Joint Meals, Mass Prayers: Haredim defying rules on Sukkot

 

New reports surfaced over the weekend of virus restrictions being ignored in ultra-Orthodox communities at the start of the Sukkot holiday, with only limited police enforcement.

“Thousands make their way to the Hassidic synagogues for mass holiday prayers to be held as usual. In case you’re wondering, not a single police officer is in sight,” Haredi journalist Yisrael Frey tweeted on Friday.

The social media post was accompanied by photos of ultra-Orthodox men and children dressed in festive clothes. There was no location given for the pictures, which did not themselves show large gatherings

In response to the tweet, Meretz party leader MK Nitzan Horowitz said that “anyone who allows this — with encouragement or by turning a blind eye, and prevents enforcement — is the true hater of the ultra-Orthodox.”

A reporter for the Ynet news site said police entered three celebratory meals held against the rules in the Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim on Friday night, but left without doing anything.

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President Trump Hospitalized

 

US President Donald Trump was transferred to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday.

The medical team treating the president has reported that he is “doing very well” and has no difficulty breathing.

White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said that he and the medical team are “extremely happy with the progress” the president is making.

According to Fox News, Dr. Sean Dooley said that cardiac, kidney and liver functions are all normal, he is not on oxygen and is not having any difficulty breathing or walking.

Dooley said that the president is in exceptionally good spirits and said: “I feel like I could walk out of here today."

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“Dozens Of Israelis Diagnosed With COVID For 2nd Time,”

 As the coronavirus infection rate continues to rise Israel, senior medical professionals are seeing more and more cases of Israelis diagnosed with the virus for the second time.

“The data is unequivocal by us,” a senior health professional in one of Israel’s Kupot Cholim told B’Chadrei Chareidim. “Just in our Kupah, there are over 30 patients who were recently diagnosed for the second time, even those who didn’t have only mild symptoms the first time. It’s clear that people can contract the virus more than once.”

According to the official, Israel’s medical data has great significance on a worldwide scale. “Israel is the only country that maintains a giant database with all the members of the Kupot Cholim, and immediately began carrying out coronavirus tests during the first wave in an organized fashion.”

“For example, contrary to the United States and Europe, where even if people contracted the virus twice, there’s no documentation of all the incidents and it’s impossible to know which patients who claim to be positive for the second time were actually positive the first time, in Israel everything is recorded in an organized fashion.”

“We have databases where all the tests appear so with a press of a keystroke it’s possible to locate the entire list of patients to prove that they truly tested positive during the first wave.”

“The conclusion as it stands now is that even if an effective vaccine is developed, it won’t eradicate the virus and it will be necessary to be vaccinated several times a year to avoid re-infection.”

“There’s no doubt that we’ll soon see official scientific studies on the issue but as far as we’re concerned, the answer is already clear. We already have too many cases that show that this is a behavioral pattern of the coronavirus, which every day succeeds in proving its aggressiveness, cunning and above all, its unexpectedness.”

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Sukkot Medley Animation Video

 

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Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 92, diagnosed with coronavirus

 

One of the leading rabbis of the non-hassidic haredi world, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 92, has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

"Following a change in the body temperature of the great rabbi, he was examined and found positive for coronavirus," his spokesperson said in a statement.

The rabbi feels good and is continuing with his usual studies, under close medical supervision, according to the statement. The rabbi is calling on his followers to study the Talmudic tractate Brachot and to read Psalms in his honor.

Later, The Rishon Lezion Hagari Yosef announced that it was "a mitzvah for each and every person to pray for the complete health" of the rabbi.

"Together, with all the people of Israel, we pray for the speedy recovery of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky," said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion upon hearing about the diagnosis. "During our holiday prayers, we should pray for the healing of Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky son of Pasha Miriam."

President Reuven Rivlin and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that they, too, were praying for the rabbi, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that he wishes a "quick and complete recovery to the Torah genius, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky."

It was later released that the Kretchnif rabbi of Rehovot was also diagnosed with coronavirus. The rabbi is being treated in his home and is reportedly in stable condition.

The news comes the morning after the rabbi, along with his colleague Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, instructed that people should pray as much as possible in open spaces  due to the threat of the pandemic, and that “anyone who can help make this possible will be greatly rewarded.”

The rabbis also explained that it is forbidden to host guests in personal sukkahs over the holiday, in line with the recommendation of the Health Ministry. They also instructed that any time people are not with their nuclear family, they should wear masks and social distance.

“One of the things that most protects against infection is when people wear masks,” they wrote. “The benefit is substantial and should not be taken lightly.”

R' Kanievsky also released a video telling his followers to be screened for the virus during the interim days of Sukkot because it is “pikuach nefesh,” considered saving a life.

