Israel has to go in and possibly lose the remaining hostages, so as to win the war decisively. Israel cannot allow itself to be blackmailed again. I believe if it was any other country that had its citizens kidnapped, they would have gone in swiftly and hugely and Gaza would have been turned into rubble in days from the air and Hamas utterly destroyed.

Time to make a decision in Gaza, hard as it is

 

Someone has to call an end to this situation where Israel is being blackmailed with the hostages. Israel has to go in and possibly lose the remaining hostages, so as to win the war decisively. 

---

"The IDF Spokesperson in Arabic, Avichay Adraee, issued a statement this morning (Sunday), for the first time, demanding that Gazan residents in the southwestern area of Deir al-Balah evacuate the region in preparation for a potential ground maneuver.”

The IDF has so far avoided operating in the southwestern area of Deir al-Balah out for fear of the safety of hostages being held in the area.

Obviously not to harm civilians, the IDF has no option other than to alert Hamas. Israel’s decency is quite extraordinary and I doubt any other country would do the same at a huge cost to its soldiers and itself.

I have thought for a long time someone has to make a hard decision and take responsibility. King David wasn’t allowed to build the Temple, but he was not prohibited from planning for it and assembling materials needed for when his son Solomon would build it. In other words, he made the decision, aided, but couldn’t fulfill it. The decision wasn’t left for Solomon.

Similarly, someone has to call an end to this situation where Israel is being blackmailed with the hostages. Israel cannot allow itself to be blackmailed again. I believe if it was any other country that had its citizens kidnapped, they would have gone in swiftly and hugely and Gaza would have been turned into rubble in days from the air and Hamas utterly destroyed. The hostages may or may not have survived, but Hamas certainly would not have. Ideally that is what Israel could and possibly should have done, but it is a far too decent and humane society.

No one wants to harm the hostages, but the arithmetic and logic is against continuing as we are. In excess of 888 soldiers have died in this war plus thousands injured and maimed. There are apparently twenty hostages still alive. The hostages are innocents caught up in this war.

The current negotiations are an attempt to get at least ten hostages out, but as usual at a great cost. I hope and pray we can get them all out, but if ten come out, I think Hamas will not budge on the remaining ten and if the IDF get close, will murder them out of pure viciousness. They already murdered others in cold blood.

Israel has to finish this war and destroy Hamas. There isn’t a single righteous Arab/Islamist in Gaza who has come forth with information in spite of a $5 million reward. They are all Hamas.

Israel therefore has to go in and possibly lose the remaining hostages. There but for the grace of G-d go all of us, both hostages, families and decision makers.

King David couldn’t build the Temple, but Solomon could and look what came as a result and the glory of finally building and having a Temple. It will be a very sad and painful day if we lose the hostages and the left wing and its media will take full advantage of it, but the war will end, Hamas will be no more, Gaza emptied and the beginning of a new era and a new Middle East.

Israel has a unique opportunity as a result of this war to substantially rid itself and the Middle East of the uncivilized Islamic terrorist savages. All of them including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Houthis, all internal terrorists, dismantle the Palestinian Authority and also rid Iran of the medieval and evil Ayatollah regime.

In doing so Israel will not only set a great example to a feckless Europe, but the whole world and will do the whole world a great favour. By the whole world I include China and especially Russia whose future actually lies with Europe and will move in that direction as soon as Putin is gone.

The world, especially Europe right now, cannot go on with the threat of Islam in its midst. Islam has taken advantage of the West’s democracy, liberalism, laws et al and these now have to be changed as not doing so endangers Europe and Britain where the useless and weak governments are pandering to the Islamists for votes and the Islamists are using these countries’ ruling parties to take over their countries.

Hard decisions have to be made in Europe and Britain as well.

History has proven over and over again that some incident somewhere, neither big nor small, can and often does lead to far bigger consequences and revolutionary changes. The assassination of the Grand Duke Ferdinand lead to WWI. One man’s death lead to the deaths of millions.

Weak, bad and stupid decisions lead to awful consequences. History is full of examples including the most recent history. Take the stupidity of Jimmy Carter throwing his ally, the Shah under the bus in his misguided self-righteousness and stupidly, in the name of spreading democracy, supporting Ayatollah Khomeini and look what happened to Iran and the threats it has presented as a result over the last forty six years. Jimmy Carter owned what happened to Iran, but I can presume it didn’t bother him or play on his conscience. (What an inappropriate man to elect as President. And the American repeated the stupidity again in electing Obama and Biden. )

Israel is fortunate it is currently blessed with the best Prime Minister for dealing with the situation. I doubt any other of the candidates and wannabes could have achieved what Netanyahu has achieved, navigated the international threats, survived and managed Obama and Biden, these Presidents’ deliberate attempts at undermining and unseating him, spurious political arrest warrants from the ICC, horrendous internal politics not only from the opposition, but the ever present stress and danger of the parties in his coalition. Add to that military decisions, the madness of the court cases against him, an Attorney General appointed by the opposition when they briefly held power who undermines him, an unelected Judiciary that has staged a judicial coup and doesn’t know its place in a balanced democracy and much much more….. and all of this whilst at war on seven fronts.

It is Netanyahu with his cabinet who have to be decisive, brave and wise and have to make the difficult decision to destroy Hamas and unfortunately decide the fate of the remaining hostages. Not easy with the pressures of the hostage families. May Hashem guide Netanyahu and his cabinet, aid our military and save our hostages. A very hard decision has to be made.

There is no other choice.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/412111

“Better To Die Than Enlist!” Nu!

