No, no, zayt nisht meshuge! Loz im geyn! Abi gezint! Take off! Hosti
gezen in dayne lebn? (Don’t be crazy! Let him go. As long as you’re
healthy! Take off! Have you ever seen such a thing?).
Measles Outbreak Hits Town in Texas
As of Tuesday, 22 children and two adults had been infected, all of whom were unvaccinated, local officials said.
A color-enhanced transmission electron micrograph of a measles virus particle
A worsening measles outbreak has taken root in Texas, sickening two dozen and hospitalizing nine on the western edge of the state, where childhood vaccination rates have dwindled in recent years.
As
of Tuesday, 22 children and two adults had been infected, all of whom
were unvaccinated, local health officials said. The outbreak comes as
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a staunch critic of childhood vaccines, has been
nominated to be the country’s next health secretary, causing public
health experts to worry that similar upticks of preventable illnesses
will become more frequent.
“There’s a
feeling this is going to be more and more common,” said Dr. Cameron
Wolfe, an infectious disease expert at Duke University.
The
Texas outbreak has so far been limited to residents of Gaines County,
which borders New Mexico and has roughly 20,000 residents. Last year 82
percent of kindergarten students received the measles, mumps and rubella
vaccine, according to state data. That figure is roughly 10 percentage
points lower than the average vaccination rate in Texas public schools
and far below the federal target of 95 percent for measles vaccination.
Vaccination rates have been declining nationwide since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and now sit below 93 percent. An estimated 280,000 kindergartners in the United States do not have documentation of an M.M.R. vaccine, according to federal data.
Texas
public schools require children to have received certain vaccines,
including the M.M.R. shot, but parents can apply for an exemption for
“reasons of conscience,” including religious beliefs.
Last year, more than 13 percent
of K-12 students in Gaines County received a vaccine exemption,
according to state health department data. That is one of the highest
exemption rates in the state.
Lara
Anton, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services,
said that the cases had been concentrated in a “more insular” community
in the county, among people who attend church and private schools
together. Many of the children are also home-schooled, Ms. Anton said.
Local
health departments have set up drive-through vaccination clinics in
Seminole, a city at the center of Gaines County known for its large
Mennonite community. So far, these have been well attended, Ms. Anton
said.
The
most common side effects of measles — a high fever and a blotchy red
rash — typically resolve on their own within a few weeks. But serious
complications, including pneumonia and brain swelling, are possible,
especially for children younger than 5.
Roughly one in five unvaccinated people who become infected with measles is hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ms. Anton said that all nine of the hospitalized patients were
school-age children, and that many of them had spent time in the
intensive care unit.
“It is a serious
disease,” she said. “We are trying to impress that upon the community,
that you need to take steps now to protect yourself.”
State
health officials warned that cases would likely pop up in surrounding
communities because of the “highly contagious nature of this disease.”
The New Mexico Department of Health reported this week that a teenager who lived in a county bordering Texas tested positive for measles, though the child did not have any known exposure to the Gaines County outbreak.
Measles is a very contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus.
Ninety percent of people with close contact with an infected person will
get measles if they are not vaccinated. Before the measles vaccine
became available, measles was a common childhood disease. Measles is
considered the most deadly of all childhood rash/fever illnesses.
Symptoms may include high fever, cough, runny nose, red watery eyes,
rash. Measles can have serious complications such as ear infections,
pneumonia, swelling of the brain, and miscarriage in pregnant women. For
every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die.
Israel’s Hostage Dilemma: In Search of the World’s Understanding and Respect - An understanding world is a luxury Jews and Israel cannot afford. To survive, Israel must fight.
Supporters
and family members of hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7,
2023
“As soon as you settle in America, gather your children, and go to
Israel. Then, once you see that land, I want a letter from each of you,
telling me in detail how it is over there.”
Those were the words of my grandfather, Misha, the family’s great
patriarch, who was born in a tiny shtetl near Vitebsk in 1902 into the
family of a rabbi.
He grew up to become an important surgeon, fought in three wars, had
most of his immediate family murdered by the Nazis, survived Soviet
antisemitism, and finally outlived his wife and all his children,
including my father.
My grandfather was a Jew by faith, by race, and by identity. He was a
true Zionist who believed that Jewish destiny was not just in its
religion, but also in its absolute right to be able to determine its own
independent future. For him, as an unbreakable Soviet Jew, betrayed by
his country’s promises about egalitarianism and equality, bruised by the
most humiliating acts of antisemitism, he believed in the State of
Israel, the only place in the world that would not compromise a Jewish
life.
My grandfather carried that Zionist flame within him for the rest of
his life, but never got to see his promised land. Years and years later,
I traveled there on his behalf, but I fell in love with it all on my
own.
Jews in Israel learned not to compromise. They defended their state,
so their land would never be taken, and their children would never be
without a home. Israel knew how to listen to its own voice — until 2011,
when Gilad Shalit, held captive by Hamas for 1,934 days, was exchanged
for 1,027 Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners. Of these, 280 were
sentenced to life in prison.
Among them was Yahya Sinwar, serving four life sentences, who masterminded the October 7, 2023, attack.
As of late, while in the midst of its existential crisis, Israel is
trying in vain to seek the world’s understanding and respect. It
mistakenly believes it can achieve both. The world does not want to
understand Israel, nor the Jewish plight within the context of Israel.
In 1976, Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France
plane with Israeli passengers, diverting it to Entebbe, Uganda.