The coronavirus has been widespread within haredi society in Israel. 

Prof. Ronni Gamzu, the coronavirus commissioner, said Thursday that haredim make up around 40% of people diagnosed with coronavirus each day in Israel. Some 5,000 yeshiva students are infected, according to Roni Numa, the coronavirus coordinator for the ultra-Orthodox community.

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Coronavirus antibodies start to fade three months after symptoms begin, study of survivors' plasma finds

 Coronavirus antibodies in blood plasma donations fade rapidly after symptoms first appear, a new study suggests.

Researchers followed a small group of recovered COVID-19 patients who donated their blood and found all of them showed decreases in antibodies after three months.

What's more, just three weeks later, levels for half of the detectable antibodies fell again.  

Coronavirus antibodies in blood plasma donations fade rapidly after symptoms first appear, a new study suggests.

Researchers followed a small group of recovered COVID-19 patients who donated their blood and found all of them showed decreases in antibodies after three months.

What's more, just three weeks later, levels for half of the detectable antibodies fell again.  

Convalescent plasma therapy is when the liquid portion of blood is taken from a recovered coronavirus patient.

The hope is that the antibodies and immunity in the blood of a healthy person will be transferred to a sick person.

From this, the infected person will then develop the antibodies needed to fight off the coronavirus.

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The "Lying Media" Lies That the Debate is Embarrassing Us Around the World

 

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Watch How Totally Biased Chris Wallace Pulled the Same Crap In 2016

 Totally biased Chris Wallace pulled the same nonsense in a 2016 debate. After Donald Trump had just denounced these groups dozens of times in the previous weeks, Chris Wallace tried to con the audience by asking why he hasn't denounced them:

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Sukkahs a ‘serious danger’ For Spreading Coronavirus

A government report released ahead of the start of Sukkot on Friday evening warned that the ritual huts in which many Jews celebrate the holiday were a “grave danger” for spreading the coronavirus.

The latest Health Ministry figures meanwhile showed 7,639 new infections were confirmed Thursday, a day after a record 9,021 new cases were confirmed.

Another 671 were recorded since midnight, with the number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began rising to 255,771.

No new deaths were recorded overnight, with the national toll remaining at 1,622.

According to the ministry, there were 70,660 active cases, with 807 people in serious condition, including 196 on ventilators. Another 268 were in moderate condition and the rest had mild or no symptoms.

The Health Ministry said that 62,248 tests were performed Thursday, 12.3 percent of which came back positive, below the 13-15% daily positive test rates recorded over the past week.

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Zera Shimshon Succos

 

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Poll: Most Americans think Trump will win reelection

 

A Gallup poll shows that most Americans believe incumbent President Donald Trump will win the Nov. 3 election against former Vice President Joe Biden, and the percentage of respondents who are satisfied with his performance as president stands at 46 percent - the highest number since May.

Earlier this year, before the coronavirus pandemic struck the US, the percentage of Americans who expressed satisfaction with Trump's performance stood at a record high since taking office, with 49 percent approving of his performance.

Trump's approval rating fell to between 38-42 percent following the coronavirus outnreak and months of racial tensions in the US.

The poll also shows that most Americans expressed satisfaction with the way Trump handled the appointment of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg's successor to the Supreme Court. Among Republican voters, the satisfaction rate with Trump stands at 94 percent, while among Democratic voters only 7 percent expressed support for his performance. 39 percent of Independents approve of Trump's performance.

Trump received the highest marks for his handling of the economy with a 54 percent approval rate. 48 percent approve of his handling of law and order matters in light of the riots which have occurred in many American cities in recent months. His approval rating on foreign affairs stands at 46 percent, relations with China at 46 percent, response to the coronavirus at 44 percent, and race relations at 38 percent.

56 percent of respondents said that they believe Trump will win the upcoming presidential election next month. 90 percent of Republicans think Trump will win, while just 73 percent of Democrats believe Joe Biden will win.

The poll was conducted prior to the first presidential debate between Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday.

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Woman’s heartwarming "hesped" for beloved dog goes viral

 

Who was the best boy?

A heartfelt obituary written by a South Carolina woman about her golden retriever’s adorable “little quirks” fetched tens of thousands of likes when it went viral on Twitter Thursday.

Sallie Gregory Hammett, 30, wrote the tribute to her dog, Charlie, who died this month at age 7 after a battle with lymphoma — describing him as a peanut butter-and-banana-chowing, boyfriend-material-testing, fiercely loyal force of “unconditional love.”

“If we’re being honest, Charlie loved everything life had to offer,” reads the obituary, which has since raked in 100,000 likes. “He was good at a lot of things, but he was best at unconditional love. He taught everyone he met about loving people and always seeing the good in everyone.”

