This is one problem with trusting our rationality: The choice we make now, before we catch the virus, may not be the choice we will wish we had made once we get sick. Then there’s the stubborn fact that individual decisions have collective consequences.

 

What if the Unvaccinated Can’t Be Persuaded?

I hate that I believe the sentence I’m about to write. It undermines much of what I spend my life trying to do. But there is nothing more overrated in politics — and perhaps in life — than the power of persuasion.

It is nearly impossible to convince people of what they don’t want to believe. Decades of work in psychology attest to this truth, as does most everything in our politics and most of our everyday experience. Think of your own conversations with your family or your colleagues. How often have you really persuaded someone to abandon a strongly held belief or preference? Persuasion is by no means impossible or unimportant, but on electric topics, it is a marginal phenomenon.

Which brings me to the difficult choice we face on coronavirus vaccinations. The conventional wisdom is that there is some argument, yet unmade and perhaps undiscovered, that will change the minds of the roughly 30 percent of American adults who haven’t gotten at least one dose. There probably isn’t. The unvaccinated often hold their views strongly, and many are making considered, cost-benefit calculations given how they weigh the risks of the virus, and the information sources they trust to inform them of those risks. For all the exhortations to respect their concerns, there is a deep condescension in believing that we’re smart enough to discover or invent some appeal they haven’t yet heard......

 

READ MORE: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/opinion/covid-vaccine-hesitancy.html

Mark Your Calendar To Get The Delta Variant of Covid - Maybe Even Die ( Al Kiddush Hashem) - November 18 - November 21 - Stay Tuned To Which Jew Gets To Be Hospitalized In The ICU - Or Gets To Be Buried Next To The Noviminsker Rebbe! --- Exciting Time For Klal Yisroel --- Maybe Even The "Last Supper"!

 

The Agudah Convention

November 18 - November 21, 2021 / 14 Kislev - 16 Kislev

We are pleased to announce that we will iy'H be having The Agudah Convention this coming November – specifically, with a change from the usual date to November 18 - November 21, 2021 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stamford, CT. (Please note the CHANGE OF DATE.)

The convention has always been our organization’s signature event of the year, bringing together our “Agudah family” for several days of chizuk, chavershaft and practical planning in the presence of many of the leading Gedolei Yisroel of our time. 

But even more than that: With so much happening on the contemporary Jewish scene – the unprecedented historic threat against the independence of our yeshivos; the alarming rise in anti-Semitism both in America and abroad; the rapidly deteriorating political climate in America; the escalating challenges of raising ehrliche, healthy children in today's world; the internal economic, social and moral challenges our community faces – it is essential that Klal Yisroel gather together under the leadership of our Gedolei Yisroel to discuss, to plan, and to take achrayus for whatever is incumbent on us to do communally as a tzibbur or individually as yechidim.

Additional information and details to follow. But for now please mark your calendars for November 18 - November 21, and make plans to join us for what promises to be a most memorable Agudah Convention.

B'yedidus,

 

Rabbi Labish Becker

 

Rabbi Shai Markowitz

Under the current kashrut system of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel, the possibilities range from food actually being kosher at best, to deception in many cases. The system functions somewhere between disorganization, to say the least, and outright chaos. There is also a jungle of private “Badatzim” (rabbinical courts) which results in a “double kosher tax” that all Israelis pay.

 

What Israelis want: Kosher food at affordable prices 

 

The new minister of religious affairs has a plan to provide more reliable supervision and lower food prices - all without harming the Chief Rabbinate 

 

Metzger Locked Up For His Crimes!

Yona Metzger, former chief rabbi of Israel, was arrested  on the suspicion of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel deliver a Kosher Certificate to a local restaurant

 

Under the current kashrut system of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel, the possibilities range from food actually being kosher at best, to deception in many cases. The system functions somewhere between disorganization, to say the least, and outright chaos. There is also a jungle of private “Badatzim” (rabbinical courts) which results in a “double kosher tax” that all Israelis pay. 

 So, the kosher reform promoted by Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahana is a revolution on a historic scale in the kashrut system, and, if implemented wisely, it will offer kosher food consumers reliable kashrut certification and lower prices.