Demanding prisoner releases, they threatened to kill hostages. Israel
launched a daring rescue mission, freeing nearly all hostages but losing
three in the process, including mission leader Yoni Netanyahu. The most
heated debate took place before the actual resolution of this operation
between then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who strongly believed in the
deal in the absence of the military option, and Shimon Peres.
Rabin later shared with his speechwriter Yehuda Avner: “When it comes
to negotiating with terrorists, I long ago made a decision of
principle, well before I became prime minister, that if a situation were
ever to arise when terrorists would be holding our people hostage on
foreign soil and we were faced with an ultimatum either to free killers
in our custody or let our own people be killed, I would, in the absence
of a military option, give in to the terrorists. I would free killers to
save our people.”
Peres, on the other hand, who at the time was Israel’s Defense
Minister, held a different view. To him “deal” meant giving in to
hijackers for the first time in Israel’s history. Although we all know
Peres as the ambassador of peace, during that crisis he strongly
believed that negotiation with terrorists was off limits because it was
not part of Israel’s make up.
He said: “If we give in to the hijackers’ demand and release
terrorists, everyone will understand us but no one will respect us. If,
on the other hand, we conduct a military operation to free the hostages,
it is possible that no one will understand us, but everyone will
respect us, depending of course on the outcome of the operation.”
Israel under Rabin was on the verge of negotiations, but once the IDF
presented the military plan, the decision to proceed was made, despite
the risk of casualties. Thus, another chapter in Israel’s history of
rescue missions was written. This demonstrated to both its enemies and
the unfriendly international community that Israel would not compromise
its national integrity to gain society’s understanding and insincere
sympathy.
Why does Israel’s usually unbreakable spirit seem so influenced by
actors with, at best, marginal interest in it? This may sound naive, as
Israel needs major players like the US. However, that shouldn’t justify
pushing Israel into bad deals.
The October 7, 2023, attack presented Israel with its most
devastating hostage crisis. As of February 10, 2025, eighty of the 251
hostages abducted by Hamas remain in Gaza, with at least a third
believed dead. Hasn’t Israel been here before? How could this deal be
made after such a tragedy and most complex military operation, which
drastically diminished Hamas?
There is intelligence that Hamas is regrouping; this cancer will
grow. If Israel retreats after receiving hostages, some in body bags, it
has every reason to anticipate a repeat of October 7th. Mothers
embracing their children today may tomorrow be replaced by other mothers
agonizing over their children’s fate all over again. The job of a
parent is to shield their child from danger for as long as they can, but
the job of a government, in this case the Israeli government,
especially its leadership, is to protect the entire nation from all
foreseeable danger, so that “Never Again” is Never Again FOREVER.
Throughout my life, first under the hypocritical iron fist of the
Soviet empire and later as an immigrant in America, where some of the
most important values and traditions of America’s greatness are too
frequently compromised, I have always admired Israel, a nation salvaged
from near extinction. I have revered Israel for its unwavering
commitment to its core mission since its founding as a sovereign nation:
the defense of its land and its people. For at least 63 years, it never
faltered in this.
After the first three women were released this year, I heard: “Why
not celebrate with them? They feared this day wouldn’t come. Celebrate
with those young women!” or “Happy now? You got your deal, your
hostages. Move on, stop this bloodshed.”
Frankly, it doesn’t concern me that non-Jews refuse to see this
deal’s weakness; it saddens me that my people neglect how harmful it is
for Israel and Jews.
As a human and mother, I want every hostage home, no matter the
price. Seeing mothers with daughters breaks my heart with happiness,
heartbreak, and disappointment. As a Jew, mother, and Zionist, these
people are in hell because of deals like this, like 2011’s, which led to
October 7th. Today’s rushed deal anticipates similar tragedies,
different mothers lamenting, children orphaned. A new government will
seek a new solution.
An understanding world is a luxury Jews and Israel cannot afford. To survive, Israel must fight.
The world will never understand or forgive a nation which, after
losing 6 million to genocide, created its own state from the ashes and
became a maverick of modern civilization. Had Jews and their promised
land been losers, surrounded by enemies, swallowed by neighboring
states, and became Israelis with a victimhood mentality, the world might
have forgiven their roughness. But Israel’s story is different. The
past 77 years, however difficult, have been a victory for Israel and
every Jew there. Strong, courageous victors fighting for their people,
knowing they are all potential hostages, these Israelis will never be
sympathized with. All that remains is respect, existing without love or
understanding, founded on reason. It would be impossible not to respect
Israel’s refusal of weak deals — its only duty being to protect its
country from future tragedies.
A
company trying to import kosher for Passover pizzas from abroad was met
with an unexpected demand by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.
The
Chief Rabbinate's Rabbi Avi Kozman updated the company with the news
that in order to receive kosher certification, there needs to be a
"mountain of cheese" in the center of the pizza, Ynet reported.
The Rabbinate explained that this would differentiate the kosher for Passover pizza from regular pizza eaten year-round.
The
Rabbinate also said that the pizza's appearance must be changed from
round to square or rectangular. In a letter sent to the importer, the
Chief Rabbinate demanded: "In the center of the pizza, there must be
double the amount of cheese, so that it creates a shape resembling a
mountain."
The importer attempted to explain that such demands are
impossible to meet, since the pizza is packaged in a carton, and that
additional cheese would raise the cost for the importer by 15%,
estimated to equal 8-10% of the price of the product in Israel.
