When Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid received the mandate from then-President Reuven Rivlin to form a government after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was once again unable to form a parliamentary majority, he succeeded in luring right-wing stalwart Naftali Bennett away from his natural political partners. He did this by offering Bennett the only position that would get him to break away from the “national” camp: that of prime minister.
The move was a political masterstroke. Despite having promised over and over again not to partner with Lapid, Bennett grabbed the opportunity to take Israel’s top seat. He did so even with a rotation arrangement in place, which has Lapid scheduled to take the reins in August 2023.
The government that emerged from the above deal was the farthest-left possible alignment that could have been constructed. With every last left-wing member of Knesset, it has a razor-thin, one-seat parliamentary majority that, for the first time in Israeli history, relies on an anti-Zionist Arab party.
Lapid currently serves as alternate prime minister—with veto power over government initiatives—and as foreign minister. The unwritten arrangement between him and Bennett is that the latter will handle domestic issues, while the former will deal with foreign policy.
With Bennett and most Israelis focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines and restrictions, Lapid has been free to operate without much attention or criticism from the media or general public. Since assuming office, however, he has overseen a number of highly questionable diplomatic moves.
The Clueless Biden administration is pushing Israel to allow it to open its consulate for the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, a US State Department official told reporters in regards to the meeting between Blinken and Lapid today (Wednesday).
The naive official pointed out that the US still backs the two-state solution and stresses the importance of preventing violence or unilateral steps.
"The Biden administration began with an outright commitment to a two-state solution and we intend to see this happen. We expect cooperation from both sides: this includes prevention of the annexation of territories, building settlements, destruction of property, incitement to violence, and halting payments to terrorist prisoners," the senior official said.
The naive official also said that the US intends to reestablish its nuclear deal with Tehran. “We have had many discussions with many of our allies, including with Israel, regarding America's relationship with Iran. We continue to consult closely with them as this process progresses."
"The United States has stated that it is interested in returning to the nuclear deal if Iran adheres to it and we are working to achieve that goal."
In acknowledgment of the anniversary of the Abraham Accords another state official states that Biden's administration supports normalizing relations between Israel and Arab Countries. "We believe that the Abraham Accords serve as proof of the pros of dissolving prior agendas and barriers between the nations. We are working towards expanding the agreement, possibly to include other Arab countries." She said.
Another issue to be discussed in the meeting today between Blinken and Lapid will be future relations between Israel and China, specifically in trade.
A new lawsuit claims that the man who crafted what might be the most famous menorah in the world sexually abused a young girl dozens of times in the 1990s and that a rabbinical court failed to hold him accountable.
The survivor of this alleged abuse, now a 36-year-old woman living in Israel, is trying to get possession of her abuser’s brass menorah, which is normally displayed during Hanukkah at the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn.
Her lawyer says that if she succeeds, she’d consider melting it down in a symbolic act against taboos that have kept cases like hers from being known.
The craftsman behind the 6-foot-tall menorah was Hirschel Pekkar (no pun intended). After he died in July, an obituary on a Chabad community news site described him as “a renowned Crown Heights silversmith who created the famous Menorah which stands each Chanukah in 770 Eastern Parkway,” referring to the address of the Hasidic movement’s headquarters.
Google has reportedly pulled several ads for “stalkerware” apps that apparently allow users to spy on spouses’ phones.
The search giant already bans advertising apps designed to surveil spouses — which critics say violate privacy and enable domestic abuse — but five companies were still placing ads for stalkerware through Google last week, TechCrunch reported.
After the outlet asked Google for comment, the tech giant said it immediately banned the ads.
Stalkerware apps — which let customers secretly track other users’ locations, read their texts and monitor their calls, among other invasive features — occupy a gray area within Google’s advertising rules.
Google bans advertising apps used for “intimate partner surveillance” — but lets companies advertise so-called stalkerware apps if they are “designed for parents to track or monitor their underage children” or used for “private investigation services.”
