“That is not the reason. Even if all of them would have ascended [to the Land of Israel] in the days of Ezra, the divine presence (Shekhinah) would not have rested in the Second Temple, for it is written, ‘God will broaden Japheth, and dwell in the tents of Shem’ [Genesis 9:27]. Although God will broaden Japheth, the divine presence rests only in the tents of Shem.”
Rabbi Yohanan was alluding to the fact that the Second Temple was built under the auspices of Cyrus the Great, a Persian. And the Persians are descendants of Japheth. And so, unlike the First Temple, the Temple of Solomon (a Semite), which was conducive to prophecy, the Second Temple was perforce bereft of the spirit of prophecy.[3]
That Rabbi Yehudah Halevi and Reish Lakish are of one mind when it comes to the subject of ‘aliyah and the resumption of prophecy, goes without saying. In the Book of Kuzari this is clearly enunciated:
It is the sin which prevented from being fulfilled the divine promise with regard to the Second Temple, “Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion, for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord” [Zechariah 2:14]. The divine presence was ready to rest upon them as at first, if they had all willingly consented to return [to the Land of Israel]. But only a part was ready to do so, while the majority and the aristocracy remained in Babylon, preferring dependence and slavery, and unwilling to leave their houses and their affairs.[4]
Rabbi Burton is not content aligning the Kuzari with Reish Lakish. He would have the Kuzari embrace Rabbi Yohanan as well.[5] The reader will appreciate that this is no mean feat. How Rabbi Burton would go about accomplishing this, we will discuss in a moment.
Eichenstein (langeh Rekel) : Illegal for car wash operators to overcharge Jewish customers but it's ok For Jews to overcharge Matza, Meat and Fish
This"farikteh" meshiginar barking against goyishe "car wash" owners because they "are raising their prices before Pesach" what chutzpah!
Hey "Lange Reckel"....
Cleaning your car by a car wash is NOT a mitzvah! Your lazy teenagers should be doing it!
Eating Matzah is a mitzva eseh de'oirisah!
Why don't you scream at heimishe wholesalers that raise prices on staples, even milk before Pesach?
I have to say that in Israel, before Pesach, the prices actually go down. I found Fish, Meat and other staples reduced by over 10%!
New York State Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, who represents New York's 48th State Assembly district, published a video in which he urged car wash operators not to overcharge their Jewish customers before the holiday of Passover.
“Last year, it was brought to my attention that some local car wash operators, throughout our neighborhoods, have been increasing their prices in a discriminatory manner for their Jewish customers before Pesach,” he said.
Eichenstein noted that he is “specifically addressing car wash operators because of the bias and discrimination in deliberately charging their Jewish customers more for the same service that they provide to non-Jewish customers, because they know that we are obligated to clean our cars before Pesach.”
“It is illegal to raise the price for a particular service solely for one religious community at a specific time of year, while the prices remain reduced for everyone else. This is wrong. It is unethical and, above all, it is illegal,” he stated.
“I want to inform you that I have been in contact with the Attorney General’s office again this year, and they will be re-issuing a consumer alert along with a reporting hotline,” continued Eichenstein.
“My message to community members is this: Be careful. Before you agree to a car wash, check the price and confirm with the attendant. Make sure that the services provided for the Passover special are priced comparably to the same, similar services which are not officially Passover services. If you see a discrepancy, speak out. Let them know that the discriminatory practice is illegal and that you are not going to stand for it.”
To the car wash operators, Eichenstein said, “Charging more for your services before Pesach is not only taking advantage, it is blatant discrimination and is illegal. I can tell you, the Attorney General’s office will be watching. You have been warned.”
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Review of a Sefer That Debunks the Satmar Shita on the Three Oaths Part 1
The Sefer is available for sale here:
Ha'aretz Asher Arecha - R. Shnayor Burton הארץ אשר אראך - חובת הישיבה בארץ ישראל | eBay
and here:
הארץ אשר אראך - מצוות ישוב ארץ ישראל | ספרייתי (gitlerbooks.co.il)
In the aftermath of World War Two, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum of Satu Mare experienced an epiphany:
The incomparable tragedy of the Holocaust was divine retribution for the People of Israel having violated the legendary “Three Oaths” (Shalosh Shavu‘ot) administered by the Almighty, one of which was, “that Israel not ascend [to the Land of Israel] ke-homah, en masse.”[1]
The destruction of European Jewry evoked different responses from Hungarian rabbis. Whereas in the case of Rabbi Yissachar Teichtal of Pishtian (Piešťany), author of ’Em ha-Banim Semekha (Budapest, 1943), the persecutions evidently resulted in a volte face, a reversal of his earlier opposition to the Zionist movement, in the case of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, they only reinforced his vehement opposition to organized settlement of the Land of Israel.