"Why
does the Chief Rabbinate demand changing the shape of the pizza, if the
package clearly states, 'Kosher for Passover under the supervision of
the Chief Rabbinate,' both on the front and on the side of the package?"
the importer queried.
UOJ EITZA TO IMPORTER: MEET THEM IN THE BATHROOM AT THE DAN WITH A FEW LARGE PAPER BAG$. יישר כח - חזק וברוך
The war as an intelligence lab, understanding the failure leading to Hamas massacre
Analysis: The
roots of the present catastrophe are not limited to the events of the
night between October 6 and 7 but reflect an extreme and long-lasting
lack of understanding of the enemy
An IDF tank overtaken by Gaza residents during the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7
The current discourse is nothing more than a fervent search for keys under the streetlight. The point of departure is that intelligence experts have sharp minds, and therefore, the search for flaws and suggested solutions should focus primarily on this aspect.
Thus, ideas are raised for improving thinking and assessment formulation designs and processes (particularly the groupthink challenge), as well as for developing new methodologies, enhancing control systems, revisiting technology’s dominance in intelligence work, or optimizing the relations between various intelligence organizations.
The analysis of the defects does not include two other aspects that are viewed as secondary. The first – the behavioral/personality dimension that plays a key role in all modern-day intelligence failures, including October 7.
Intelligence work is spearheaded by people with extraordinary qualities, but they are not immune to the fundamentals that are often found to underlie any disaster: self-assuredness; arrogance; dogmatism; difficulty in doubting and encouraging pluralism; as well as profound knowledge gaps with regard to the nature and logic of their objects of study.
Senior
intelligence officers spoke of the lessons learned from the past,
primarily the need for humility and caution, while being blind to the
fact that they themselves were symptomatic of the same disease
This point is further accentuated in view of the October 7 fiasco occurring precisely half a century after that of the Yom Kippur War. In the weeks that led up to October 7, events were held to mark 50 years to the 1973 War, during which senior intelligence officers spoke of the lessons learned from the past, primarily the need for humility and caution while being blind to the fact that they themselves were symptomatic of the same disease that soon swept them up in a whirlwind no less shocking than the Yom Kippur War. One possible solution is commanders and consultants who alert to personal behavioral patterns that impact professional work.
The second aspect that has been overlooked is far more grievous, and pertains to the portrait of intelligence officers, as well as to the world of knowledge with which they are charged. Limited familiarity with the basic characteristics of their objects of study, who operate in a culture very different from our own, is an issue that has already been raised in the inquiry into the 1973 debacle. But although understood, it was not addressed, and so – as overlooked malfunctions tend to do – was preserved, enhanced, and ultimately erupted with great force. In recent decades, fewer Israelis are fluent in Arabic and proficient in the region’s culture and history, but, while true for Israeli society as a whole, this issue is of particular significance among intelligence officers tasked with cracking the logic that drives “the other side.”
This state of affairs reflects a severe crisis few are aware of or discuss with which the intelligence profession has been contending in recent decades in Israel and worldwide. Over the years, intelligence has transformed from a vivacious experience that centers primarily on people, and should therefore rely on the tools essential to analyzing their psyche, to a form of science reliant upon complex methodologies and philosophical conundrum-cracking, which gradually steered clear of focusing on individuals, especially those affiliated with other cultures.
It is against this backdrop that the portrait of intelligence officers has been shaped, including the skills they are required to possess, the assignments they are required to complete, and how they are to be trained. Their minds are sharp and they are far more knowledgeable now due to information explosion, but their understanding of the reality that they are researching has diminished.
When
the roots of a failure remain untouched, it is no surprise that past
flaws resurface, headed by the tendency to impose our own logic on our
object of study
The roots of the present catastrophe are not limited to the events of the night between October 6 and 7. This failure reflects an extreme and long-lasting lack of understanding of the enemy. The intelligence inquiry cannot end with a description of the roots of the misconception, but must proceed to analyze how it was formed, why it had endured for as long as it did, and why it was so widely held as a “solid truth.” The lessons raised thus far with regard to the roots of the intelligence fiasco can be likened to the advice of a plastic surgeon pursuing aesthetics when the touch of a geneticist is needed to break down the intelligence officers’ DNA and critically examine its effectiveness in view of the assignments they are required to complete.
When the roots of a failure remain untouched, it is no surprise that past flaws resurface, headed by the tendency to impose our own logic on our object of study, as reflected in the economic arrangement conception vis-à-vis Gaza, as well as the notion that Hamas is undergoing an “evolution” that is lessening its adherence to its extreme ideological vision. This problem is reflected in a document recently drafted by Israeli military intelligence on the roots of the misconception, arguing that the intelligence misunderstood that the enemy was not driven by “rational logic” but by “jihadi instinct.” The same was said of Yahya Sinwar in the years that led to October 7, exempting the intelligence agencies from the need to deeply analyze the enemy’s logic by claiming it is irrational.
The ongoing war serves as an intelligence lab for identifying gaps and validating competence: October 7 revealed a flaw in the ability to alert to war founded on the difficulty of understanding the enemy; the Israeli surprise in view of the Iranian attack in April 2024 – following the strike against the consulate in Damascus – also reflected a gap in assessing the enemy’s logic; and the surprising collapse of Assad’s regime revealed a lack of understanding of in-depth processes and formation dynamics.