“Better To Die Than Enlist!”  Nu!

 

Sections along Highway 4 have also been shut down due to the protests, and police have been working to maintain order as haredi rioters yelled insults including "Nazis," "terrorists," and "butchers."

Haredi demonstrators against the haredi draft law threw bottles at police and assaulted them, forcing Jerusalem traffic to grind to a halt on Wednesday.

Hundreds of protestors blocked the roads near Chords Bridge with signs saying "Enlistment = Genocide," "Death before conscription," and "War on the draft law."

Concerns deepen over military’s mental health system after series of soldier suicides

 

As lawmakers demand transparency from the IDF, experts urge deeper understanding of war’s psychological toll on troops

 

 IDF soldiers hold a wreath at the funeral of soldier Ron Sherman at the Lehavim cemetery

 

A string of suicides among Israeli soldiers over less than two weeks this July has reignited concerns over the military’s mental health system, with experts warning that the war’s prolonged psychological toll is pushing troops past their limits.

The first case to draw national attention this month was that of Daniel Edri, a reservist who died by suicide on July 5 after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his combat service in Gaza and Lebanon.

His mother, Sigal Edri, told the Ynet news site that Daniel would describe vivid flashbacks — seeing flames, smelling bodies — and often awoke in the middle of the night in a panic, convinced he was back on the battlefield. In his final days, he spoke openly about ending his life, fearing that living with PTSD would be unbearable.

In the days that followed, two additional IDF soldiers were found dead in separate incidents of suspected suicide — one on July 9 at a base in southern Israel, and another on July 14 at a base in the north.

On July 15, Cpl. Dan Phillipson, a paratrooper in training, was seriously wounded in an apparent attempt to end his life at a training base in southern Israel. Phillipson, a lone soldier from Norway who had moved to Israel a year ago to enlist, was hospitalized but ultimately succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.

Dr. Leah Shelef, who served as a mental health officer in the IDF for 20 years and researches the field of suicide among soldiers and reservists, told The Times of Israel that this isn’t the first time the military has faced a sudden spike in suicides.

Family, friends, and fellow soldiers attend the funeral of Cpl. Dan Phillipson, a lone soldier from Norway, at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, July 20, 2025.

 

“Suicides have a contagious effect,” she said. “There have been months in the past in which three soldiers died by suicide in close succession.”

Suicide data sparks debate

The most recent wave of tragedies prompted nine members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to issue a formal letter, demanding an urgent discussion on the issue and warning that the IDF’s current approach risks eroding public trust and failing vulnerable soldiers in their time of need.

 

READ MORE: 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/concerns-deepen-over-militarys-mental-health-system-after-series-of-soldier-suicides/?

Haredi political parties are rooted in a worldview that views national tragedies such as October 7 as simply part of God's plan

 

The dangerous theology behind Israel’s coalition partners 

 

 

Chairman Aryeh Deri attends a meeting of the Shas party Council of Torah Sages in Jerusalem

 

 

 

 

 

 *(Slightly edited to conform with my personal views) Who dares to argue with God's plan? PM*

 

“The October 7 massacre saved the Jewish people,” declared Shas leader Rabbi Aryeh Deri in a recent interview, igniting widespread outrage. But to anyone familiar with Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) discourse, Deri’s words were no surprise. They reflect a deeply rooted theology, rarely exposed to the broader Israeli public, that views national tragedy as divine intervention. This worldview demands close attention, not just for what it says about Haredi society, but for what it means for the future of Israeli democracy.

At the core of this belief system is the conviction that Hamas acted as an agent of God. While Haredi politicians avoid saying this explicitly, it is a common theme in Haredi media and internal discourse. Public-facing messaging focuses on “open miracles” and emphasizes that all events, good or bad, occur solely by divine will.

Take, for example, Bnei Brak, the ‘City of Torah.’ In previous conflicts, rabbis, including Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, promised that missiles would never strike the city. Yet in the current war, not only was Bnei Brak hit, but a Haredi school was destroyed, leading to strained efforts by rabbinic figures to reconcile past reassurances with present reality.

A recently published book recalls a similar incident from the 1991 Gulf War, when a missile landed on the Ramat Gan-Bnei Brak border. The Haredi public rejoiced that it fell just outside Bnei Brak, but Rabbi Elazar Shach dismissed the rejoicing as foolishness and asked why most missiles were falling on Friday nights, concluding that it was divine punishment for how the community was observing Shabbat.

This theological outlook is anchored in a Talmudic principle (Hullin 7b): “A person only injures his finger if it is decreed from above.” According to this view, all suffering, however extreme, is intentional. 

"Leading"? Pathetic rabbis applied this belief immediately after the Simchat Torah massacre, insisting that every drop of blood spilled was foreseen and intended by God. This is not a fringe belief, it is the mainstream view of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Haredi leadership, repeated regularly since October 7.

This is how they explain the Holocaust. It’s how they explained COVID-19. It’s how they understand every tragedy in Jewish history. According to Haredi media, such events are either meant to prompt repentance or serve some hidden spiritual benefit. Maimonides is frequently cited to support this view: in his ‘Laws of Fasts’, he warns that if people fail to recognize suffering as divine punishment, God will respond with greater severity.(Yet, in his Moreh Nevuchim, he disavows any way of knowing god or his intentions)PM

Shortly after the October 7 massacre, Rabbi Dov Lando, one of the rabbinic leaders of the Lithuanian (non-Hasidic) yeshiva world, called it a divine punishment intended to awaken the people to repent. He applied the same logic to the Holocaust: “The Holocaust was divine judgment. God brought the Holocaust.” Similarly, Rabbi Avraham Salim, a member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, said that “the Holocaust also started this way. The terrorists were just messengers of the Almighty… Just like with Covid, although it was a global pandemic, it was also meant specifically for the Jewish People.”

