Category: Politics

The Secret Harm Hiding within Israeli Leftism

25/10/2021

One of the aspects keeping me firmly on the right with regard to Israeli-Arab politics was the authentic views of Muslim-Arabs themselves.

For example, my son's boss Mustafa lives in what everyone calls a "kfar" (village) — which sounds quaint & primitive, but in actuality, hosts palatial homes.

When my son needed to drive his boss's car to his boss's home (a multi-story luxury villa which hosts his boss's family, his boss's parents, and his boss's brother's family — all with plenty of room & separate entrances, like an apartment building), my son parked the car in the family garage...next to one brother's Audi & another brother's Mercedes.

Many of the Muslim-Arab women in the kfar work in a local hi-tech Israeli company.

Mustafa & his wife regularly treat themselves to European vacations.

O, to be a poor & oppressed minority in Israel!

(Wait a minute...I AM a minority in Israel! Just not a NON-Jewish minority...)

To be fair, despite the kfar's progressive appearance (everyone speaks Hebrew as a fluent second language, many enjoy financial security & respectable jobs, plus many enjoy higher education — my son's boss earned a law degree — and they're not terribly religious Muslims, they get along with Jews pretty well, etc.), my son's boss is part of the main clan that runs the kfar.

And Mustafa is considered one of the respected members of that ruling clan.

This is part of the reason why my son could drive through the kfar in Mustafa's car in relative security.

It was pretty funny when, after entering the kfar, everyone my son passed honked & waved at him, thinking he was Mustafa, and then did a double-take upon seeing a Jew at the wheel.

(If you're wondering...there were some business documents necessary to update that day, which Mustafa had forgotten about. So while he was sleeping in, my son high-tailed over to the kfar to bring him the necessary documents before time ran out. As my son stepped out onto the sidewalk, he encountered Mustafa's wife rushing to work. "Oh, the door's unlocked," she cheerfully said after my son quickly explained the problem. "You can just go in and wake him up! Bye! Need to run!"

And my son was like, I'm NOT going to do that! Instead, he just kept knocking & ringing until Mustafa woke up.)

Even though many of the kfar's residents have Israeli citizenship, they refuse to serve in the IDF or vote in Israeli elections.

Officially, they oppose non-Muslim "occupation" (despite how much they're thriving in comparison to their co-religionists in the region).

Yet one day, Mustafa & a couple of guys from the kfar told my son if they would vote they would vote for...Bibi Netanyahu.

At first glance, that makes no sense.

After all, Netanyahu headed Likud, a right-of-center party.

No one thinks of the Likud as particularly concerned with Arab rights, nor does the Likud ever present themselves that way.

You'd think Muslim-Arabs would vote for an Arab party or a Leftist party.

But no.

Mustafa and his fellows felt things went well for them under Bibi's leadership.

(And they aren't the only Arabs in Israel who think this way.)

The Arab mentality ALWAYS favors strong leaders. You cannot rule effectively in the Middle East without strength.

This has always been true — including in pre-Islamic times.

Strong patriarchal leadership is not religious (although it became that too), but cultural.

And they perceive Bibi as strong.

(Plus, economics went well for them during his term.)

Who Needs More Uncivilized Violent Hotheads? Look Who's Talking...

Another complaint expressed by Mustafa & his cousins concerned controversy over the law of citizenship regarding spouses from what are known as Palestinian territories.

Due to legitimate terrorist concerns, such people could not receive Israeli citizenship upon marrying an Israeli-Arab.

Unfortunately, certain Israeli government ministers wished to change this.

They wanted to display fairness & generosity toward the Muslim-Arab population.

However, Mustafa & his cousins (along with many other Arabs) disagreed.

"What, I need some primitive guy coming from the Palestinian territories who loses his head way too easily, and can just plunge a knife in me during a disagreement?" Mustafa asked rhetorically.

It's hard to argue with that logic.

Mustafa & his cousins explained how they dislike dealing with such hot-headed uncivilized people — people with a strong propensity toward violence.

Yes, they're fellow Muslim-Arabs. But the whole Arab brotherhood thing is a farce.

Their Arab world remains divided by clans & outside of clans, divided by different ethnicities & nationalities.

I've also come across comments by Lebanese Muslim-Arabs regarding their own Palestinians, whom the native Lebanese often see as troublemakers & thieves who ruin the neighborhood.

Of course there are always differences between people of the same ethnicity or religion.

No group is completely uniform.

But the way simple-minded Leftists pander to purely theoretical Arab interests while ignoring the real Arab interests?

Nobody wins.

Say What?

Another son worked with a Muslim-Arab in an area with a lot of secular Israeli Leftists.