A poignant analysis of the roots of October 7 must cause unease among intelligence officers, not only because they had failed to alert to the enemy’s intentions and had misread the latter, but because many of them are not well-versed in the enemy’s language and cultural codes – essential components in the toolbox of those who engage in cultures that are not their own, such as historians, journalists, and, of course, intelligence officers. The latter must recognize that technology and methodology cannot make up for profound understandings.
Did It Exist or Not? The Missing Order of the Jerusalem Talmud
Discoveries and disappointments, rumors and accusations,
fraudsters and conspiracies—along with an adventurous journey across the
dusty roads of Turkey. This is the story of a controversy that shook
the world of Torah study and academic research 120 years ago.
As if the early decades of the 20th century weren’t turbulent
enough—especially in the Jewish world—a storm that erupted in 1905 sent
shockwaves through the community of Torah scholars for years. It was a
global controversy, brimming with drama, and if you aren’t already
familiar with this story, it’s about time you heard it!
Before diving into the details, let’s set the stage. The Mishnah,
compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince around 200 CE, is divided into six
orders (shas): Zera’im (Seeds), Mo’ed (Festivals), Nashim
(Women), Nezikin (Damages), Kodashim (Holy Things), and Taharot
(Purities). Each order is further divided into tractates.
About 150 years later, in the Land of Israel, the Jerusalem Talmud
was compiled. Later, in Babylonia, the Babylonian Talmud was written.
Both Talmuds expand upon and explain the Mishnah, documenting legal
discussions and the evolution of Jewish law as debated by the sages of
their time. However, not every tractate of the Mishnah is included in
the Talmud (Gemara), and some tractates appear in only one of the two
Talmuds. For instance, the Babylonian Talmud contains tractates from
parts of Kodashim, but the Jerusalem Talmud lacks the order of Kodashim
altogether.
Or at least, that’s what was believed—until 120 years ago. And thus, the controversy was born.
A Lost Manuscript or a Fabrication?
For centuries, scholars debated whether the Jerusalem Talmud once
included the order of Kodashim and was lost over time, or if it was
never compiled in the first place. According to Maimonides and several
other authorities, a Jerusalem Talmud for Kodashim did exist nearly
1,700 years ago. Others argue that it never did.
In 1868, Rabbi Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach claimed he had heard that a
manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud on Kodashim was hidden in the Vatican
Library in Rome. This rumor attracted fraudsters, who, in 1873,
attempted to collect money from unsuspecting Jews to fund a trip to
Rome, where they would supposedly retrieve and publish the lost text.
However, they were exposed before any damage was done, and Vatican
experts confirmed that no such manuscript existed in their collection.
Fifty years later, in the 1920s, Rabbi Mordechai Farhand, a dayan
(rabbinical judge) from the Nitra community, traveled to the Vatican to
search for the manuscript. He found nothing.
The Vatican Library, image from the Vatican Library website
But in fact, the Vatican episode was one of the milder chapters in the saga of the missing tractate.
A Dramatic Announcement
In 1905–1906, an electrifying proclamation spread across the Jewish
communities of Europe. According to the announcement, Rabbi Shlomo
Yehuda Elgazi S”T (Sephardi Tahor, or “pure Sephardi”), also known by
the Ashkenazi surname Friedländer, from the city of Satmar, had
discovered the lost Jerusalem Talmud order of Kodashim. He intended to
publish it, complete with his own original commentary, as a continuation
of his earlier work Cheshek Shlomo, which covered other orders of the Jerusalem Talmud.
Excitement swept through the world of Torah study. Leading rabbis
endorsed the printing of the long-lost text. A year later, the first
volume, containing the tractates Chullin and Bekhorot, was offered for
sale.
Seemingly overnight, contradictions that had puzzled scholars for
centuries—regarding laws of ritual slaughter, Temple service, and
sacrificial offerings—were resolved. Difficult halakhic questions found
clear answers, all thanks to Friedländer’s newly printed Talmud.
A
letter written by Friedländer to the scholar Shlomo Buber regarding the
Jerusalem Talmud. From the Shwadron Collection, the National Library of
Israel.
A Treasure Hunt Across Turkey
Where had Friedländer found the lost order of Kodashim?
In his introduction to Tractate Chullin, he described the discovery
in vivid detail. According to his account, his brother, Eliyahu Elgazi,
traveled to Izmir on business and purchased books from the estate of
Rabbi Yehoshua Benveniste, who had died in Turkey 250 years earlier.
Among the volumes were first-edition printings of the Jerusalem Talmud,
annotated by Benveniste himself. Eliyahu, knowing his brother was
writing a commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud, sent the books to him.
In one of the volumes, Friedländer allegedly found two old letters that deepened the mystery.
One letter, signed by the Chief Rabbi of Constantinople, expressed
support for publishing Rabbi Benveniste’s annotations on the Jerusalem
Talmud for Kodashim. This suggested that such a manuscript did indeed
exist. The letter detailed how a converso named Don Abraham HaLevi, who
lived in Lisbon, had befriended a priest from Barcelona who was also a
former converso. The priest entrusted Don Abraham with a bundle of
manuscripts, which he then carried with him to Turkey. There, he gifted
them to Rabbi Benveniste, who had helped him return to Judaism. Among
the documents, Rabbi Benveniste was astonished to find the long-lost
Jerusalem Talmud on Kodashim.
But the second letter painted a different picture. According to this letter, Rabbi Benveniste ultimately decided not
to publish the manuscript, fearing that it would be seen as heretical.