A recent editorial in Yated Ne’eman, the daily newspaper of the Degel HaTorah faction, took this even further. It argued that God occasionally performs “open miracles” for Israel’s enemies to help them strike Jews. According to the editorial, the failure of the IDF and intelligence agencies wasn’t a failure at all; it was divine blinding, so as not to interfere with God’s plan.

While there is broad agreement in these circles that the massacre was orchestrated by God, there is debate over its purpose. Rabbi Deri believes it prevented a greater tragedy. Others see it as heralding the coming of the Messiah: God, they claim, stirred “the Ishmaelites” to attack as a call for repentance and spiritual preparation. Still others see it purely as punishment: “If such a decree came upon us on the happiest day of the year,” wrote Rabbi Shlomo Machpud, “our sins must have caused it.” Elya Brudny from the Agudah " All tragedies are with God's will" PM

A fundamentally foreign worldview

A newer theological thread has also emerged, invoking Satan. A Shas-affiliated newspaper recently suggested the war is not truly between Israel and Hamas, or Israel and Iran, but a cosmic battle between God and the forces of evil. According to the editorial, this is “not a war of missiles and tanks, but of Talmud pages, Psalms, and good deeds.” Everything else, they claim, is just stagecraft in a divine drama.

This is the religious worldview guiding Deri and his Haredi partners in Israeli politics. He didn’t misspeak. He voiced a belief deeply rooted in the religious worldview of the Haredi world and its spiritual leadership.

But it is a worldview fundamentally foreign to most Israeli and Diaspora Jews, and it is vital that Israelis – and especially the heads of the non-Haredi political parties – understand what kind of ideological ‘package deal’ they’re accepting when they rely on Haredi and messianic factions to form governing coalitions.

Understanding the theology behind October 7 is important in its own right. But it’s also essential for grasping the broader challenge Israel faces. Far from being ‘natural partners’ for a governing coalition, the Haredi political parties are rooted in a radically different worldview.

For too long, political parties across the spectrum have played a cynical game, ignoring the long-term interests of the State and its citizens.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-dangerous-theology-behind-israels-coalition-partners/

Top Blogger In Shock That Meshugoyim Are Still Yeshiva Deans!

 

Top haredi yeshiva in shock after students announce IDF enlistment

 

Wolfson Yeshiva held an emergency assembly after three students, including two Kol Torah alumni, declared plans to enlist in the IDF, sparking sharp rebuke from the dean.

---

HaredimDraft LawHaredi Yeshiva

Wolfson Yeshiva, a highly esteemed haredi yeshiva in Jerusalem, was struck by turmoil over the past day.

According to Channel 13's Yoely Brim, three young students from the yeshiva announced their decision to enlist in the IDF, leading to an emergency assembly at the establishment on Tuesday.

Two of the students are expected to join the IDF's "Kokod" program for programming and development, and another student will probably enlist in a combat unit.

The announcement surprised many in the yeshiva, among the reasons being that two of the young men were alumni of Kol Torah, one of the oldest and most respected yeshivas in the haredi world.

During the emergency assembly, the Dean, Rabbi Daniel Wolfson, stood before the students and expressed opposition to the move.

The rabbi claimed that there are no programs in the IDF that could protect a haredi lifestyle and added that he feels great sorrow and pain for the students' decision to leave the yeshiva.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/412070

Time for Israel’s Haredim to Make the Real Aliyah—to Brooklyn or Lakewood - Where Hashem Provides For Real, Not The Goyim in the Knesset!

 

Where The Rosh Yeshivas Are The Knesset

 

Israel has become a difficult place for certain communities—especially those who seek the rare freedom not to serve in the army, not to study math, and not to work. It’s a national tragedy that this holy lifestyle of maximal holiness with minimal contribution is under threat. That is why, with a heavy but practical heart, I must propose a radical solution: The Haredim of Israel should make aliyah—to Brooklyn, New York, or Lakewood, New Jersey.

You see, these are places where a man can live his best life: state-funded yeshiva stipends, Section 8 housing, SNAP benefits, and zero pressure to serve in the IDF or learn how to multiply fractions.  

Let’s face it. The Haredim of Israel are misunderstood, mistreated, and worst of all… occasionally asked to get a job. How dare this Zionist enterprise, which was built on the ashes of pogroms and Holocaust survivors, have the chutzpah to ask a 22-year-old yeshiva bochur with a full beard and no diploma to… serve in the army?

Enough is enough. It’s time for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community to pick up their shtreimels, pack their gemaras, and make the long-overdue pilgrimage to the real promised land: Brooklyn, New York—or for those who like cul-de-sacs, Lakewood, New Jersey.

In Israel, the state expects its citizens to contribute. Whether through military service, national service, or—brace yourself—employment. What next? A basic high school education? Personal hygiene standards on buses?

But in America, especially in select zip codes of Brooklyn and Lakewood, these kinds of expectations are considered aggressive microaggressions. Want to have 12 kids, no income, and opinions on geopolitics? Welcome to Borough Park, sir. We’ve been expecting you.

Lakewood has perfected the economy of divine dependence: tuition discounts, HUD housing, free school lunches, tax credits, and a divine promise that “Hashem will provide”—usually via the federal government.