After the War, the Rabbi of Satu Mare reconstituted his community in Brooklyn, New York. Eventually, he would sum up his ideology in two works: Vayyoel Moshe (Brooklyn, 1959)[2] and ‘Al ha-Ge’ulah ve-‘al ha-Temurah (Brooklyn, 1967). The latter work was written in the wake of the Six Day War in June of 1967, in order to dispel rumors that he had softened his stance. The catchy title (a quote from Ruth 4:7), “On the Redemption and the Exchange,” was designed to convey the Satmarer’s reading of the recent events:
Israel’s stunning victory was the work of Satan to dupe gullible Jews into believing in the Zionist cause!
Since then, scholars of various stripes have taken upon themselves to refute the Satmarer ideology:
Rabbis Mordechai ‘Atiyah,[3] Nahum Lamm,[4] Tsevi Yehudah Kook,[5] Shelomo Aviner,[6] and Yoel Kahn,[7] to name just a few.
The latest attempt to engage with the theories of Rabbi Teitelbaum is that of our author. Enter the fray, Rabbi Shnayor Burton, a Brooklyn-based rosh yeshivah.
Shimmy Segal Killed in Accident Near Antwerp
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A Chareidi driver from the UK was killed and 18 passengers were injured in a traffic accident between a minibus and a car outside Antwerp overnight Motzei Shabbos.
The minibus, filled with 18 chassidim from London who had traveled to visit the Pshevorsk Rebbe in Antwerp for Shabbos, hit a passing car and then overturned.
The 67-year-old driver, Shimmy Segal, a’h, was killed on the spot and one of the passengers, a 15-year-old bochur, was critically injured. Most of the other passengers were lightly injured.
Elliot Resnick, Former Jewish Press editor charged with interfering with law enforcement during Jan. 6 Capitol riot
When video emerged in 2021 of Elliot Resnick, the then-editor of the Jewish Press, among the rioters at the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that year, his publishers had a ready explanation: He was working as a journalist, covering history.
Now an FBI charging document says that Resnick was taking part in that history — in other words, that he was a member of the mob that stormed the Capitol.
The FBI arrest warrant for Resnick, signed Tuesday by a U.S. magistrate, lays out why authorities believe he was involved in the rioting, and not just reporting on it. Resnick left the Jewish Press, a politically conservative Brooklyn-based newspaper that serves the Orthodox Jewish community, in 2021.
Inner City Press, which covers the federal courts in New York City, reported that Resnick was due to appear in court on Thursday. Resnick has been charged with interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder, along with three charges related to entering and engaging in disruptive conduct while on restricted grounds. The charges may incur prison time.
The riot was spurred by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the presidential election — claims that Resnick echoed on social media.
Using video evidence and the testimony of police, Erica Dobin, the FBI agent who authored the charging document, wrote that Resnick held the arm of a police officer attempting to use chemical irritant to repel the rioters. The agent alleges that Resnick attempted to open doors for rioters to follow him, even when a police officer was trying to keep the door closed, and that he beckoned rioters to follow him and that he pulled rioters in through an open door.
The charging document also quotes at least one policeman who instructed Resnick to leave.
49% of DemonRats Sympathize with Palestinian Terrorists
A shocking new @Gallup poll finds that more Democrats sympathize with Palestinians (49%) than with Israelis (38%).
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) March 17, 2023
Among Republicans: 78% sympathize more with Israelis, 11% with Palestinians. Overall: 54% of Americans sympathize more with Israelis, 31% with Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/g6wZISC51C
German Tourists Mistaken for Jews Attacked in Shechem
How ironic? Germans mistaken for Jews! LOL Wonder how they’ll spin this story when they return home, may they return soon.
German tourists rented a car with Israeli license plates and drove into Nablus where they were nearly lynched by a Palestinian mob.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) March 18, 2023
The tourists managed to escape with minor injuries.pic.twitter.com/3bklIyFCqa
Two German tourists who entered Shechem on Shabbos were violently attacked by Palestinians.