Kashrut certification in Israel today is granted, by law, by the Chief Rabbinate. In practice, those who confer kosher status are the local rabbis who oversee the local kashrut system and set the halachic standards for its operation. Alongside them are many Haredi private courts (Badatzim) that provide additional kashrut certification beyond that of the Rabbinate, usually according to stricter standards.

The kosher market in Israel generates about NIS 3.5 billion a year. Most Jews in Israel (about 70 percent) consume kosher food exclusively and about 80% of food businesses hold a kosher certificate. Today, the Chief Rabbinate has a monopoly on kashrut under the law. There are also 20 Badatzim, which sometimes employ the Rabbinate’s kashrut supervisors, at tax-payer expense, as well as the “Tzohar” organization, which provides independent kosher status. Kashrut departments in the religious councils and local rabbis set the standards of kashrut, appoint the inspectors, and manage their operation.

The result of this decentralized structure is low-level kashrut and operational chaos, as reflected in state comptroller reports, High Court rulings, harsh investigative articles, and several criminal investigations. The standards for kashrut certification vary from city to city, the providers hire their own inspectors, and the supervision of inspectors is poor. The existing kashrut system hardly provides what is most important to almost all Israelis – kosher food at affordable prices.

The reform promoted by Minister Kahana is historic and embodies a promise of better, more reliable kashrut. Its cornerstones are the creation of a uniform set of kashrut standards, and the transfer of kosher certification to private entities to be supervised by the Chief Rabbinate.

Under the proposal, the Chief Rabbinate, or a panel of three municipal chief rabbis, will set the halachic standards of kashrut. Private bodies licensed by the Rabbinate will grant the actual kosher certification. The proposed structure would remedy most of the ills of the kashrut system: first, it would create an order — the menu of criteria for all links in the food chain would be uniform and not subject to the whims of local rabbis; second, each body’s certification standards would be transparent to consumers; third, the supervision of inspectors will be more significant and will increase the level of kashrut; fourth, competition between bodies would lead to lower certification prices; fifth, providers would not hire their own inspectors (as the High Court has long demanded), and their employment conditions would improve; and finally — the bizarre situation of three or even four kashrut hechshers on certain products, and the resulting high cost to consumers, would disappear.

Cries of foul by Haredi MKs and the Chief Rabbinate should not mislead. The Rabbinate is alarmed by the loss of control over its rabbis and functionaries, and Haredi MKs are alarmed by the anticipated economic loss facing the Haredi Badatzim under their wings.

The truth is, apart from the economic benefit and the reliability of kashrut, the reform will only strengthen the Chief Rabbinate and save it from itself. Instead of local rabbis engaging in managing kashrut, they will be freed up to spiritually lead their communities. On the national level, the Rabbinate will be significantly strengthened as it will supervise the certification process.

The reform is important in another aspect: after years of stagnation — and Haredi control in order to gain power, money, and jobs — religious services in Israel are now led by a minister who has the public’s best interests at heart. Kahana is ready to fight against a religious establishment that sanctified the status quo, – and it did so not out of pure motives. We should hope that this is only the first harbinger of many necessary improvements. 

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-israelis-want-kosher-food-at-affordable-prices/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-07-27&utm_medium=email

 

BMG’s KCL: Is It Really Kosher??

ByYehudah Shain

 

 As the saying goes “an Organization that is formed for an illegitimate purpose can only produce an illegitimate result”. Let us see how BMG’S  KCL, has done in their many years pretending to be a reliable kosher agency!

 

 READ:

https://jnews.us/bmgs-kcl-is-it-really-kosher/

“I am convinced that this program will bring more businesses to use kashrut and bring honest supervisors who are Torah scholars into the market who will work for a dignified salary, which he will receive from the kashrut authority and not from the business under supervision”

 

Kahana’s kashrut reforms get rabbinical backing

 

Senior religious-Zionist rabbis back end to Chief Rabbinate monopoly, after hardline rabbis opposed the measures.

Two senior religious-Zionist rabbis have come out in support of the reforms proposed by Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) that would end the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over kashrut supervision.

 

The proposed reforms would encourage more food businesses to obtain kashrut supervision, Rabbi Yaakov Medan, co-dean of the Har Etzion Yeshiva in Alon Shvut and a respected leader in the religious-Zionist community, told Kahana in a letter Saturday night. The measures would not undermine the Chief Rabbinate, he wrote.