In Israel, politicians whine about “budget deficits” when 13% of the population doesn’t work. In Lakewood, that’s called a Tuesday.

In Brooklyn, nobody cares if you’re learning Torah all day and have never seen the inside of a tax-paying office. You can open a yeshiva in a basement, register it as a nonprofit, and teach nothing but Gemara and how to avoid jury duty. No one will stop you—not the mayor, not the IRS, not even your neighbor who moonlights as a Medicare consultant.

In Israel, Haredim constantly battle over IDF exemptions. It’s exhausting. One day it’s “Toraso Omanuso,” the next day it’s “civil service for everyone.” Meanwhile, in Lakewood, the only draft is the gust of air from a badly installed air conditioner. No army, no pushback, no protests—unless someone tries to change the size of a Kollel check.

Why fight over an overpriced apartment in Beit Shemesh when you can overpay for a mold-infested duplex in Flatbush with four illegal kitchens and a bonus room for your shvigger?

Or better yet—move to Lakewood, where your house is a 4,000-square-foot mansion built on a swamp, with five bathrooms, zero bookshelves, and a one-hour commute to your chavrusa’s dining room.

If you're worried about giving up your influence on Israeli politics—don’t be! With today’s advanced technology and robust Israeli absentee ballot systems (funded by secular taxpayers), you can still vote for the party that believes the internet is Avoda Zara… online!

In Brooklyn or Lakewood, no one bats an eye when a 35-year-old with 11 kids doesn’t know what a W-2 form is. That’s not neglect—it’s culture. Try pulling that off in Petach Tikva, and some secular Israeli with a startup and a chip on his shoulder will start ranting about “sharing the burden.” Sharing! What chutzpah.

Brooklyn has cholent delivery on Uber Eats. Lakewood has more shtenders than Starbucks. And neither has mandatory army service, a math requirement, or a coalition crisis every three weeks.

So come, dear brethren. Escape the oppression of expectations. Say goodbye to the land of milk and honey, 

 

 and say hello to the land of  -"bribe your governors, senators and congressman via the Agudath Israel of America, where conventions are the only thing you have to worry about paying for!"

 

REPUBLISHED

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/time-for-israels-haredim-to-make-the-real-aliyah-to-brooklyn-or-lakewood/

A community in which widespread sexual abuse has taken place for years under a veil of secrecy, while at the same time, strong communal mechanisms suppress and sweep things under the rug, all in the name of “honoring the Torah” and keeping “dirty laundry inside the home.”

 

Behind yeshiva walls: The hidden sexual abuse in haredi communities - opinion

 

It seems that every time a new scandal erupts, the deep fracture within the haredi community is exposed once again. 

 

HAREDI YESHIVA students: These 135,000 boys, and then men, and then senior citizens, who will also not pay health tax, will place a heavy burden on the health care system in around 60 years’ time.

 

Approximately one in five men and boys in Israel experiences sexual abuse in childhood, with some 63% of children treated belonging to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, according to a study by the Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah movement using data from the Welfare Ministry.

Paradoxically, in a society that seems to protect its own, the danger happens behind closed doors, in yeshivot, mikvehs, synagogues, and other exclusively male spaces where men ostensibly have nothing to fear. 

While daughters in the community are heavily guarded, the boys are left less protected, with the abuse they endure buried in silence, and the victims become invisible.

Most do not find the courage to speak until an average of 20 years has passed. Only then are they able to overcome the fear of lashon hara (gossip), of becoming the subject of rumors, or of destroying the reputation of the abuser, who is often a figure of authority like a rabbi, educator, or “community policeman” like Chaim Rotter from the “Shomrim” organization, who was supposed to protect but instead became the perpetrator.

It seems that every time a new scandal erupts, from the cases of Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, Chaim Walder, Yaakov Stern, and now Rotter, the deep fracture within the haredi community is once again exposed. A community in which widespread sexual abuse has taken place for years under a veil of secrecy, while at the same time, strong communal mechanisms suppress and sweep things under the rug, all in the name of “honoring the Torah” and keeping “dirty laundry inside the home.”

 

Haredi children return to school amid the coronavirus crisis

Sexual abuse of religious men is not just a physical violation; it is a spiritual one that tears apart the victim's inner world. Unlike in the general public, victims in the Haredi community feel a triple betrayal: spiritual or communal leaders are the ones who betray and harm them. The father did not see or protect. God did not guard me. And the abuser, often a father figure or authority in the victim’s life, exploited and shed their blood.

The shame and guilt wrap the physical trauma in deep spiritual pain, sometimes leading to abandonment of religious identity or severing ties with the community. Many speak of despair, suicidal thoughts, and above all, a sense that there is no place and no one to talk to.

The national helpline for haredi men

The national helpline for boys and men from the haredi sector who have been sexually abused was founded for this exact reason: to offer a safe and discreet place for victims to be heard.

The line is staffed by volunteers who share the values, cultural language, and faith of the callers. They undergo thorough training that enables them to conduct complex conversations and provide services from the support center, including assistance sessions, accompaniment through criminal and legal proceedings, referrals to individual or group therapy, and assistance in exercising their rights.

Often, the challenge is not just to listen, but to hold the pain without being overwhelmed by it. Each story reveals a reality in which an entire world is quietly crying out for help, against a community that sometimes doesn’t want to hear, and a broader society that doesn’t always understand.

As long as those in power are sometimes also the perpetrators, our responsibility is to be their voice, to remind everyone that they deserve validation, protection, and healing.

This silence has already claimed too many victims. Now is the moment to choose not to remain silent, but to stand with them, to see them, and to begin to repair.