The tourists had rented a ride-share car from the Tel Aviv Municipality with Israeli license plates and a sticker of the Israeli flag on it.
When Palestinians spotted the car, they began throwing stones at it, attempted to open the doors, and attacked the drivers.
Is Trump Getting Arrested?
If this in fact true, then the USA is finished. What was his crime that he paid some hush money? I think they are going after him because of Biden's crimes, him being on China's payroll. I even think that Biden shouldn't be prosecuted. It's only in third world countries that previous leaders are arrested. This would not be a good precedent.
Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that his arrest is imminent and issued an extraordinary call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.
Even as Trump’s lawyer and spokesperson said there had been no communication from prosecutors, Trump declared in a post on his social media platform that he expects to be taken into custody on Tuesday.
His message seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement from prosecutors and to galvanize outrage from his base of supporters in advance of widely anticipated charges. Within hours, his campaign was sending fundraising solicitations to his supporters, while influential Republicans in Congress and even some declared and potential rival candidates issued statements in his defense.
In a later post that went beyond simply exhorting loyalists to protest about his legal peril, the 2024 presidential candidate directed his overarching ire in all capital letters at the Biden administration and raised the prospect of civil unrest: “IT’S TIME!!!” he wrote. “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
It all evoked, in foreboding ways, the rhetoric he used shortly before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After hearing from the then-president at a Washington rally that morning, his supporters marched to the Capitol and tried to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House victory, breaking through doors and windows of the building and leaving officers beaten and bloodied.
Friday, March 17, 2023
US probing voter fraud accusations at Developers Yosef Horowitz & Wigdor Mendlovic in Fleischmanns in Catskills
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| Wigdor Mendlovic owns the Palace hotel along with 16 other properties in Fleischmanns. |
A tiny Catskills resort town is playing host to a federal probe over voter fraud accusations — even as locals head to the polls next week, The Post has learned.
Residents of Fleischmanns — a century-old “Borscht Belt” village located at the foot of the Belleayre ski resort — claim that a pair of deep-pocketed property moguls have recruited seasonal renters to stuff the ballot box so they can get favorable treatment for their development plans, as The Post previously reported.
Following repeated voter fraud disputes in Delaware County during the past two years, the local sheriff once again is investigating 76 voter registration cards — a big number given the small size of the expected tally — that were submitted during the past month, sources said.
The voter cards in question — on which registrants listed local motels and seasonal vacation homes as their permanent residences — are being challenged at the county board of elections by Fleischmanns resident Todd Pascarella, who is running for a town trustee seat in next week’s election.
“I don’t know where these people really live,” Pascarella told The Post.
“But we have signed affidavits from the owners of two motels attesting to the fact that the addresses [that the voters provided] are not residential properties.”
Like last year, a large number of new voters said they lived at the Valkyrian Motel or the Delaware Court Motel on Main Street in Fleischmanns, which is named for the Fleischmann family that built the baking yeast empire.
Others listed six modest homes that are owned by a religious “schul” representing the Hasidic community that vacations in Fleischmanns during the summer.
Dershowitz:"the only reason there are protests in the streets is because the reforms were brought up by this government"
Many expected major disagreements between legal experts Alan Dershowitz and Eugene Kontorovitch in their debate on judicial reform, but in the end, it turns out they both agree on the major points of the reform, though each perceive the Israeli Supreme Court through very different prisms. Dershowitz puts on his rose-colored glasses when he talks about the Israeli Supreme Court and the Attorney General.
Alan Dershowitz raises the most important point at the beginning of the discussion, the only reason there are protests in the streets is because the reforms were brought up by this government. If these same reforms had been brought up by any other Israeli government (which discussed them in the past), no one would care. He said the protests against judicial reform is a surrogate for “we don’t like Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.” He criticized American Jews for even getting involved.
In fact, Dershowitz said most people protesting the reforms have no idea what they are even protesting against.
Dershowitz points out the worst thing these reforms will do is make Israel into a democracy like Canada, New Zealand, or Australia.
Dershowitz argues that the debates would make Israel more democratic, as it would mean majority rules, though he is against weakening the judiciary. He repeatedly said these reforms would strengthen Israeli democracy.
Conservative Rabbis’ Finally Embrace Chareidim and Will Stop Making a Prayer For Israel on Shabbos!