 

It was important to preserve the respect and honor of the Chief Rabbinate, provided it does not negatively impact the provision of effective kashrut supervision, Medan wrote.

 

Last week, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, a respected arbiter of Halacha, expressed support for Kahana’s measures, according to the Religious Services Ministry.

 

Last Monday, Kahana announced a program of reforms that would allow independent kashrut authorities to provide supervision, with the Chief Rabbinate functioning as a regulator and operating an inspection authority to oversee their work.

 

The program would end the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over kashrut supervision. It was strongly opposed by the Chief Rabbinate and the chief rabbis.

 

Last Thursday, several senior rabbis in the hard-line wing of the religious-Zionist community said they were against the reforms. The reforms are opposed by the chief rabbis, and therefore they could not support them, they said.

 

Petah Tikva Chief Rabbi Micha Halevi expressed concern that since the reforms allow for multiple independent supervision authorities, should a business lose its kashrut license from one authority due to bad practice, it could swiftly apply to a different authority for a new license.

 

Care must be taken not to allow such a business to automatically obtain a license from another authority, Medan wrote.

 

“I am convinced that this program will bring more businesses to use kashrut and bring honest supervisors who are Torah scholars into the market who will work for a dignified salary, which he will receive from the kashrut authority and not from the business under supervision,” he wrote.

 

One of the biggest deficiencies of the current system is that kashrut supervisors are paid directly by the business they supervise. That situation is a prime cause of corruption, according to the State Comptroller’s Office, and the High Court of Justice has ruled it must stop.

 

“We are all committed to the honor of the rabbinate and to the honor of the rabbis, but also to the mitzvah of the Torah, ‘You shall not fear any man,’ when we come to strengthen such a vital and beloved mitzvah as the mitzvah of the kashrut of the food entering our mouths,” Medan wrote.

 

Any reforms must be approved by the Chief Rabbinate, a group of the most senior and respected conservative religious-Zionist rabbis, including Rabbi Haim Druckman, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel and Rabbi Haim Steiner, wrote in a letter last Thursday.

 

“Although there is a need for improvement on specific issues, such as kashrut, everything must be done only with the agreement of the Chief Rabbinate,” they wrote.

 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/kahanas-kashrut-reforms-get-rabbinical-backing-674863?_ga=2.173228715.940558116.1627147710-1969581575.1579377799&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Israeli+government+faces+major+diplomatic+tests+from+Russia&utm_campaign=July+25%2C+2021+Night&vgo_ee=Jn367jKILnpErXAAhCpdDovy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D

Busting the kashrut monopoly represents a return to an age-old form of rabbinic authority, and heals the damage of public distrust in state religious institutions

 Imagine if there were only ONE kashruth agency in the USA!

 

THE KASHRUTH INDUSTRY IN ISRAEL AS IT EXISTS IS PAYING FOR "PROTECTION" - NOT ON RELIABILITY! I'VE SEEN THIS DISGRACED AGENCY AT WORK - UP FRONT AND PERSONAL!

 

 

Israel needs a Judaism that is more personal and accountable 

 

Busting the kashrut monopoly represents a return to an age-old form of rabbinic authority, and heals the damage of public distrust in state religious institutions

Ever since the Romans put an end to the council of elders known as the Sanhedrin in the fifth century,  religious Jewish communal life has been placed in the hands of local rabbinical authorities, primarily the mara de-atra (Aramaic for master of the house). As the major Rishonim, the formative rabbis who codified Jewish law, the Rambam and the Rif state “asu gedolim eilu kerabam”  they have made these great ones their teachers.

This mandate to follow the local rabbinic leaders makes sense. Such figures understood the local realities and sensitivities and felt a closeness to the community and the individuals who formed it. These rabbis were easily accessible and prominent in their locales.

This did mean that Jewish law or custom could differ from place to place, but this was something to be embraced rather than feared. This is one of the reasons why the reforms being enacted by the new government in Israel to decentralize issues like kashrut, conversion, marriage and divorce should likewise not be feared, but rather welcomed.