For confidential assistance

02-5328000 | Sunday–Thursday, 8 p.m.–11 p.m.

1203 | The national helpline for men who have experienced sexual assault (available 24/7)

The author is the Coordinator of the Hotline for Men from the Religious-Haredi Sector Affected by Sexual Abuse, part of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-861175

 *

13 complaints filed against Haim Rotter, including from US

 

Complainant from US files complaint, together with FBI, against sex abuse suspect Haim Rotter, chairman of Hashomrim organization.

 

CHAIM ROTTER

 

READ: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/411809

See more on:

Haredi|

Ultra-Orthodox|

sexual abuse|

abuse|

child sexual abuse|

child abuse

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz's Soldier --- From His Deathbed in 1948 To His Son In-Law Rabbi Alexander Linchner - "Save The Sephardic Children From Secularism" --- Meet Amitay Cohen | BTJ Alumni & IDF Hero

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_Town_Jerusalem

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3717860931779020

“To the extent that a person lacks knowledge of the sciences, he will lack one hundred-fold in understanding of Torah.” The Vilna Gaon

Portrait Of The Gaon From Wikipedia

The Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, 1720–1797), widely regarded as one of the greatest Torah scholars in Jewish history, is often portrayed as the embodiment of pure Torah devotion—immersed day and night in Talmud, halakha, and Kabbalah. Yet this image only tells part of the story. For while the Vilna Gaon indeed held Torah wisdom as supreme, he did not dismiss the value of secular knowledge. On the contrary, he saw wisdom outside the Torah—particularly in fields like mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, and philosophy—as vital tools in understanding God's world and enhancing Torah study.

The Gaon maintained that all wisdom ultimately flows from the Torah. In his view, the Torah is the blueprint of creation, and thus any truth found in the natural world reflects its divine origin. Yet he acknowledged that secular disciplines possess intrinsic value, especially when they serve to illuminate Torah concepts. For example, he is quoted as saying:

“To the extent that a person lacks knowledge of the sciences, he will lack one hundred-fold in understanding of Torah.”

This stunning statement reveals not just a tolerance for secular study, but a demand for it—when it serves to deepen one's grasp of Torah. The Gaon was particularly drawn to mathematics and astronomy, which he believed were necessary to fully understand complex Talmudic discussions (e.g., eruvin, kiddush hachodesh, zemanim). In this, he echoed earlier authorities like Maimonides, who integrated Greek logic and Aristotelian philosophy into his Torah worldview.

The Vilna Gaon’s openness to external wisdom was rooted in his fierce opposition to what he saw as shallow religiosity. He warned against those who hide behind a façade of piety while remaining ignorant of both the broader world and deeper Torah. In his commentary on Mishlei (Proverbs), he rebukes those who dismiss all forms of secular wisdom as “foreign” or “profane,” insisting that such attitudes stem from laziness, not sanctity.

One of the most underappreciated aspects of the Gaon’s genius was his interest in languages. He emphasized the importance of mastering Hebrew grammar (dikduk), and even encouraged knowledge of other languages such as Greek and Latin, to better understand ancient texts and interpretations. He believed that linguistic precision was not a luxury but a necessity in unlocking the depths of Torah.

As a kabbalist, the Gaon saw all disciplines—whether sacred or secular—as part of a unified divine order. In his Kabbalistic writings, particularly Safra de-Tzeniuta and his commentary on the Zohar, the Gaon wove together mystical teachings with scientific ideas. He believed that the study of creation—ma’aseh bereishit and ma’aseh merkavah—required an understanding of the natural sciences, which are not external to Torah but expressions of it in physical form.

The Vilna Gaon’s approach to wisdom outside the Torah was neither defensive nor apologetic. He did not view secular studies as a concession to modernity, but as an authentic extension of Torah itself. To him, the world was not divided between the sacred and the profane, but between the true and the false, the deep and the superficial. In an age when Jewish life often feels caught between isolation and assimilation, the Gaon’s vision offers a powerful model: a fearless pursuit of truth, rooted in Torah but open to all wisdom, wherever it may be found.

Sources: 

1. Even Shleimah – This is a collection of the Vilna Gaon’s teachings, compiled by his student Rabbi Shmuel of Shklov. It includes many of the Gaon's philosophical and ethical ideas, and hints at his broader intellectual openness. While not focused exclusively on secular knowledge, it reflects his integrated worldview.

2. Kol HaTor – Attributed to the Gaon’s student Rabbi Hillel Rivlin, this mystical work discusses the Gaon’s messianic ideas, including the importance of understanding the natural world as part of the redemptive process. It includes references to the role of scientific knowledge in bringing the Geulah (Redemption).

3. Ma’aseh Rav – A biographical collection of customs and teachings of the Gaon by Rabbi Yissachar Ber, which includes testimonies about his interest in sciences like mathematics and astronomy.

4. Introduction to Sefer Eliyahu (Pe'at HaShulchan) – Written by Rabbi Yisrael of Shklov, another of the Gaon’s students, this introduction describes the Gaon’s mastery of multiple disciplines, including algebra, geometry, and other sciences, and how he used them in his Torah learning.

   If you're looking for just one place to see his view most directly, start with his commentary on Mishlei 1:7, often found in traditional printings of Mishlei with Biur HaGra. That's where his most famous quote on secular knowledge is located.