Since private investigation services are sometimes used to catch cheating romantic partners, it’s unclear where Google draws the line when deciding whether to ban an ad.
In a statement to The Post, a Google spokesperson said: “We do not allow ads promoting spyware for partner surveillance. We immediately removed the ads that violated this policy and will continue to track emerging behaviors to prevent bad actors from trying to evade our detection systems.”
One stalkerware company called mSpy placed a Google advertisement promising to let customers spy on “your kids, husband or wife, grandma or grandpa,” according to TechCrunch.
Another app, called ClevGuard, promised to “dispel any doubts in a relationship,” the outlet reported.
A third company, called PhoneSpector, allegedly said its product would “catch a cheater.”
Stalkerware apps are more pervasive on Android devices but can also be installed on iPhones and iPads, experts say.
t might be time to rethink that daily aspirin regimen.
US health experts have urged a revision to the routine prescription of daily, low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attack and stroke, as studies now show that the practice may put healthy adults at risk of other serious complications.
The panel’s report maintained that low-dose aspirin, at 81-100 milligrams per dose, can reduce the risk of cardiac events and stroke, but at the same time “increases [the risk of] major GI bleeding, extracranial bleeding and intracranial bleeding,” they wrote.
Evidence also points to a “long-term reduction” in the incidence of colorectal cancer and mortality, but “results are limited” as to whether the benefits outweigh the risks for healthy patients with no previous signs of heart disease.
The new instructions would apply in particular to those aged 60 and below who are considered high risk for heart disease or stroke. Meanwhile, those on a daily aspirin regimen due to a prior heart attack should decide with a physician whether they should continue.
Cardiac history aside, the national task force now discourages anyone older than 60 to reconsider taking the daily dose, as bleeding risks increase significantly with age.
“There’s no longer a blanket statement that everybody who’s at increased risk for heart disease, even though they never had a heart attack, should be on aspirin,” Dr. Chien-Wen Tseng, a researcher at the University of Hawaii and member of the US preventative health panel, told the New York Times in a statement published Tuesday. “We need to be smarter at matching primary prevention to the people who will benefit the most and have the least risk of harms.”
The advice comes after the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology issued a similar warning with updated guidelines in 2019, suggesting a daily low-dose aspirin for patients already diagnosed with heart disease — but not for those who are otherwise healthy. Their report, produced by researchers with Harvard and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, found that nearly half of Americans over 70 were taking aspirin daily, some of which had no prior recommendations from their physicians.
The AHA also called attention to bleeding risk in older patients facilitated by aspirin, a type of blood thinner and anticoagulant, as seen in previous studies.
Dr. Jeffrey Berger, director of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Health, called the trend “shocking” in an interview with The Post at the time. His lab studies blood platelets and coagulation as an indicator of heart health.
“The fact that many people use aspirin without consulting their health-care provider is shocking, and likely results from the perception that aspirin has little downside,” he said.
The AHA’s guidelines, similar to the US Preventive Services Task Force update, see that adults over 70 without heart disease, and younger than 40 with increased risk of bleeding, should avoid regular doses of aspirin. Anyone outside those groups should consult their doctor first.
A 14-year-old girl was seriously injured after being hit with a hammer that was thrown through the windshield of the car she was riding in.
The incident took place around 2:20 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 10, just south of Exit 14A on I-87, in the town of Ramapo in Rockland County.
According to New York State Police Trooper Tara McCormick, a preliminary investigation determined that a hammer went through the windshield of a vehicle, striking the front seat passenger.
The victim was transported to Westchester County Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
The incident remains under investigation. State Police are asking anyone who may have information regarding this incident to contact State Police Tarrytown at 800-842-2233.
It girl novelist Sally Rooney has reportedly refused to allow her new novel to be published in Hebrew because she supports a boycott of Israel.