At the time, the Jewish world—especially in Turkey—was still reeling
from the false messianism of Shabbetai Tzvi, whose radical teachings had
led to the abolition of many religious commandments. The discovery of a
“new” Jewish text, especially one as significant as a missing section
of the Talmud, might have raised suspicions and been used as
justification for further religious upheaval.
Friedländer was captivated by these letters. He had to find the manuscript.
His brother Eliyahu and their friend, Rabbi Yaakov Kobi, embarked on
an adventure across Turkey, searching for descendants of Rabbi
Benveniste in the hopes that one of them still possessed the treasure.
Eventually, they tracked down a villager named Suleiman Benveniste, who
showed them an amulet wrapped in silk, claiming it was the missing
Talmud. To their disappointment, the manuscript was in terrible
condition, with large sections missing.
Eliyahu and Yaakov convinced Suleiman to send the manuscript to
Friedländer in Hungary, promising him a share of the profits from its
publication. According to Friedländer, a colophon at the end of the text
revealed that the scribe, Yitzhak Bar Yosef Albergloni, had copied the
Talmud in the year 1212 from a carefully edited manuscript once owned by
Hai Gaon, the leader of Babylonian Jewry at the time.
If true, this was a stunning discovery. The lost Jerusalem Talmud had finally been revealed.
The War for the Truth
But the euphoria was short-lived. The first to dampen the excitement
of Torah scholars and talmudic researchers was Rabbi Dov Aryeh Ritter of
Rotterdam, who, in an article, described his initial joy at hearing
about the discovery—only to later express disappointment upon realizing
it was a forgery. Soon, other rabbis across Europe began questioning the
authenticity of the book. Rabbi Dov Baer Ratner of Vilna published a series of articles exposing Friedländer’s fraud.
Rabbi Ritter’s article (Der Israelit, June 1907).
Friedländer, however, did not sit idly by. He fiercely responded to
anyone who suggested that the text was a forgery. One of his students,
Avraham Rosenberg, wrote a scathing rebuttal in his book Aneh Kesil (Answer a Fool), directly attacking Rabbi Ratner.
Aneh Kesil (Answer a Fool), Avraham Rosenberg, 1908.
Another prominent critic of Friedländer was Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzky, who, in his book She’alu Shalom Yerushalayim,
systematically analyzed the text and demonstrated that it was
fraudulent. Another of Friedländer’s students, Yosef Ben Mahar”i, came
to his teacher’s defense in his book Herev Nokemet (Avenging Sword), launching personal attacks on Rabbi Plotzky but failing to address the substantive evidence of forgery.
She’alu Shalom Yerushalayim and Herev Nokemet
Despite mounting skepticism, Friedländer published another volume of
the so-called Jerusalem Talmud—this time on the tractates Zevachim and
Arakhin.
Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Zevachim
Meanwhile, the Rebbe of Gur and many others demanded to see the
original manuscript, which Friedländer claimed was kept by Suleiman
Benveniste. But Friedländer repeatedly evaded such requests. No one ever
saw the manuscript or the letters he claimed to have discovered in
Turkey.
The Mask Falls
Jewish Europe was in turmoil. Some were thrilled by the discovery,
while others decried it as an elaborate fraud. At the height of the
controversy, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Halevi Horowitz of Hermannstadt published
damning information on another deception by Friedländer: He had claimed
to have received an amulet from a Zurich museum, allegedly written by
Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz, from which he supposedly deduced that
Eybeschutz was a Sabbatean. Rabbi Horowitz’s investigation, however,
revealed that no such amulet existed—Friedländer had fabricated the
entire story to bolster his supposed expertise in deciphering
manuscripts. With this revelation, many concluded that his “students”
Avraham Rosenberg and Yosef were fictitious as well, and that
Friedländer himself had authored the books defending his fraudulent
claims.
The final blow to Friedländer’s reputation came from the rabbis of
Dvinsk—Rabbi Yosef Rosen, known as the Rogatchover Gaon, and Rabbi Meir
Simcha of Dvinsk—who officially declared the Jerusalem Talmud on
Kodashim a forgery. It remained unclear, however, whether Friedländer
had personally forged it or had acquired the forgery from another
source.
Over time, pieces of real information about Friedländer surfaced. He
had claimed to have studied at the famed Volozhin Yeshiva and to have
served as deputy rabbi of Frankfurt, head of a rabbinical court in
western Germany, assistant rabbi of Satmar, and head of a yeshiva. None
of this was true.
So, who was he, really?
He was born in Belarus under the name Zusia. A gifted and intelligent
young man, but certainly not a Sephardi named Elgazi. He married a
woman, abandoned her during his wanderings, and later married another
without ever divorcing the first. He was a talented scholar, impressing
rabbis with his knowledge and articles published in Torah journals.
“The Truth Is That I Forged It”
There is no doubt that Friedländer had a unique talent. He crafted a
complex and intricate story about discovering the manuscript, and if he
indeed wrote it himself, he must have possessed deep knowledge of
rabbinic literature and persuasive writing skills. According to Rabbi
Yaakov Tzvi Yanovsky in his 1913 pamphlet Tzaid Ramaiah (Hunting for Fraud), Friedländer relied heavily on the book Yafeh Einayim
by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Yellin. This book compiled Talmudic discussions
from across rabbinic literature, making it an excellent resource for
inserting relevant citations—or even fabricating new ones.