    

   

   REPUBLISHED

   
    

   https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-vilna-gaon-was-open-to-all-wisdom-wherever-it-may-be-found/  

חֵרֵשׁ שׁוֹטֶה וְקָטָן אֵין מוֹצִיאִין אֶת הָרַבִּים יְדֵי חוֹבָתָן. זֶה הַכְּלָל

Rosh Hashanah is Approaching - Attention All Kehillas:

A deaf-mute, an imbecile, or a minor who sounds the shofar cannot discharge the obligation on behalf of the community. 

Talmud Rosh Hashana: 29a - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot

 

An untenable religious perspective

חֵרֵשׁ שׁוֹטֶה וְקָטָן all in one - Looking For A Job To Blow Some More Vicious Hot Air!

Hamas succeeded in planting an improvised explosive device (IED) in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, during a lull in air force and artillery strikes, where the Netzah Yehuda Battalion was set to pass through.

 As a result, on July 7, five soldiers were killed and 14 injured in a roadside explosion. All five who perished were in their 20s. Such news strikes at the heart of the Israeli nation. These soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice and deserve the highest level of praise for their service, but that’s not what they received.

Before the soldiers were even buried, the Shas Party’s spiritual leader made comments that tarnished their legacy.

In an open letter, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, claimed that “we are to blame” for their deaths. “Weakness in Torah study leads to disasters,” such as this, he said. His concern was that yeshivah students tend to lose focus in the summer months and hoped to motivate them to press on with their learning.

At first glance, this message seems productive. Whether or not you believe that Torah learning offers protection, study is a Jewish value. If the intention of the former chief rabbi was to motivate his community to increase learning in the memory of the fallen five, then I would have had no issue with that. But he went further, claiming that the soldiers died because others weren’t studying Torah.

This religious perspective is untenable.

When I was learning to be a rabbi, the popular book of the day was called The Garden of Emunah (emunah meaning “faith” in Hebrew). One teaching I recall is not to become angry with someone who offends you because they’re actually delivering a message from God. The author offered a metaphor to elucidate the point. When a slave is being beaten, he doesn’t blame the stick the master uses; that makes no sense.

This is the point where I stopped reading the book. According to this philosophy, when angering a friend or colleague, I’m not to blame. I had no control over my actions. God needed to teach that person a lesson, and I was just a tool—the stick—in the Divine plan.

This viewpoint is counterproductive because we’re not meant to listen to messages from God while ignoring the world around us. When someone angers us, we need to inform them so that they—or the angered person—learns better behavior. Even if we were to seek meaning from tragedy, how could we ever discern God’s intent? Rav Yosef seems to connect lapses in Torah learning to the deaths of the five soldiers, but how could anyone know such a thing?

As we learn from the book of Job, there is no rhyme or reason to this world. Although a core Jewish tenet, we cannot understand how reward and punishment work. Job was devoid of sin, yet God still made him suffer. The story teaches us that we cannot know why God does anything and that attempting explanations is futile.

However, there are times when claiming knowledge of God’s will is insensitive. We’ve all heard someone give reasons for the death of a loved one. When a child dies, for example, and the devastation is unbearable, people say things like, “God must have needed him for something” or “God needed someone unblemished by sin.” Or worse, it happened because “You are strong enough to handle it.” I doubt mourners find comfort in such statements.

The rabbi also missed an opportunity to unify the citizens of Israel. The divide between those who serve in the IDF and those who don’t is only growing. The government’s attempt to enlist 50,000 Haredi soldiers will certainly exacerbate the issue. Instructing the Haredi community to intensify their learning will most likely lead to more resistance in joining the rank-and-file of Israeli society.

If he truly wanted to honor these five young men, then he should have called for his followers to stand with them—in uniform, in unity and in shared responsibility for the nation’s safety. That would have been a message worthy of their sacrifice.

https://www.jns.org/an-untenable-religious-perspective/?

Gaza’s Grim Math — What Are We Really Fighting For?

Killed In Gaza - Courtesy Times Of Israel

 

Since the so-called “ceasefire” collapsed in March, 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed and hundreds more wounded. In that same time, the number of living hostages believed to remain in Gaza has dwindled to roughly twenty. Thirty are confirmed dead. Let that sink in: We are trading 41 living soldiers — fathers, sons, husbands, brothers — for the chance, not the certainty, of rescuing twenty possibly living hostages.

What am I missing?

We were told this war, at least in part, was about bringing our people home. That the trauma of October 7 demanded not just justice, but rescue. Yet the rescue is slipping away — one life at a time — and the war machine marches on, largely unchanged.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the hostages have become cover for a broader campaign. A war that was once framed as a moral imperative is now increasingly defined by strategic abstraction. “We are dismantling Hamas,” we are told. But what does that mean when Hamas leaders remain at large and its fighting force keeps reappearing — like weeds in ruins?

If this is no longer a hostage rescue mission, then what is it?

The government might say: This is about long-term deterrence. About securing Israel’s borders. About making sure October 7 never happens again. But ask any parent burying a soldier this week whether those goals feel clear, and you’ll get something murkier: confusion, exhaustion, grief.

The Gaza campaign is now a war without end, without metrics, without honesty.

It’s a war where numbers don’t lie, but leaders do.

Because if the truth were spoken plainly — that we are sacrificing dozens of soldiers for hostages who may already be dead, that Gaza will never be fully pacified, that Hamas will likely outlast this government — then the Israeli public would demand something politicians cannot afford: accountability.

This isn’t just a military quagmire. It’s a moral one.

The bitter irony is that every additional soldier lost makes it harder to stop. Politicians don’t want to admit that those 41 lives may have been lost for nothing. So more must be sent. More must die. All to justify the ones who already have.