Hammett took Charlie home as an 8-week-old puppy and the two quickly became inseparable.

When she met her now-husband, David, Charlie’s affectionate response to him was an early deciding factor that he was a good guy, and worth dating.

“[David] loved him as much as I did, which I didn’t think was possible,” Hammett told CNN, adding that the couple adored the pup’s eccentricities.

“When you put the peanut butter on the banana, I mean you would think it was just the best day of his life,” she said.

And it cracked them up that he was oddly stubborn about refusing to use stairs.

“We never could figure out why, but he just needed a lot of encouragement to go upstairs,” she said.

When Charlie went to the big doghouse in the sky on Sept. 13, Hammett spent days mourning before considering taking out an ad in a local paper.

Instead, Hammett, who has a background in design, created a mockup newspaper-style obituary and posted it on Twitter, calling him “The best boy.”

After it was reposted by the popular accounts WeRateDogs and Thoughts of Dog, it reached thousands of sympathetic pooch lovers.

“His last days were so happy and will be cherished forever,” Hammett wrote. “In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you give all your pups some extra love in honor of Charlie.”

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President Trump, First Lady test positive for coronavirus

 President Trump announced early Friday that he and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!,” the president tweeted.

The first lady said the two “are feeling good,” in her own tweet addressing the diagnosis.

“Please be sure you are staying safe & we will all get through this together,” she wrote.

A memorandum dated Thursday from the president’s physician said the president and first lady “plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.”

The memo added: “Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering,”

Hours before Trump announced his positive COVID-19 results, news broke that one of his top aides, Hope Hicks, was diagnosed with the illness earlier Thursday.

Hicks had traveled aboard Air Force One with the Trumps to Tuesday’s presidential debate in Cleveland. She also accompanied Trump to his Wednesday night rally in Minnesota.

Trump did a Fox News phone interview Thursday night where he acknowledged spending “a lot of time” with Hicks and said he was awaiting the results of his test.

Trump also explained to host Sean Hannity that he and his staff run into issues with social distancing because Americans are often approaching them to express thanks.

“When soldiers and law enforcement comes up to her, you know, she wants to treat them great,” Trump said about Hicks. “Not say, ‘Stay away, I can’t get near you.’ It’s a very, very tough disease.”

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Is ultra-Orthodox ideological disobedience fueling Israel’s soaring virus rate?

 

With Israel currently topping the world record for the rate of new daily cases of COVID-19 infection, some doctors are reaching an uncomfortable conclusion: that the actions of one community are disproportionately responsible for the surge.

“I’m afraid to draw this conclusion,” says Dror Mevorach, after a day on the COVID-19 wards at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. “I’m not sure people will get it right, and they’ll see anti-Semitism and think I’m chasing the Orthodox, and I don’t want that at all.”

But he says he’s unable to ignore the scene in his wards, with numerous patients hospitalized soon after attending large indoor prayer services over Rosh Hashanah. “I expect, in a few days, to get a similar wave from Yom Kippur,” he commented.

Mevorach, Hadassah’s head of internal medicine, delivered his conclusion reluctantly, and stressed that living conditions, as well as conduct, have played a part in high infection levels of Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jews. Still, “I do think that, in some sections, irresponsible behavior no doubt encouraged the spread of disease, among themselves and in Israel,” he said.

He spoke to The Times of Israel as the scale of the Jewish state’s coronavirus woes in a global context was becoming clearer than ever, and as Israeli health officials gave the nation hard statistics on just how much more common coronavirus is among Haredim than among other citizens.

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How Taiwan a Country that Borders China Avoided Covid-19

 

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5 patients leave Hadassah coronavirus-free after been hospitalized in serious or critical condition

Five patients recently discharged from Hadassah Medical Center were healthy and coronavirus-free after taking part in the first clinical trial of an innovative treatment developed by the hospital.

Allocetra, the drug used in the clinical trial, was developed with the Enlivex Company based on research conducted by Prof. Dror Mevorach, director of the internal medicine and coronavirus departments at Hadassah. It had already been successfully tested on ten sepsis patients.

All five patients had been hospitalized in serious or critical condition.

"Allocetra is meant to treat a wide range of cases in which there is an overreaction of the immune system, which leads to an increase in the secretion of proteins by cells of the immune system called cytokines and causes a cytokine storm," explained Mevorach. "Its activity is carried out by treating cells taken from a healthy donor and engineering them in the laboratory in a way that, when they are injected into the patient's body, will control the inflammation or storm of cytokines that is very harmful to patients."

The clinical test was carried out with the permission of the Helsinki Committee of the Health Ministry by a team led by Prof. Vernon Van Heerden, the director of Hadassah Medical Center's General Intensive Care Unit.