The acclaimed Irish novelist turned down Modan, the Israeli publisher that translated her previous books, because of her outspoken views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Haaretz reported.
“When Modan approached Rooney’s agent in an attempt to sign another translation deal, the agent announced that Rooney supports the cultural boycott movement on Israel and therefore does not approve translation into Hebrew,” Haaretz reported as an addendum to its reprint of an interview Rooney gave last month.
Rooney’s agent, Tracy Bohan, confirmed that the author had declined the translation of “Beautiful World, Where Are You,”
Modan confirmed that it would not be publishing the award-winning writer’s third novel, but declined to say whether this was due to a boycott, the Telegraph said.
Rooney, 30, has previously been outspoken about her opposition to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the Telegraph noted.
She recently signed a so-called “Letter Against Apartheid” that called for “an end to the support provided by global powers to Israel and its military; especially the United States.” The open letter also urged governments to “cut trade, economic and cultural relations.”
In her second novel, “Normal People,” the main characters attend a protest against Israel’s role in the 2014 Gaza war, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency also noted.
The reported boycott immediately brought condemnation.
“Boycotting the Hebrew language — spoken by millions of Jews worldwide — has nothing to do with Palestine. It’s just racism,” tweeted Stephane Savary, a member of the National Council Vice-Presidents of the UK-based Zionist Federation.
Political pundit Gerard Howlin, meanwhile, insisted, “Sally Rooney’s refusal to allow her new book be translated into Hebrew is book burning in another way.”
Literary scholar Gitit Levy-Paz wrote in Forward that “Rooney’s decision surprised and saddened me.”
“Rooney has chosen a path that is anathema to the artistic essence of literature, which can serve as a portal for understanding different cultures, visiting new worlds and connecting to our own humanity,” Levy-Paz wrote.
“Given the rise of antisemitism in recent years, especially in Europe, the timing of her choice is dangerous.”
There is a story told about the Gaon of Vilna, who was walking with his talmidim past a bar on Friday night on the way to shul. Suddenly one of his talmidim noticed that a former talmud of the Gaon was sitting in the bar, smoking a cigarette.
The Gaon commented that after this former talmud dies and comes up to heaven to face judgement for disgracing the sanctity of Shabbos, he will still be asked if he learned "maaseh markava" .... Kabbala.
In other words, even ,someone who has gone so far off the religious path that he publicly desecrates the Sabbath, still has an obligation to learn all parts of the Torah including the mystical aspects ... being a "mechallel Shabbos" does not give one an exemption , a pass.
That got me thinking, that before I go, I should delve into some Kabbala. Not that I am done learning Shas, Tanach, Halacha etc., but maybe just to dabble a bit so that I can say I tried, even though I will never be a "kabbalist"
And so I started my journey into Kabbalah, learning Chassidishe Seforim that contain Kabbalistic concepts albeit in a filtered way.
I also learned Tanye. The Tanye was written by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe who is called the "Baal Ha'Tanya" named after his sefer the "Tanye"
In this sefer he describes a kabbalistic concept called "Tzimzum". This is not the forum to discuss this deep concept but just to whet your appetite, let me explain very briefly and simply.
We all believe that Hashem is everywhere. If you ever went to the planetarium, and looked up at the vast sky with billions of stars, you will never find earth on your own. They will direct you to a tiny speck in the sky.
So how does Hashem manifest Himself into our own very lives and bodies, when He is so so huge and compared to the Universe we are so tiny and minuscule ?
The answer is, because Hashem is unlimited and infinite, He must therefore constrict (Tzimzum) His powerful manifestation, so that limitation and finitude can be actualized.
I just gave you a very simple surface explanation, just so that you can follow my story.
After learning Tanye I decided to delve into the Litvishe sefarim and I started learning Nefesh Hachayim, a small booklet written by R'Chaim Volozhin, the star pupil of the Vilna Gaon.