This is the sunk-cost fallacy written in blood.

What I’m missing isn’t logic — it’s courage. The courage from our leaders to level with the nation, to admit that our objectives have drifted, our goals are unclear, and our young men are dying in a war that no longer makes sense.

Until then, the math will continue to haunt us.

And the dead will keep outnumbering the rescued.

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/gazas-grim-math-what-are-we-really-fighting-for/

 

Three more karbonot today! 

Three IDF troops killed, officer seriously wounded in northern Gaza fighting

Today, 10:08 pm

Sgt. Shlomo Yakir Shrem (left) and Staff Sgt. Shoham Menahem (right), killed during fighting in northern Gaza on July 14, 2025, alongside Sgt. Yuliy Faktor who is not pictured. (Israel Defense Forces)

Three IDF troops were killed and an officer was seriously wounded during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip today, the military announces.

The slain troops are named as:

Staff Sgt. Shoham Menahem, 21, from Yardena

Sgt. Shlomo Yakir Shrem, 20, from Efrat

Sgt. Yuliy Faktor, 19, from Rishon Lezion

They all served with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion.

According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were in a tank that was likely hit by anti-tank fire. Other causes of the explosion are being investigated.

The incident took place in northern Gaza’s Jabalia at around noon.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/three-idf-troops-killed-officer-seriously-wounded-in-northern-gaza-fighting/?

How Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz Would View Today’s Haredim

What Would Reb Shraga Feivel Say?

 

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the legendary founder of Torah Vodaath and Torah Umesorah, the trailblazer of American Torah Jewry, was a man of vision, balance, and bravery. A man who built Torah in a barren American landscape, not by isolating from the world, but by harnessing the best of it to build a Torah society with integrity. Were he to witness today’s Haredi refusal to accept any form of secular education and the blanket rejection of army service in Israel, one must ask honestly: What would he say?

He would be heartbroken.

Reb Shraga Feivel was not a man of slogans or partisanship. He wasn’t trying to build a community of dependency, nor one allergic to responsibility. He believed in Torah im derech eretz — not just as a slogan, but as a way of preserving Torah in modernity without fear, without compromise, but also without delusion. He didn’t build Torah Vodaath as a ghetto. He built it to teach Jews how to live Torah lives in America. That meant understanding America. That meant knowing English. That meant earning a living, with dignity. That meant raising generations who were both committed to Hashem and capable of supporting their families.

And most of all — it meant taking responsibility.

Today’s Haredi refusal to include basic secular education in the yeshiva curriculum would have troubled him deeply. He fought against assimilation and ignorance — not by walling children off from knowledge, but by giving them the tools to use it properly. He trained students to live as Jews within modernity, not as medieval relics. He believed you could study math and remain a yarei shamayim. That you could master English literature and still bow before the wisdom of Chazal.

The total rejection of secular studies by many in the Israeli Haredi world is not a product of fear of Hashem — it’s a product of fear of the world. And Reb Shraga Feivel never feared the world. He feared sin. He feared mediocrity. But he did not fear exposure to knowledge. He built the Torah community by being in the world but not of it. He believed the Torah could stand up to scrutiny — and that if it couldn’t, we were teaching it wrong.

As for IDF service — the thought of thousands of healthy, capable Jewish men doing nothing while their brethren defend the country would have broken him. Not because he was a militarist. Not because he believed in the sanctity of the state. But because he believed in achrayus — responsibility. He believed that the Jewish people are one body, and no limb can say to the other, “I have no need of you.” He believed that Torah must lead, not hide. And leadership means sacrifice.

Imagine the pain he would feel seeing Torah used as a shield from duty, instead of a source of it. Reb Shraga Feivel knew the Torah world could not survive if it became a caste system of scholars and peasants — where some learn and others carry the burden. He knew Torah must be integrated into a life of service — to one’s family, to one’s community, and yes, to one’s country.

He would be proud of the yeshiva bochur who learns with intensity — and then dons a uniform when duty calls. He would admire the kollel fellow who spends his morning in Gemara and his afternoon teaching science in a frum school. He would respect the man who never stopped learning but also never stopped earning. That was his model.

What we call “Haredi” today, Reb Shraga Feivel would have called a distortion. Not because they lack sincerity — but because they lack the courage to meet the world head-on. Torah was never meant to be a hiding place. It was meant to be a guiding light.

Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz did not come to America to build walls. He came to plant trees. Trees that could weather storms. Trees that could grow in American soil. Trees whose roots were deep, but whose branches could stretch toward the sun.

He would not recognize today’s Haredi refusal to learn math as a defense of Torah. He would call it a betrayal of Torah’s robustness. He would not see the refusal to serve in the IDF as spiritual heroism. He would see it as moral cowardice.

Because he believed in a Torah that elevates — not isolates. A Torah that builds a nation — not just a sect.

And he would expect no less from the Jews of the Jewish State.

by his grandson - Paul (Shraga Feivel) Mendlowitz 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shraga_Feivel_Mendlowitz

REPUBLISHED

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/how-rabbi-shraga-feivel-mendlowitz-would-view-todays-haredim/

Israel, and the Jewish people at large, must learn from this past. Gratitude for friends must always be paired with vigilance. No deal is sacred. No alliance eternal. And the Jewish future cannot depend solely on any one power, party, or president.

That’s the game in the Middle East: what is promised at noon can be revoked by dusk.

The Land of Israel was won not through diplomacy, but resilience; not by White House decrees, but Jewish blood, sweat, and prayer. Promises come and go. 