Friedländer also exploited legal rulings by Maimonides and his
contemporaries that lacked explicit sources. Conveniently, he “found”
those missing sources in his own forged Jerusalem Talmud. In response to
Rabbi Yanovsky’s accusations, Friedländer published a rebuttal pamphlet
titled Letz Hayayin (The Wine Jester), predictably attacking his critic rather than addressing the evidence.
Tzaid Ramaiah (Hunting for Fraud), by Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Yanovsky, 1913
Years after Friedländer’s death, the truth came to light. In a 1951 article published in HaPardes,
Rabbi Yekuthiel Yehuda Greenwald described his encounters with
Friedländer in Khust and later in Satmar. As a young man, Greenwald had
been impressed by Friedländer’s charismatic and mysterious persona,
supporting him during the Jerusalem Talmud controversy. But in the
article, written nearly 40 years after the scandal, Greenwald revealed
what Friedländer had once admitted to him: “The truth is that I forged
it. I did not find a manuscript, but everything I wrote was composed
from the words of the sages that I gathered from various sources.”
Many books and articles have been written about this strange affair.
Today, it is widely known that the Jerusalem Talmud order of Kodashim is
a forgery, and yet it was reprinted in facsimile edition in Israel in
1996 and in the United States in 2003. But does anyone actually want to
study it?
More recent printings of the forged Jerusalem Talmud order of Kadoshim
If you still have your doubts, come visit the National Library, order
a copy from our rare books collection, and see for yourself!
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu speak during a meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 4, 2025
Yesterday,
President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive
idea of the last hundred years—Palestine. During meetings with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, Trump
said he was going to move 1.7 million Palestinians out of Gaza. And just
like that, he broke the long spell that had captured generations of
world leaders, peace activists, and Middle East terror masters alike,
who had paradoxically come to regard the repeated failure and haunting
secondary consequences of the idea of joint Arab Muslim and Jewish
statehood in the same small piece of land as proof of its necessity.
Palestine
was a misshapen idea from the beginning, engendered by an act of pure
negation. The Arabs could have gone along with the U.N.’s partition plan
like the Jews did, and chosen to build whatever version of Switzerland
or Belgium on the eastern Med in 1948. Instead, they resoundingly chose
war. That’s the storied “Nakba” at the core of the Palestinian
legend—the catastrophe that drove the Arabs from their land and
hung a key around the neck of a nation waiting to go home. The Arabs
chose the catastrophe; they chose war, based on the premise that they
would inevitably win and exterminate the Jews.
Yet
despite repeated military failures, and the increasing distance between
the first-world powerhouse that the Israelis built and their
increasingly war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience
was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed.
Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe of feral children
whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel
and slaughter the Jews en masse—despite repeated failures, each one more
crushing than the last.
Trump
said, enough, we’re not rebuilding Gaza. Time for a new idea—the Gazans
have to to go, they can try to start again somewhere else, in a land
where every building still standing isn’t already wired to explode.
Gazans
waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At
any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky
to lose only territory and not have their legend and language
permanently deleted from the book of the living.
What
if they won’t go, or if the Egyptians and Jordanians won’t take them?
They’ll take them, said Trump. Ah, he’s talking big, but it’s not real,
say the experts—after all, he’s a real estate guy, and he’s pretending
it’s just another property deal to pressure Hamas—Mar-a-Gaza. You can’t
move a million people just like that, says an American electorate that
elected Trump because he promised to deport tens of millions of illegal
aliens who crossed the U.S. border in the last four years. He’s nuts
says the D.C. foreign policy crowd: He’ll destabilize Egypt and Jordan,
and undermine America’s best Arab friends and allies in the region.
Yet
Trump is right to see both Egypt and Jordan as paltry constructions
with little-to-no ability to project force on America’s behalf, and
whose survival depends month to month on American aid. Cairo is useful
to the United States only insofar as it, one, makes sure the Suez Canal
is open and, two, observes the peace treaty with Israel—i.e., continues
its campaign of repression against a populace of 112 million people who
can barely afford to buy bread, and many of whose dreams are filled with
the same insanity that drives Hamas. The only antidote to this misery
that Egypt’s rulers have found is blaming the Zionists next door for the
ills of their own society, while torturing religious extremists in
their prisons. Maybe when Elon Musk is finished fixing Washington he can
conduct an audit of where American money goes in Egypt. Somehow, I
doubt he’d get in the door.
Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to
smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby
violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally
pay him for. From the perspective of Trump, an American president keen
to enforce treaty obligations, Sisi has a new chance to prove himself as
a friend of America and not a grafting liar by adding a million
Gazans—who in the past have been ruled by Egypt and have family names
like al-Masri (“the Egyptian”)—to Egypt’s existing population of 112
million, amounting percentagewise to roughly the same number of legal
immigrants that the United States accepts per year. Sisi can deal with
the Hamas members among the Gazan immigrants the same way he deals with
Muslim Brotherhood militants in his own society—or he can give them all
medals for their service. It’s up to him.
And
if not? Well, he might remember that Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed
not because of Muslim Brotherhood-led street protests during the 2011
Arab Spring but because Barack Obama withdrew his support from the
longtime U.S. ally.