This booklet, Nefesh hachayim was printed posthumously by his son, R' Yitzchok, after R' Chaim on his deathbed begged him to publish Nefesh Hachayim "exceedingly quickly."
R' Yitzchok did not publish it right away and procrastinated and his son, Chaim, named after his father died within the year of his birth and soon after, his 8 year-old son died. R' Yitzchok in his preface to Nefesh HaChayim attributed these deaths for his procrastinating; not publishing the booklet immediately.
In this Nefesh Hachayim, R' Chaim also discusses the kabbalistic concept of "tzimzun" but has a different understanding, (I thought) than the Baal Ha'Tanye, and I was confused.
And even though I understand that Chassidic and Litvishe views differ, but "tzimzum" is "tzimzum" and can only have one understanding.
So one nice day I went into a shul in Beit Shemesh to daven Mincha. There was a half hour break between Mincha & Maariv, and I had time to browse the sefarim in their library and there, lo and behold, I saw on the shelf a two-volume set called "Nefesh Ha'Tzimtzum" by Avinoam Fraenkel.
I brought the book over to my seat in shul and opened it up and saw that it was an English translation of the Nefesh Hachayim. But it wasn't just a translation, it had very sensitive annotations with referencing and cross referencing, and the pinnacle of the book was clear and had profound sections that analyzed and discussed the topic of Tzimtzum in a highly innovative, truth-seeking and meticulous manner.
I decided that this would be my shul, because I became so engrossed in the sefer that I couldn't tear myself away from it. In fact one night I became so engrossed that I forgot to come home and my wife sent people to look for me.
Across the aisle, sat a young man who was apparently watching me as I learned this sefer, and he asked me what I found so intriguing. I told him, that I was trying to reconcile the view of Tzizum of the Baal Hatanye and the Tzimzum understanding of the Nefesh Hachayim, and I was hoping that this sefer would have the answer.
That's when he told me that he was Avinoam Fraenkel the author of those books and proceeded to tell me that he discusses it in Volume two. He then took me to his home and gave me a set of his seforim.
Why am I telling you this?
Avinoam Fraenkel just finished his new book a translation of "Shomer Emunim" a sefer written by Rabbi Yosef Ergas, in the late 1720's. Rabbi Ergas, was an Italian Kabbalist.
Shomer Emunim powerfully responds to those who claim Kabbalah was fabricated. It also explains Kabbalistic concepts simply, dispelling the illegitimate views of those encouraging blasphemous religious compromise by distorting those very concepts.
The original Shomer Emunim Hebrew text, together with its complete, facing-page, English translation and commentary, are presented in an innovative and easily digestible format. See the video below
You can get the sefer on Amazon. I get no commissions from the sale of these books, and I am only promoting it because I found these sefarim fascinating and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.
A study conducted at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital and published Thursday shows a consistent decline in the neutralizing antibodies six months after receiving the second dose of Corona vaccine, in all but one group: overweight people.
The study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Waning Immune Humoral Response to BNT162b2 Covid-19 Vaccine over 6 Months) included 4868 participants, with 3808 being included in the linear mixed-model analyses. The level of IgG antibodies decreased at a consistent rate, whereas the neutralizing antibody level decreased rapidly for the first 3 months with a relatively slow decrease thereafter. However, obese participants (those with a BMI of ≥30) had a 31% increase in neutralizing antibody concentrations as compared with nonobese participants.
The study concluded that six months after receipt of the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine, the humoral response was substantially decreased, especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression.
Israel’s National Drone Initiative, which first began its flights over urban areas in January 2021, launched on Sunday its third phase, in participation of five companies that operate autonomous drone networks.
This is the third stage in a series of eight demonstrations expected to take place during the coming two years, during which tens of thousands of sorties will take place in Israel’s skies.
This phase, with the participation of 16 Israeli companies and international representatives, includes 10 days of flights that will take place above residential areas in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Ramat Sharon, Herzliya and the city Hadera, where the project was launched, while in parallel a flight transport will take place in Brazil, controlled by the management system in Israel.