In the kaleidoscope of Middle Eastern diplomacy, no deal ever truly lasts. Today’s alliance is tomorrow’s liability. Treaties inked in bold are quietly erased in footnotes a decade later. And while Israel is, justifiably, thankful for certain bold moves made by President Donald Trump, it would be foolish for Jews to believe this represents an eternal shift in America’s historical posture toward the Jewish state. History warns otherwise. The record of American presidents regarding the Jews and Israel is, at best, checkered—marked by a strange duality of lifesaving courage and shameful betrayal.

Franklin D. Roosevelt – The Deaf Ear of 1939

Franklin D. Roosevelt is still beloved by many Americans for guiding the country through the Depression and World War II. But his record on the Jews is a stain on his legacy. In 1939, as Nazi Germany's shadow grew darker, the United States refused to accept the St. Louis, a ship carrying more than 900 desperate Jewish refugees. The passengers, many of whom would later perish in the Holocaust, were turned away by FDR’s America. Though Roosevelt later supported the war effort against Hitler, the administration made deliberate choices to limit Jewish immigration, turning a blind eye at the hour of greatest need.

Harry Truman – Recognition and Regret

Harry Truman famously recognized the State of Israel just eleven minutes after it declared independence in 1948, over the objection of many in his own administration. Yet Truman's support came with limits. He imposed an arms embargo on the nascent Jewish state, forcing Israel to rely on black market and Czechoslovak arms to survive the 1948 War of Independence. His humanitarian instincts and biblical sympathies clashed with cold war realpolitik. He gave with one hand and withheld with the other.

Dwight D. Eisenhower – The 1956 Suez Humiliation

In 1956, following Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal, Israel, Britain, and France launched a military campaign to wrest control. Israel succeeded militarily—but was politically betrayed. Eisenhower, fearing Soviet intervention and keen to assert U.S. influence in the region, demanded a full Israeli withdrawal. The U.S. pressured its ally to relinquish strategic gains without securing long-term guarantees. It was a moment that taught Israel a painful truth: American backing is never unconditional.

Richard Nixon – The Paradox of 1972–1973

In 1972, Richard Nixon made overtures to strengthen U.S.-Israel ties, understanding the Jewish vote and geopolitical leverage. But it was only after the shock of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 that Nixon ordered a vital resupply airlift to Israel—Operation Nickel Grass—against resistance within his own administration. Yet this same Nixon, revealed on tape to hold deeply antisemitic views, saw the Jews as a political nuisance and an ethnic stereotype. He aided Israel not out of love, but strategic necessity.

Jimmy Carter – Peace with a Side of Pressure

Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords in 1978, a landmark peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, for which he deserves credit. But Carter’s legacy is also tarnished by his later writings and rhetoric, accusing Israel of apartheid and consistently blaming it for the lack of peace. He viewed Israel through a moralizing lens that rarely demanded the same ethical rigor from its adversaries. His approach was idealistic but condescending—a peace that lacked understanding of the region’s intractability.

Ronald Reagan – Love in Rhetoric, Restraint in Practice

Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric overflowed with affection for Israel and the Jewish people. Yet in 1981, when Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, Reagan publicly condemned the move. Later, during the 1982 Lebanon War, his administration pressured Israel to withdraw, and he even temporarily froze arms shipments. Reagan’s Holocaust remembrance was sincere, but his visit to Bitburg cemetery—where SS members were buried—betrayed a tone-deafness that cast a shadow on his otherwise warm relationship with Jews.

George H. W. Bush – Cold Calculation and the Loan Guarantee Fight

George H. W. Bush’s relationship with Israel was perhaps the most openly confrontational since Eisenhower. While he led a global coalition in the 1991 Gulf War and asked Israel not to retaliate against Iraqi SCUD missile attacks—a request Israel painfully honored—Bush's legacy with Jews is marred by the 1991 loan guarantees crisis. Israel requested $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to absorb Soviet Jewish immigrants, but Bush delayed them, tying the funds to a halt in West Bank settlement activity. In a now infamous moment, he cast himself as “one lonely guy” standing up to “a thousand lobbyists” on Capitol Hill—widely perceived as a dig at the American Jewish community. While pragmatic, Bush’s cold tone and conditional support revealed the limits of America’s strategic friendship.

Barack Obama – Affection and Alienation

Barack Obama’s relationship with Israel was complex and often tense. While he oversaw record levels of military aid and helped fund the Iron Dome missile defense system, his administration clashed repeatedly with the Israeli government over settlements, Iran, and Palestinian statehood. Most controversially, Obama pursued and signed the Iran nuclear deal—JCPOA—despite Israeli objections, seeing diplomacy where Israel saw existential threat. His final act in office—refusing to veto a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements—was seen by many as a diplomatic slap in the face. Obama's posture was cerebral, cautious, and often emotionally cold toward Israeli security concerns.

The Unchanging Law of the Region

No matter the administration, one lesson recurs: American policy toward the Jewish state swings between affection and aloofness, support and scolding. Each president has, at one time or another, both helped and hindered Israel. Today’s celebration can quickly become tomorrow’s correction.

Israel, and the Jewish people at large, must learn from this past. Gratitude for friends must always be paired with vigilance. No deal is sacred. No alliance eternal. And the Jewish future cannot depend solely on any one power, party, or president. The Land of Israel was won not through diplomacy, but resilience; not by White House decrees, but Jewish blood, sweat, and prayer. Nations come and go. Promises come and go. 

But the Jewish people remain.

 

REPUBLISHED

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/no-deal-is-sacred-no-alliance-eternal/