With
money from the Gulf states, or even Israel, Sisi can afford to absorb
Palestinians and might even volunteer to take all of Gaza—the average
salary in Egypt at present being the equivalent of $5,000 per year. He
can then leave Jordan’s King Abdullah responsible for the rest of the
Palestinians in the likely event that Trump, as he did in his first
term, encourages Netanyahu to annex the Jordan Valley, or goes a step
further and acknowledges Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Since the CIA has long treated the Hashemite Kingdom as a key asset, we can expect within the next week The Washington Post’s
David Ignatius to publish an article based on intelligence
sources—i.e., U.S. and Jordanian spies—concocting a story about Trump’s
rationale for “destabilizing Jordan.” The reality is that the
Jordanians, with U.S. help, put down a Palestinian rebellion in 1970.
The country of a little more than 11 million is already estimated to be
two-thirds Palestinian, the rest Jordanian tribesmen, and it’s hard to
see how adding another 500,000 Palestinians will make it harder for
Jordan’s notoriously effective security services to contain their
neighbors, especially if the offer includes a few dozen more Black Hawk
helicopters. After all, no one will expect the Jordanians to allow Hamas
to build a giant tunnel-city stuffed with rocket factories beneath
their encampments while giving them billions in foreign aid to pay for
it all.
Again,
the key players here aren’t Jordan and Egypt but the oil rich Gulf
Cooperation Council states, especially Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, and of course Qatar. Trump might make Saudi largesse in
resettling the Gazans a precondition for the much-hyped prospect of
normalizing relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem. Given the fact that
Israel regularly attracts nine- and 10-figure investments from Silicon
Valley’s biggest funds, the reality is that the Saudis have little to
offer Israel except for money applied to exactly this type of local
purpose. Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their
Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible
investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.
The
Arabs and Democrats are only the most vocal of the many opposed to
Trump’s initiative. Left-wing governments from Europe to Australia are
lining up to pledge their allegiance to the fantasy of a Palestinian
state, in the hopes of propitiating Muslim and Arab constituencies at
home—whose understanding of “peace” means eliminating Israel. But even
leaving the patent bad faith of those professing “peace” aside, moving
Gazans out of Gaza is the only sane option 14 months after they
initiated a campaign of rape, murder, and hostage-taking that brought
their own house down on their heads.
After
all, what’s more fanciful, moving 1.7 million people out of Gaza, a
large portion of whom would simply be required to board air-conditioned
buses or walk across the nearby Egypt border, or compelling them to live
in a giant rubble field booby-trapped by an Iran-backed terrorist
group? Estimates vary as to how long it would take to clear Gaza of
explosives—half a decade or more? Fifteen years? Twenty? Are the Gazans
supposed to live quietly in tents for the next decade or two while their
homes are rebuilt next door? Where? In “temporary cities” made of Dwell Magazine-like rehabbed shipping containers built by graduates of Birmingham University? In Hamas’ tunnels?
Regardless,
should the Palestinians remain in Gaza, they would invariably return to
war no matter how much munificence the Gulf Arab states, the European
Union, and perhaps even the U.S. might shower on the toxic sand castle
built over the past two decades with billions of Western aid money.
Proof the Palestinians can’t and won’t keep the peace is that even after
they won a reprieve when Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff forced
the Biden administration’s cease-fire on Jerusalem, Hamas and its
NGO-supported human shields celebrated in the streets as if the Hamas
space program had successfully landed Palestinians on Mars. Even as
Israel released jailed murderers, the Gazans paraded Israeli hostages
through the ruins of Gaza like trophies of war.
The
Saudis, Qataris, Emiratis and others who now rend their clothes while
lamenting the likely fate of their ant-farm death cult might well have
counseled: Quiet brothers, you have been spared. Don’t bring
attention to yourselves. For the winds of Gaza shift on a whim and who
knows if you are not next to be swept away by fate—or the American
president.
Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just
the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist
campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in
history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only
territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted
from the book of the living.
Trump’s
generous offer to the Gazans therefore signals a return to history, but
with a twist. Trump has not only spared them, but vowed to provide them
with new lives, better lives, work, new homes, a chance to raise their
families in peace, an existence not premised on total and permanent war
with a more powerful adversary destined to rout them entirely, and would
have already done so if not for the objections of other powerful global
players.
Trump,
in his innovative mercy, has offered to save the Palestinian people
from their own history, and give them a new idea to live by. They should
thank their maker for the chance to start anew—and give thanks as well
to the American president, who realistically promises them a better
future, backed by U.S. global power. Given the repeated failure of the
multi-decade-long dream of eliminating and replacing the Jews of Israel,
it seems unlikely that the Palestinians will receive a better offer.
A globally recognized A+ commentator and analyst on the
Israel-Hamas conflict and more—Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (Res.). He
spoke on Saturday evening—after a very busy day doing media in
Israel and abroad. The hostage release has been a spectacle unlike any
other—when an Islamist terror group commands center stage on media
worldwide—showcasing their grotesque propaganda machine and what appears
to be surprising military prowess after 16 months of war. Hamas, which
produced and choreographed three of the four release “ceremonies” to
date, has shown the world that it remains a strong fighting force with
discipline, might, and well-fed and outfitted terrorists—sartorially and
in terms of weapons. Its smaller ally—Palestinian Islamic
Jihad—demonstrated that they are far less “together.” During the release
they organized last Thursday, two Israeli hostages, who had been held
in isolation throughout their captivity, were nearly lynched by a
braying mob that surged towards them. Conricus and I get into it all:
who won, who lost, and what this all might mean for the rest of the
hostages and the horrible war that never seems to end. And we also
discuss the unfortunate reality that for months the Government of Israel
rebuked its citizens for gathering at weekly rallies in support of the
hostages and their families. It showed weakness, we were told, and the
rallies played into the hands of Hamas. I never understood that
analysis, but here’s what we know today: that those rallies were covered
on Arabic radio and TV—and many hostages knew about them. And that
advocacy was an invaluable morale booster for those in Hamas dungeons.