That son quickly developed a disgust for the customers who kissed up to the Arab employee by cooing at him & flattering him during business transactions, plus expressing fake concern by saying things like, "What can be done about the high rate of murder in the Arab sector?"

As if they care.

(Note: In addition to speaking with Arabs, it's good to speak with Israeli Leftists. Contrary to how they present themselves, many of them do not actually like Arabs. In fact, they usually dislike anyone who is not exactly like them. They crave utter uniformity. A lot of their Leftist policies — including a 2-state solution — derive from their need to feel "righteous" AND to live apart from Arabs. They would also like to live apart from any religious Jews too. When Israeli Leftists speak of "co-existence," they actually mean "and never the twain shall meet." Israeli Leftists love segregation.)

Apparently, the high rate of murder in the Arab sector (1-2 every day) has recently become a big issue in Israeli media.

(And, in contrast to their representation in mainstream media, you may be surprised to learn that national-religious Jewish settlers are NOT behind the high murder rate in the Arab sector. Neither are Buddhists. Or Baptists. Or Mormons. Or Trump. And nope — not chareidim either! Guess who the real culprits are...)

The Arab guy always replied with something agreeable like, "Yeah! The police need go in & confiscate all the weapons! That's the only way!"

In other words, Israel needs to make the Arab sector a gun-free zone.

(There will now be a pause until those of you in-the-know stop laughing your heads off.)

Then an hour later, the Arab guy turned to my son and said, "You know, the other night my neighbor started shooting off his AK-47 during a family simcha in his home and woke my toddler. I had to go over there & tell him to stop. He apologized & promised to be more considerate next time."

Needless to say, his neighbor was in the same clan or the interaction might not have gone so smoothly.

"Yeah," continued the Arab co-worker. "Every single family in my area owns an AK-47! We don't have ONE home without a fully automatic weapon!" he boasted.

And my son was like, Wait a minute. I could've sworn that just one hour ago, someone who looks exactly like you was saying the illegal weapons ownership in the Arab sector was a problem & needed to be confiscated by the police!

We also see glaring cultural differences here.

Can you imagine that, instead of breaking a plate at a vort, the kallah's father simply started blasting 5-millimeter bullets out the window?

Knock-knock. "Mazal tov! I'm very sorry to bother you, Yeruchmiel Yoisef, and I'm sure you didn't realize it, but all your leibedich shooting woke my little Mendy."

"Oy, I'm so very sorry, Duvid. Thank you for being dan l'kaf zechus. I'll be sure to take your Mendy's shluffy time into consideration at our next simcha."

"Shkoyach, Yeruchmiel Yoisef! Oif simchos!"

Whoa, Where'd All These AK-47s Come From?

Then I said to my son, "Wait a minute...where is the Arab sector getting all these AK-47s from? Israel doesn't use AK-47s."

My son looked at me sagely and said, "They smuggle them in from Jordan & Egypt, and places like that."

In other words, all the surrounding countries.

(Note: I looked it up & Israel acquired AK-47s from battles with neighboring Arab armies. And they used them. And they created the Galil in imitation. But you don't run into AK-47s in Israel. Every time I've seen a rifle or someone talks about a rifle, it's always an M-16, a Tavor, an Uzi, etc., but never an AK-47. At least, that's my experience. So it's weird that so many Arabs in Israel own AK-47s...and without permits too, needless to say. How do they do that with such strict gun control going on? Hmm...)

Anyway, it's conversations like these that cemented my political views AGAINST the Israeli Left.

(The above are just the most recent samples & not the only interactions.)

Educated & successful Muslim-Arabs who truly wish to live good lives without war & terrorism actually oppose Leftist policies, which treat the Muslim-Arab world as a monolith & tend to favor the less civilized sectors to the detriment of the normal sectors of the Arab world.

Yes, in public, Muslim-Arabs tend to voice the opinion they feel needs to be said.

Whether they say it from actual conviction, religious duty, peer pressure, fear, getting caught up in the emotion of brotherhood, or some other reason...they say publicly whatever they think they should say.

And even the ones thriving under Israeli rule secretly wish they could live under Muslim rule.

That's their religious view, shared by even the less religious Muslims.

(In case you're wondering why they want Muslim rule when it's clearly not working well for the majority of Muslims in nearly every Muslim country in the world, they'll point to Turkey as an example. They think Muslim rule in Israel would be like Turkey and not like every other Muslim country. Although...I don't think Turkey provides better opportunities than Israel. And Israel's Muslims fantasize they'd enjoy the same standard of living under Muslim rule as they enjoy now under Jewish rule.)

But in private conversation, they freely express their true feelings.

And as we see above, regardless of their true feelings & friendly behavior, there is a very real difference in mentality.