"We are happy that the patients in severe and critical condition recovered after the Allocetra treatment," Enlivex said.

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In Israel You Will Get a 500 Shekel Fine If You Invite the "Ushpizin"

 The government on Wednesday night approved as a temporary order for seven days the regulation according to which a restriction will apply for participation in a demonstration up to the permitted distance from the house (1,000 meters), similar to any other exit from a place of residence, including for the purpose of prayer or religious ceremony.

In addition, it was determined that there will be no gathering in public spaces, including for a demonstration, prayer or religious ceremony in which the number of participants exceeds the number allowed (20 people), and no distance of two meters is maintained between the participants.

Ministers Assaf Zamir, Izhar Shay and Orit Farkash from Blue and White voted against the party.

In addition, the government approved via a telephone vote a 500 shekel fine for those who stay in a sukkah with a person who does not live with them.

The purpose of the fine is to deter citizens seeking to stay with relatives and friends during the holiday of Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Friday.

Earlier it was reported in Channel 12 News that coronavirus project manager Ronni Gamzu has decided to seek a significant increase in fines for citizens who do not meet the guidelines related to the virus.

According to the proposal, opening businesses, public spaces and places whose opening is prohibited by regulations will result in a fine of 10,000 shekels instead of 5,000 shekels as is in effect today.

At the same time, holding prohibited events with large numbers of participants, including parties, conferences and ceremonies, will result in a fine of 50,000 shekels compared to 5,000 today.

Gamzu also proposes to increase by ten the fine for opening an educational or boarding school that was barred from opening to 50,000 shekels.

The fine for violation of the obligation of personal isolation will, according to the proposal, be 10,000 shekels compared to 5,000 shekels today, and the fine for not wearing a mask will be 1,000 shekels compared to 500 shekels so far.

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Ireland's Highest Court Paskens that the Rolls in Subway Are Not Legally "Bread"

If there are any OTD guys going out to the Subway Restaurants in Ireland , you don't have to wash since the rolls according to the courts aren't legally "bread." But that's only if you are Chassidiish, if you from a litvishe background you may have to wash anyway if you are koviah seudah."

Ireland’s highest court isn’t sweet on tax breaks for footlongs.

The country’s Supreme Court ruled that the starch used in Subway sandwiches is too sugary to meet the definition of “bread” — a legal distinction that would have saved the firm some dough.

In deciding whether to give the fast-food chain a tax break for serving a “staple” food item, the five-judge panel ruled that the bread’s sugar-to-flour content is roughly five times too high to qualify, according to the Irish Independent.

For a company to be taxed zero percent, under the Value-Added Tax Act of 1972, the weight of sugar and fat in a bread product must not be more than 2 percent of the total weight of flour in the dough.

But the dough baked for Subway sandwiches has a sugar content of roughly 10 percent the weight of its flour content, the outlet reported.

In its decision, the court rejected arguments by a Subway franchise owner, Bookfinders in Galway, that the restaurant was not required to meet the standard on to-go items such as heated sandwiches, teas and coffees.

Bookfinders had demanded a refund for past years’ taxes in an appeal of a 2006 case.

While shooting down the legal challenge, Justice Donal O’Donnell said the definition of “bread” was established to distinguish the starch from other baked goods, such as cookies or brownies, that aren’t healthy enough to be considered essential.

All six of the company’s bread options — Italian white bread, Italian herbs and cheese, nine-grain wheat, hearty Italian, nine-grain multi-seed, and honey oat — were deemed too sugary by the court to qualify as bread.

According to nutrition facts posted by the Subway, a 6-inch white bread roll has 5 grams of sugar — similar to that of an Oreo cookie. 

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Mayer Rispler Satmar "Rosh Hakahal" Sick With Covid

As COVID-19 test positivity rates continue to climb in Orthodox communities in New York, a major leader of the Satmar Hasidic sect was put on a ventilator Wednesday morning after becoming critically ill with COVID-19.

Flyers circulated online Wednesday morning calling for prayers for Mayer Rispler, a community leader in the Aronim faction of the Satmar community.

An accountant by trade, Ripsler has long been one of the community’s most important leaders and a major donor to Satmar institutions. He has also served as a spokesperson for the community at times.

In April, after a large funeral prompted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to lash out at the community in a widely criticized tweet, Rispler defended the mayor and called for compliance with government health regulations.

“We do not condone any behavior that puts people at risk and pledge to keep working alongside the brave men and women of the NYPD in addressing and eliminating any such occurrences,” Rispler wrote at the time.

Rispler is not the first major leader in the Satmar community to become gravely ill with COVID-19. Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, head of the Aronim faction, reportedly tested positive for the virus in March.

His name for Tehillim is Meir Zelig ben Esther. 

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Biden Wore a Wire During Debates

 

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