The drones are expected to carry out around 300 flights per day and carry out different kinds of tasks on flight paths assigned by the joint control system, including the delivery of sushi, security missions for an emergency facility, ice-cream deliveries, and flights to deliver donated blood, platelets and plasma from the Magen David Adom (MDA) Blood Bank to Sheba-Tel HaShomer Hospital.
It appears that the town of Yavne, home to the Sanhedrin in exile after the destruction of the Second Temple, became a worldwide powerhouse of wine production some 1,500 years ago. A vast, well-designed industrial estate from the Byzantine period with an impressive wine production complex—the largest of its kind in the world in that period—has been excavated in the city of Yavne over the past two years.
This large-scale excavation has been conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority as part of the Israel Land Authority’s initiative to expand the city. The plant includes five magnificent wine presses, warehouses for aging and marketing the wine, kilns for firing the clay jars in which the wine was stored, tens of thousands of fragments and intact earthen jars, and well-planned access from each facility to the others.
Drinking wine was very common in ancient times, for children and adults alike. The water was not always clean or tasty, so wine was used as a kind of concentrate to improve the taste. Each of the exposed winepresses covered an area of about 225 square meters. Compartments were built across the treading floor for fermenting the grape juice after it had been crushed by barefoot workers, and next to them there stood two enormous octagonal-shaped vats for collecting the extracted liquid.
Sources state that they did not let their mother hospitalize him as his oxygen trended down to the 70’s and lower until he was critical and was admitted to the ICU.
As soon as shiva ends I expect them to accuse the hospital of malpractice and murder.
The BBC described Alfred Dreyfus — a French-Jewish officer accused of treason in the Dreyfus Affair — as a "notorious Jewish spy" in its summary for the first episode of a period police drama released on October 9.
"Paris, 1899. The French Republic is in turmoil as rumors spread about the release from Devil's Island of Dreyfus, the notorious Jewish spy," read the summary for episode 1 of BBC's Paris Police 1900.
According to the BBC, the summary was later changed to avoid misunderstanding. The line from the program page was rewritten to describe Dreyfus instead as having been "previously arrested for spying."
"The sentence was not intended as an [sic] historical statement, but to reflect the rumors towards the Dreyfus case that we see in the drama — which also depicts the rise of antisemitism," the BBC Spokesperson said in response to a Jerusalem Post inquiry.
"For the BBC to produce a series featuring Alfred Dreyfus, who was baselessly accused of treason, and then describe him as a 'notorious Jewish spy' is an insult to his memory and to the Jewish community in general," Emanuel Miller, a media analyst at the media watchdog organization HonestReporting, told The Jerusalem Post. "The Dreyfus case represented a key moment in Zionism's history and in the eyes of many is a byword for the miscarriages of justice suffered by Jews throughout the ages. How many times must a Jew's name be smeared?"
"While the website text was quietly changed, the BBC evidently feels it doesn't owe Jews an apology, much less take serious steps to familiarize its staff with the basics of antisemitism in order to prevent such easily avoidable mishaps," Miller said to the Post. "Unfortunately, judging by past experience, the BBC is unlikely to apologize for the insulting mischaracterization."
Alfred Dreyfus was a French Jewish Military officer who was falsely accused of treason in 1894 in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War. Dreyfus's officer sword was publicly broken, he was stripped of his rank, and imprisoned on Devil's Island. Eventually, reports of an army cover-up of Dreyfus' innocence and scapegoating were leaked to the press, later leading to his exoneration in 1906.
The antisemitism surrounding the scandal convinced Theodor Herzl, then a journalist and later one of the founding fathers of Zionism, of the necessity of establishing a Jewish state.