While the media like to describe this government as “the government of change,” which it certainly is, it is more than that. We are looking at issues and situations that have sadly become stagnant at best and corrupt at worst and seeking to create new realities, or in the case of reform in the arena of religion and state, to return to a former reality that serves the interests of society as a whole.

More than this is a breaking of the Rabbinate’s monopoly on issues like kashrut, there is a dismantling of the equation created in recent times in which kashrut has been equated with corruption. 

Unfortunately, average Israelis see what has become of kashrut with their own eyes, and when they associate a central part of Judaism as dishonest, it moves them further away from it.

This is why, from my first days in the Knesset, I dealt with issues relating to religion and state, including the issue of kashrut. I saw that the relationship Jews in Israel had with the issue of kashrut certification in the State of Israel – the lack of clarity, the double payments for the same kosher supervisor for different certifications – threatened not only the status of the rabbinate, but also and especially the status of Judaism in the state.

For a nation that prides itself on being both Jewish and democratic, this is a sharp blow to our central ethos. It harms our Zionist spirit.

Furthermore, dissolving the rabbinate’s monopoly on kashrut has significant economic implications estimated at many millions of shekels every year – shekels that will end up in the consumer’s pockets in substantial savings.

Most of all, however, the reforms led by Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahane are a step toward rebuilding the credibility of kashrut. From now on, those who keep kosher in this country can rest assured knowing that the kosher certification that a business owner chooses will be free of outside considerations, and will be a certificate attesting to kosher supervisors who fulfilled their role more faithfully than before. Certification will be provided by local rabbis who are cognizant of the reality on the ground and are known and accessible to the patrons.

As with all competitive markets, the business owners and the consumers will have the freedom to choose. If they see that a particular kosher supervisor is not living up to their commitment, they can take their business elsewhere. When there is no choice and a monopoly in any particular market, it invariably leads to corruption and the constant raising of cost which has an impact on the price the consumer has to pay.

Cronyism and extreme centralization are never good things for any modern industry, and become the enemy of ethical and moral behavior. That is why the enactment of desperately needed reforms is central to the ethos of this government. Of course, like any monopoly on the verge of shattering, there will be voices who will cry and threaten.

Reforms by this government are taking place across the spectrum. Excessive bureaucracy is being limited, regulatory burdens are being eased, competition is being increased in many industries and the cost of living is being reduced.

These are principles that unite this government, and we dare not leave issues relating to religion and state behind.

Whether religious, traditional or secular, being Jewish should be a source of pride for all. Every time a Jew in Israel meets an aspect of Judaism they see as petty or corrupt, it erodes this pride and weakens a central aspect of the Jewish solidarity and peoplehood that are the foundations of this country.

There is a reason our great rabbis, in their infinite wisdom, saw the need to create a more personal and accountable Judaism, which survived for thousands of years.

It is time for the State of Israel to return to that Judaism. 

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-state-of-israel-needs-a-judaism-that-is-more-personal-and-accountable/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-07-22&utm_medium=email

"Killing People"

 

The Anti-Vaccine Movement Is Much Bigger Than Facebook

 

 

Late last week President Biden achieved something I’d thought impossible: He got me to feel bad for Mark Zuckerberg.

Sure, it was only a little bad, but that’s no small feat. As I spent the weekend brushing up on funereal dirges to play on my tiny violin, I couldn’t help but marvel at the president’s rhetorical shoddiness regarding Facebook’s role in Americans’ refusal to get vaccinated, the most important obstacle to the nation’s full recovery from the pandemic.

By accusing Facebook and other social media companies of “killing people” through what Biden said was their lax policing of vaccine misinformation, the president reduced the complex scourge of runaway vaccine hesitancy into a cartoonishly simple matter of product design: If only Facebook would hit its Quit Killing People button, America would be healed again.

Worse, Biden fed into the bogus right-wing notion that Facebook and other social media giants now operate as media arms of the Democratic Party, a belief that will only undermine whatever greater action against vaccine nonsense that the companies might take. If Facebook decides, tomorrow, to ban all criticism of the Covid-19 vaccines, its actions will be instantly undermined as Big Tech censoring “the truth” to satisfy the radical left or some other such reflexive dismissal. On cue, The Wall Street Journal editorial board declared on Monday that Biden was only criticizing Facebook because “Facebook has bent to politicians far too much, inviting this latest assault.”