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| Harav Kalmanofsky Shlitah Surrounded by His Chassidim |
In a sad and divisive move, Conservative Rabbanim, including the leader of New York City’s Congregation Ansche Chesed Jeremy Kalmanofsky, initiated a boycott of the prayer for the State of Israel. Kalmanofsky stated that he is discontinuing the prayer in his congregation because he believes that Israel’s current leaders are “dastardly” and he doesn’t want their efforts to succeed.
For many decades, during Shabbat services, Conservative and Religious Zionist Orthodox congregations have recited the heartfelt Prayer for the State of Israel, written by Israel’s chief rabbis in 1948.
The Conservative movement’s Sim Shalom prayer books only use the prayer’s first paragraph. Reconstructionist Jews, in their Kol Haneshamah prayer books, have also adopted the prayer’s first paragraph, with minor modifications, and made more modifications to the latter portions of the same prayer.
The prayer’s widely-used first paragraph asks God to bless the State of Israel, the first sprouting of our redemption; to shield Israel with God’s lovingkindness / to envelope Israel with peace / to bestow light and truth and good counsel upon Israel’s leaders, ministers and advisers / to strengthen the hands of the defenders of our holy land and save them and give them the crown of victory / and to grant peace in the land and eternal happiness to its inhabitants.
This is a nonpartisan invocation for Israel’s continuing existence and well-being. The prayer doesn’t endorse any political party or government leader or minister. Rather, the prayer beseeches the Almighty to bestow light, truth, and good counsel on Israel’s leaders and ministers, whoever they may be.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Fat Nadler appoints ‘so-called’ member of Congress a "klavta" to sabotage hearings, trash whistleblowers
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| Klavta Stacy Plaskett |
Now that Democrats are in the minority in the House and unable to abuse their power as easily as they have done the last two years, they are resorting to shameless lies to sabotage oversight hearings and trash whistleblowers and other inconvenient witnesses.
They have anointed as queen of this disinformation operation, a little-known Democrat named Stacey Plaskett, who is not even a full-fledged member of Congress.
Plaskett’s favorite adjective is “so-called,” which is ironic since she is a so-called member of Congress.
She does not have voting rights as the “at-large” delegate for the US Virgin Islands.
Yet she is a ranking member of the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, the first time a nonvoting delegate has occupied such a lofty post.
Fresh from besmirching two independent journalists, Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, as “so-called journalists” who endangered people’s lives by exposing Twitter’s censorship regime, Plaskett and her colleague in dirty work, New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, are attacking FBI whistleblowers.
In a 316-page unauthorized report full of falsehoods and deceptively edited quotes from his confidential testimony to the committee last month, Plaskett and Nadler derided hero FBI Agent Steve Friend as a “so-called” whistleblower.
Huwara Circus -Unraveled
The facts?
A far cry from the stories spun by foreign newsmen whose mindsets ranged from gullible to careless to hostile.
Here are some real facts:
1.“The cars that “the settlers” burned?
The large, dramatic piles of charred cars photographed in many articles, were not family cars, they were in a Huwara junkyard. Huwara has many car-repair stores, which make their living installing expensive spare parts obtained gratis by stealing Israeli cars and stripping them down.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Netanyahu cuts short Germany trip over security tensions
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to shorten his visit to Germany and to return to Israel tomorrow (Thursday) instead of Friday as originally scheduled.
The decision was made in light of recent security developments in Israel, though the precise nature of these developments has not been revealed.
Netanyahu held a security assessment with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier Wednesday afternoon.
The Prime Minister's Office stated: "Prime Minister Netanyahu has been following and being updated in recent days on the security developments together with the security leadership."
Netanyahu is expected to face protests over the government's planned judicial reforms both upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport tomorrow night and in Berlin. The timing of his return may be changed without notice to avoid the protests at the Tel Aviv airport.
Netanyahu will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin before returning to Israel. He is expected to call on the European Union to take a harder line against Iran's nuclear weapons program after it was revealed that Iran has enriched uranium to 84% purity, not far from the 90% which constitutes weapons-grade uranium.
Last week, Netanyahu visited Italy, where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He was meeting with members of the Jewish community of Rome at the city's main Sephardic synagogue when he was informed of the terrorist shooting attack in Tel Aviv in which three Israelis were wounded last Thursday night.
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