It’s always fascinating speaking with Mr. Conricus. I expect you will
find it so as well.
Below is a link to our YouTube version of the podcast;
you can watch it there if you prefer the audio-visual thing. The
introductions to the podcast and YouTube versions are different but
otherwise the same content. We aim to please. If you appreciate our
work, please take a moment to like us on your podcast platform, YouTube,
or wherever. And if you would subscribe to YouTube, that would be very helpful. Numbers and algorithms—that’s what they tell me. Thanks for being here.
How many Palestinian terrorists will promptly return to terrorism?
The ceasefire that is now in force between Israel and Hamas has left
many supporters of Israel aghast.
For It was the IDF that had battered
Hamas, not the other way round, yet Israel found itself having to sue
for peace, granting Hamas concession after concession and leaving the
terror group able to claim that it is still standing. Israel has agreed
in this first phase to pull the IDF forces from Gaza’s main cities,
including Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City, thus allowing Hamas
operatives inside those cities to reappear from their hideouts, both
above and below ground, to regroup, rearm, and also to recruit new
members. Israel has agreed to give up the east-west Netzarim Corridor,
which allowed the IDF to prevent Hamas operatives moving from south to
the north, or north to south of the Strip, in attempts to evade IDF
attacks that focus now on one, and now on another part of Gaza. Israel
will also withdraw its forces from the Philadelphi Corridor, along the
Egypt-Gaza border, which has allowed the IDF to prevent weapons from
being smuggled from the Sinai into Gaza.
Veteran Israeli journalist Nadav Shragai discusses the lopsided — in
both quantity and quality — hostage-for-criminal exchange that Israel
has agreed to here: “Why the Hamas Deal Could Lead to More Hostage
Taking — And Why No One Is Talking About It,”JNS.org, Jan. 19, 2025:
…Those who insist may naively believe that after the
deal, we can resume the war against Hamas at our discretion. However, we
must simultaneously recognize the deal’s devastating repercussions and
damage.
It is imperative to cling to the truth, no matter how painful, and to
pose relevant questions—questions we have long avoided. We must
confront the harsh realities we have whitewashed and repressed. This
reckoning must occur now, mere moments before the first phase of the
deal, and only then can we make an informed decision.
We must question aloud why the discourse
surrounding the deal’s cost has focused for months solely on Gaza’s
Philadelphi Corridor (on the southern border with Egypt), the Netzarim
axis (in the middle of the Strip), the return of Gazans to the northern
Strip, and the war’s conclusion.
Meanwhile, the release of hundreds of
terrorists—hundreds of potential “Sinwars”—remains absent from the
conversation, accepted as a fait accompli and an inescapable fate we
must simply “deal with” and contain.
We should challenge the assessments of the
Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces that
they can “manage” the released terrorists. On the eve of the Shalit
deal, they made similar assurances and misjudged the reality.
We must ask them directly: Could you be
mistaken again? Might Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar be wrong in 2025, just as
Yoram Cohen was in 2011?
It is crucial to remember that since 1985,
Israel has released thousands of terrorists through various deals,
gestures and diplomatic frameworks. About half of them returned to
terrorism and murdered Jews. Hundreds were killed or wounded by these
released terrorists long before the Simchat Torah massacre on Oct. 7,
2023….
How many hundreds of Palestinian terrorists that Hamas demands be let
loose in this latest, most regrettable exchange, will promptly return
to terrorism, and how many Israelis will die as a result? And why did
the Israeli leaders not show that they had learned the lesson of the
Shalt debacle, and insist that no terrorist murderers should be included
in the exchange?
They could have listed a number of the most vicious of
the killers that Hamas has demanded be freed, such as those responsible
for the attack on the Passover service at the Park Hotel in 2001,
including Abdullah Barghouti, a bomb expert who was sentenced to 67 life
terms; Abbas Sayed, the planner of the Passover Seder, when 30 elderly
Israelis were killed and 130 wounded, Ibrahim Hamed, commander of the
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Judea and Samaria during the Second
Intifada, the man responsible for attacks including the double suicide
bombing on Ben-Yehuda Street and at Cafe Moment in Jerusalem, and Ahmed
Mughrabi, the Fatah-Tanzim commander in Bethlehem.
Imagine the effect of
listing these men, and their intolerable crimes, whom Israel is
supposed to free but could still appeal to the world’s conscience: “are
these people who, if they had been murdering your people in similar
ways, you would have agreed to free?”
What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Death penalty for terrorists?
In the context of the release of convicted
Palestinian mass murderers, ToI’s senior analyst delves into the charged
issue of capital punishment and how it may shift the conflict
Welcome to a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast
exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with
host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst
Haviv Rettig Gur.
This week, we answer a slew of listeners’ responses to our conversation last week, “Excruciating dilemmas as murderers set to be released,” about the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.
We received dozens of emails from listeners who asked how an Israeli implementation of the death penalty
for mass murderers may shift future terrible negotiations as the nation
currently reels from the reality that terrorists with blood on their
hands are being freed.
😜