Finally, in the blundering way he took on the tech giants, Biden illustrated the profound challenges that bedevil calls for stricter regulation of social media. Facebook and Twitter, like The New York Times and Fox News, enjoy a right protected by the First Amendment to post or to amplify — or to not post or not amplify — just about any legal content they care to.

In a free society, a president accusing a media company — even one whose chief executive insists it’s not a media company — of mass death simply for disseminating legal content should make us all a little uncomfortable. Sure, Facebook has a right to kick you off its site for lying about vaccines — but if the president fiercely exhorts Facebook to do so, the argument that you’re being censored by the government becomes a lot more plausible.

You might defend Biden’s passion here on the grounds of public health. But it’s probably past the point of utility. Researchers who study vaccine hesitancy say that social networks play a huge role in the spread of dangerous lies about vaccines. Perhaps there was a time, months or years ago, when Facebook and other social media companies had the power to stop the anti-vaccine movement from swallowing up so many Americans.

But if that was ever the case, there is little evidence it still is. Polls show that about a fifth of Americans refuse to get a Covid vaccine, and the divide is highly partisan. As The Washington Post’s Philip Bump has noted, states that voted for Donald Trump in the last election are suffering vaccination rates far lower than states that went for Biden. This suggests the anti-vaccine movement has achieved a kind of cultural escape velocity.

Consider, after all, how widely anti-vaccine lies are now echoed on the right — vaccine misinformation has become a staple of Fox News, conservative talk radio, prominent Republican members of Congress and many organs of conservatism. (THEY ALL GOT VACCINATED)

Continue reading the main story

Biden, thankfully, seems to have quickly realized his comments were unhelpful. After Facebook pointed out that a survey it sponsored found that 85 percent of its American users are vaccinated against Covid or plan to be, the president conceded that “Facebook isn’t killing people” but said that a handful of Facebook members are doing so by spreading lies about the vaccines.

I’m glad he did so. But I worry that by dragging the vaccines further into the partisan mire, Biden’s slip-up will cause long-term damage in the effort to get Americans to trust these miraculous shots.

Renée DiResta, the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory and an expert on how the anti-vaccine movement has spread online, has said that one of the main reasons the movement has taken off is the savvy way it has navigated new currents in media.

While the American public health community repeatedly bungled its messages on Covid, online influencers understood “how to gain the confidence of people they will never meet, make content that captures attention, and persuade audiences to take action,” DiResta wrote in April. A worthy countercampaign, she suggested, would embrace the same distributed model — it will require an army of family doctors, religious leaders and other trusted local officials to slowly and deliberately undo the lies about vaccines that have seeped into the culture.

In a lengthy document published last week, Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, issued a similar call for a distributed effort against vaccine hesitancy. Of course, inspiring such a countermovement will not be easy. 

 Much simpler to just blame Facebook.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/opinion/coronavirus-vaccine-facebook.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=OpEd%20Columnists

Rabbi Clowns Around On Tisha B'Av - Another anti-Semite, This One with a Hat and Beard! Jew Hate Is Jew Hate!

 

Senior haredi rabbi: New government should be 'erased from the world'

 

'Bennett government is taking from haredi children to give money to Arabs,' says Rabbi Meir Mazuz, dean of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva.

 

Rabbi Meir Mazuz

A senior haredi rabbi excoriated the national unity government over the weekend, calling for its elimination.

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, the dean of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva and a leading halachic decisor for the Tunisian haredi community, called Sunday for the Bennett government to be “erased from the world”, and accused it of depriving the haredi sector of funding in order to benefit the Arab sector.

During the traditional lamentations recited during the Tisha B’Av fast Sunday, Rabbi Mazuz blasted planned government cuts to daycare and preschool subsidies for children of full-time yeshiva students, saying the move was meant to take food “from the mouths of religious school children in order to benefit the Arabs.”

Finance Minister Avidgor Liberman, who has proposed an end to the inclusion of yeshiva students in the list of occupations eligible for daycare and preschool subsidies, has argued that the cuts are part of a larger program to trim Israel’s massive deficit.