Developers were about to build a building on this site on Rechov Luz in Beit Shemesh Alef, just blocks from where I live, and discovered a Kosher Mikvah and an olive press on site. So instead of another building the Zionists will build a park around this new find so that all of us will enjoy sitting where our grandparents lived during the times of the Chashmonim...
Who knew that 2,000 years later a descendant would move around the corner from where my ancestors lived
תושבי בית שמש בתקופת החשמונאים בוודאי לא העלו בדעתם, שמקווה הטהרה ובית הבד שבו הם מייצרים שמן, יהפכו בתוך 2,000 שנה, לחלק מהגן הציבורי של תושבי בית שמש המודרניים
חורבת אל כיך ברמת בית שמש נחפרה במשך שש עונות חפירה, בניהולה של ד"ר אלנה קוגן זהבי מרשות העתיקות. ממש בימים אלו, נשלמות עבודות הפיתוח של השטח הציבורי בשכונה, בתום עבודות השימור רחבות של מינהל השימור של רשות העתיקות במימון משרד השיכון. במסגרת העבודות, ייצבו המשמרים את הממצאים, והם שילבו אותם בצורה הרמונית בפארק הארכיאולוגי. צוות השימור שלנו הכשיר את העתיקות, כך שכיום ניתן לבקר בהן באופן חופשי, ובהמשך ישולבו בגן שלטי הסבר והמחשות.
סיפורה של חורבת כיך הולך הרבה אחורה. אחרי הגירוש הגדול של נבוכדנאצר מלך בבל, כל שפלת יהודה ננטשה לחלוטין. מבנה מהתקופה הפרסית שנתגלה באתר, גילה לנו שהחזרה לשם אחרי הגירוש החלה בתקופה הפרסית – במאה ה-4 לפנה"ס. מבנים נוספים, מאוחרים יותר שנחשפו, מהתקופה החשמונאית, ובהם מקווה טהרה ציבורי, גת לייצור יין ובית בד, סיפרו את סיפורו של הכיבוש החשמונאי והתעצמות השלטון היהודי באזור.
היישוב אמנם ננטש אחרי חורבן בית שני, אבל סוף הסיפור, כמו שאנחנו מכירים אותו, טוב, והיום שוכנת לה כאן עיר יהודית מודרנית, שתהנה מפארק ארכיאולוגי חדש ומונגש.
What exactly did Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and President Joe Biden discuss about settlements? And what’s behind leaks that want to suggest cracks in their relationship?
This is how the Israeli government and Chareidie leadership respond to Hamas threats. Hamas is correct in their celebration - this is a surrendering indeed. I wonder what would be the next Hamas demand that Israeli government will yield to. And I'm sure that Hamas, encouraged by such surrender will come up with next demand.
A ruling allowing a Jew to silently pray on the Temple Mount for the first time was reversed by a Jerusalem District Court judge on Friday.
District Court Judge Aryeh Romanov agreed with an appeal by Public Security Minister Omer Barlev and the police, ruling that only Muslims are allowed to overtly pray on the Temple Mount.
“What is important… is the fact that there was someone who noticed the praying, which evidently shows that the prayer was overt. If it was not overt, no one would have noticed it,” Romanov wrote.
Hamas was ecstatic after the Jewish prayer ban was reinstated, calling it a “surrender to the threats made by Palestinians.”
In September, police banned Rabbi Aryeh Lippo from the Temple Mount for two weeks after he was seen praying on the holy site. But Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Bilha Yahalom ruled that Lippo had a right to return to the holy site. “His daily arrival at the Temple Mount indicates that this is a matter of principle and substance for him,” Yahalom wrote.
Abortion is never simple — no matter the state, the stage of pregnancy, or the reason.
While the nation is besotted with headlines, as Roe v. Wade is once again brought to the forefront of debate, we often overlook the actual stories of women who go through this experience.
But there is one group of women for whom abortion is an especially fraught decision — women in religiously conservative communities, and particularly, women of the Orthodox Jewish community.