The coalition members, Rabbi Mazuz continued, “are the enemies of the Torah, the enemies of Torah scholars, the enemies of the Jewish people. They funnel money to the Arabs without end, while taking food away from religious children who are learning in Torah schools.”

The government’s “time will come, for all of them. They will be erased from the world.”

 

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/310151

Let’s not allow the Haredi community to kidnap the Judaism, which belongs to the entire Jewish people. That would be a tragic theft. The idea that haredi’ut defines Judaism is historically false and religiously wrong — and it does violence to our Jewish identity. The truth is that many of the central practices of the Haredi community run squarely against what God, the Torah, and the talmudic rabbis demand of Jews, and what will sustain Israel going forward.

 

God doesn’t wear a Borsalino 

 

God may be in Bnei Brak, but He is also in Israel's policy-making government offices, pushing justice, fairness, and well-being for the entire Jewish people 

 

 

In her July 9 blog post, Shulamit Magnus pronounced that the staunch secularist, Avigdor Liberman, is “doing God’s work.” The finance minister has decreed that Israel will no longer give child care subsidies to families in which one parent does not hold paid employment of at least 24 hours a week. The measure targets the Haredi sector — specifically married men who claim to study Torah all day. If Liberman’s plan holds, the families of such kollelniks will be denied these subsidies.

Magnus’ formulation accomplishes a quiet, but highly significant, linguistic and conceptual shift. Note that she did not argue on nationalist grounds that extending state subsidies to kollel families is unfair and wrong, she did so on religious grounds. God may be present in the study halls of Bnei Brak, but God is also present in the Knesset and government offices that make policy for the Jewish state. God is at work in these “secular” ministries because of the Torah’s commitment to justice, fairness and the welfare of the entire Jewish people. Tsedek, tsedek tirdof! (“Justice, justice you shall pursue”) commands the God of Israel.

In other words, Haredim and their politicians should not define Judaism for us. There is a widespread dangerous illusion, particularly among secular Israelis, that even if you do not agree with Haredim, they ”keep Israel Jewish,” and so the Jewish state should accede to some of their demands. This is a bit like Golda’s myopic statement, “I don’t go to shul, but the shul I don’t go to is Orthodox.”

Let’s not allow the Haredi community to kidnap the Judaism, which belongs to the entire Jewish people. That would be a tragic theft. The idea that haredi’ut defines Judaism is historically false and religiously wrong — and it does violence to our Jewish identity. The truth is that many of the central practices of the Haredi community run squarely against what God, the Torah, and the talmudic rabbis demand of Jews, and what will sustain Israel going forward.

The Mishna (Avot 2:2) cites R. Gamliel, who counsels Jews to combine Torah study with a worldly occupation, warning us that not having an occupation brings about sin. Elsewhere, the Talmud (Kiddushin 29a) quotes Rabbi Yehuda: A father who does not teach his son a trade in effect teaches him thievery because when a person has no profession he is likely to turn to stealing. Maimonides concurs, adding that one who studies Torah exclusively and lives on handouts “profanes God’s Name” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Talmud Torah 3:1). 

It is important to recognize that the talmudic rabbis and those thereafter worked for a living. For example, Shimon ben Shetach was in the flax trade, R. Yehoshua was a tailor, Rashi was a vintner, Rambam and Ramban were physicians, and the Chofetz Chaim ran a store. So working Israelis who contribute to Israel’s social and financial structure are the ones following Jewish tradition and doing a religious deed, while Jews who refuse to work are bringing sin to Israel. The Talmud (Yoma 86a) condemns the Torah scholar who buys merchandise and pays later, because it appears to others that he is taking without paying. That scholar, says the Talmud, cannot repent for his sins because, through his behavior, he has caused people to despise the Torah. If so, what are we to say of the current practice of some Jews who benefit from government defense and subsidies, but pay no taxes and do not contribute to larger Israeli society? Judaism demands that those who take also give, that those who benefit also contribute.

Last week’s Torah reading provides another essential criterion of correct Judaism: “Will your brothers go out to war while you remain here?” asks Moses rhetorically (Bamidbar 32:6). He was stunned by such an irresponsible request by the two tribes that asked to settle on the other side of the Jordan River, and would not countenance some Jews risking their lives, while others remained comfortably ensconced in their safe homes, far from the battlefield.

Judaism demands that all of us defend our people. It is more than a civic duty; it is a religious obligation. Jewish religious law is clear: when the people of Israel fight an existential defensive war (“milkehemet mitsvah”) everyone—without exception—must fight. Even a bride is required to leave her chuppah to contribute to the national defense. So when Israelis serve in the IDF, they should understand their service not only in nationalist terms, but also as a truly Jewish religious act, a mitzvah.

The Mishna also demands that Jews not separate themselves from society (Avot 2:4). Being a responsible and integral part of the Jewish collective is a religious and moral imperative. Maimonides even rules that someone who separates himself from the community has no share in the world to come. Ultimately, the Talmud and the traditional rabbis categorically rejected Shimon bar Yochai’s model of leaving the community to live a solitary life in a cave and learning Torah to the exclusion of any practical knowledge. They knew that such monastic isolation serves only yourself, not God. Separatism is a selfish sin.

This is not a new insight. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook understood it 100 years ago when he claimed that the early secular halutzim were doing holy work by returning to the land God promised them, and that religious quietists who stayed in the study halls of the diaspora were actually contravening God’s plan for His people.

Similarly, all Israelis today — religious and non-religious alike — should appreciate the dedication and toil of those who serve in the IDF and those in government who demand fairness and justice in Israeli society. They are “doing God’s work,” whether or not they wear kippot. And as the prophet Micha tells us, following God’s demands does not mean growing payot, wearing long coats, or voting for religious parties. God’s work means doing justice, being compassionate, and acting humbly before God.

"No one should have the right to spread a potentially deadly disease to immunocompromised individuals & young children."

 

Leana S.

Wen, MD, MSc

Visiting Professor; Distinguished Fellow at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute of Health Workforce Equity

lwen@gwu.edu

Department(s):

Health Policy and Management

Courtesy Appointment:

Health Policy and Management

Tabs

• Bio(active tab)

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University’s Milken School of Public Health, where she is also a distinguished fellow at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. She is an expert in public health preparedness and previously served as Baltimore's Health Commissioner. A contributing columnist for The Washington Post and author of the book When Doctors Don't Listen, Dr. Wen is a frequent guest commentator on the covid-19 crisis.

Leana Wen, M.D.

@DrLeanaWen

Visiting Professor

@GWPublicHealth

Leana Wen, M.D.

@DrLeanaWen

·

"Staying unvaccinated & then going around unmasked, in crowded areas, is not like eating unhealthy food. No one should have the right to spread a potentially deadly disease to immunocompromised individuals & young children. Why should the most vulnerable pay the price?"

 

Shmuel Kamenetzky -- Anti-Vaxxer & Unvaccinated - at Camp Agudah

 

“I didn’t come here to appease anyone. My responsibility is to do what is right for Israel’s economy,”

 

'I'm not hurting the haredim, I'm helping them'

 

"Shas and UTJ are the ones harming haredim by ensuring that they will always be dependent on handouts. My goal is to pull them out of poverty."

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman checks food prices at a Jerusalem supermarket.

“I didn’t come here to appease anyone. My responsibility is to do what is right for Israel’s economy,” declared Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman at the beginning of a briefing for journalists in Jerusalem. “I am not expecting to be popular, but I am prepared to do what is necessary. The most important thing is to make the treasury normal again, after two-and-a-half years without stability.”

 

“My dream would be to maintain 5% economic growth for the next four years,” Liberman added.

Liberman discussed the treasury’s plans for the upcoming years, as well as the many controversies and surprises that have already come up during his first 30 days in office. And there have been many.

 

Liberman enflamed the ultra-Orthodox community last week when he revoked child care subsidies for fathers studying full-time in yeshiva, saying that both parents must now work or study in a non-religious educational institute for at least 24 hours a week in order to receive the benefit.

 

“I heard them calling me a Cossack,” Liberman said. “But I didn’t reinvent the wheel. Netanyahu did something similar in 2003 as finance minister and Yair Lapid did so in 2012, and both times, it boosted ultra-Orthodox participation in the labor market.”

 

“My intention is not to harm them, it’s to help them,” he continued. “Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) are the ones harming haredim by ensuring that they will always be dependent on handouts and interest-free loans. Their biggest opposition is to teaching the core curriculum to be taught in schools, depriving students of an education so they’ll have a captive audience during elections. My goal is to pull the haredi community out of poverty so people can earn a living honorably.”

 

Liberman emphasized his goal of increasing economic growth without raising taxes by making structural changes to improve efficiency. A plan presented last week to significantly reduce excess bureaucracy in government offices should add an extra NIS 8 billion to state coffers each year for the next five years, he said, citing OECD economists.

 

Two units within the Finance Ministry have already been closed because they were redundant, with similar tasks being filled in other ministries, he noted.

 

Regarding Israel’s housing crisis, Liberman attributed high real estate prices to two main factors: the lack of housing available, and the glut of cheap money available for buyers due to record-low interest rates. While real estate prices rose an average of 5.6% in the past year, Israelis took a record-high NIS 11.6b. mortgages in June.

 

“The housing market is not in a bubble,” Liberman said. “People have saved money and they have no other viable investment channels, so they are putting it into apartments.”

 

In order to restore balance to the real estate market, Israel needs to build 75,000 new units a year, Liberman said, instead of the approximately 50,000 a year that has been added since 2016. Liberman added that he is totally on board with Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s plan to introduce an updated version of the Tama 38 urban renewal plan by November.

 

That being said, the Finance Ministry has no target price level or forecast for the housing sector. “Our goal is only to restore the balance between supply and demand,” said Finance Ministry Director-General Ram Belinkov. “Any attempt to lower prices artificially would not be a serious response.”

LIBERMAN stressed that his most immediate goal is to have a budget approved in November for 2021 and 2022. An initial budget will be presented to the cabinet as early as August, and there will be time for initial readings and discussions.

 

“We won’t have time to solve all of Israel’s problems in the next four months, and some things will have to wait,” he noted. “Since we have such a short time, we are trying to focus on the things where there is most agreement.”

 

While some in the opposition have indicated that they would try to use the budget to bring down the coalition, Liberman said he was unconcerned. “Even in the opposition, most people do not want to go back to the polls. The most wrong thing would be to drag in a fifth election,” he said.

 

Israel finished 2020 with a budget deficit of 11.6%, after a 4.2% deficit before the pandemic, and the deficit currently stands at 10.1%, Belinkov noted. It is not unrealistic to expect that Israel will cut the deficit to 7.1% by year’s end, he added.

 

Regarding the cost of living, Liberman visited a nearby supermarket before the briefing to check on prices. “How much did avocado cost? There was no avocado in the supermarket. Peaches were NIS 21 a kilo. There will need to be changes in this sphere, but we won’t be able to address them in the upcoming budget.”

 

Asked how a clause in the Economic Arrangements Law that would raise residential property taxes is consistent with his promise not to raise taxes, Liberman responded that such property taxes go to local authorities, not the treasury, and therefore are not considered taxes.

 

Another item that came out of the Economic Arrangements Law was the proposal for a traffic congestion charge for drivers in the Tel Aviv area. Asked about Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli’s opposition to the bill, he backtracked: “ I’ll honor whatever the transportation authority decides on this.”

 

Another clause of the law would gradually raise the retirement age for women from 62 to 65 by 2032. “Life expectancy is now 84 years, compared to 66 years several decades ago,” Liberman commented.

Regarding Israel’s hi-tech sector, “every shekel that Israel invests in innovation returns five shekels,” the finance minister said. “It is the engine of Israel’s economy. I don’t want to think about where Israel’s economy would be without it.”

 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/liberman-im-not-hurting-the-haredim-im-helping-them-673714?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Israel+s+COVID+quarantine+shortened+to+7+days&utm_campaign=July+13%2C+2021+night&vgo_ee=Jn367jKILnpErXAAhCpdDovy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D

The Current Alleged Abuse At Camp Dora Golding Is Not The First Incident Of Alleged Child Abuse !

 

 

 LAWSUIT PDF:

camp dora golding 2014 https://failedmessiah.typepad.com/files/civil-suit-against-camp-dora-golding-filed-2-19-2014.pdf