(They shoot fully automatic machine guns in the air at their simchos; we complain about the music being too loud at ours, etc. Okay, not ALL of them do that...but it's common enough.)

And in addition to the fact that Leftism is so harmful toward Jews in Eretz Yisrael, the harm it causes the Arab sector merely solidified my view of Leftism as a wholly useless & harmful — and even deadly — approach to life in Israel.

A Portrait of Leftism

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An Informal Social Experiment Indicates Israeli Society Discriminates against Charedim More than against Arabs – And Why That Happens.

10/10/2021

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A couple of months ago, son's Muslim-Arab boss, Mustafa, complained to my son about Jewish discrimination against Arabs in Eretz Yisrael.

No matter that all the Muslim-Arab countries in the world also host discrimination (sometimes extremely violent & lethal discrimination) against Christian-Arabs and even against their fellow Muslim-Arab brethren based on class, ethnicity, clan loyalties, religiosity, and so forth — it's only a problem when Jews do it.

(And Jews aren't even unwarrantedly violent about it when it does happen.)

And unlike the reason for discrimination among Muslim-Arabs in Muslim-Arab countries, the main reason why an Arab might experience discrimination in Eretz Yisrael is due to the very realistic fear of Jew-hatred & terrorism (even though certainly not every Muslim is a terrorist or a Jew-hater).

So my son replied, "I promise you — there is more discrimination against charedim than against Arabs."

Mustafa scoffed at the idea.

"Oh yeah?" said my son. "I'll prove it to you."

So my son took Mustafa to the elevator of a popular mall catering to a mostly secular Jewish middle-to-upper-class crowd.

There my son gave Mustafa the following instructions:

"Get on the elevator with your mask covering your mouth & not your nose. Speak into your cell phone in Arabic so it's clear you're an Arab. At the same time, pay attention to how the other passengers react. Keep riding the elevator until I get on. Make sure you're positioned to see how everyone responds when I get on."

At this point, it's important to know my son is a very clean & spiffy-looking 18-year-old with excellent personal hygiene. He dresses in a neat white shirt, black pants, and a black kippah (no suit jacket or hat).

So Mustafa rode the elevator, speaking into his phone in Arabic & wearing his mask improperly (without covering his nose), and suffered no adverse reaction from any of the passengers (who also wore their masks over only their mouths or around their chins).

Mustafa rode up & down in peace until my son finally stepped in with his mask properly positioned over both his mouth & nose.

Immediately, as if on cue, all the passengers took a step back (social distancing!) & pulled their masks up over their nose.

Mustafa & my son got off at the next floor and Mustafa said, "Okay, you win. You're right. I never would've believed it, but charedim suffer more discrimination than Arabs."

Why the Disproportionate Discrimination?

What could possibly be the reason for this more extreme discrimination against charedim?

(And I don't mean just the fear that charedim are covid-carriers. That was just one example of discrimination for illustration.)

Before covid came along, people carry a lot of fear & even hatred of charedim.

Not everyone, of course, but you listen to the REASON for their hatred & fear, you'll notice it almost exclusively comes from what they read or saw in the media.

A lot of times, their personal experience with charedim is even positive, but they still oppose charedim in general based on the media.

But why?

And why would you consider the charedi community more of a threat than the Arab community (despite all the decent Arab folk)?

After all, when was the last time any charedi did the following:

Strap explosives, including screws & nails, onto himself, then blow himself up on a bus?
Randomly stab people?
Decapitate a nursing baby? (Hadas Fogel in the Itamar terror atrocity)
Drive a car into pedestrians with the intent of murder?
Crush innocent people with a bulldozer?
Open automatic machine gun fire on restaurant patrons?
Support missile attacks on Jews?
Support other countries who wish war on Jews in Eretz Yisrael?
Pass out candies to celebrate a terror attack against Jews?
Cheer the 9/11 attack on America?

I'm not saying anyone should go around bullying random Arabs (who may be perfectly law-abiding peaceful fellows), but the fear of charedim over the fear of a group which, while comprised of perfectly decent people, also produces a larger-than-normal percentage of bloodthirsty savages — well, this dichotomy makes no sense.

As far as I can tell, this disproportionate fear-mongering comes from the media.

The media values being politically correct over facts & common sense.

The media emphasizes the need to treat Arabs with respect and not assume every Arab is a terrorist...

...while at the same time, this same media encourages intense fear & hatred of charedim, spotlighting & magnifying ANY negative act committed by any charedi.

Sometimes, a criminal act occurs in a charedi neighborhood & is reported as "charedi violence"—but cameras clearly show the perps are NOT charedi.

They may have been at one point, they may have even grown up in the charedi neighborhood, but their appearance shows they no longer identify as charedi — yet the violence is reported as "charedi violence."

This is like saying all the pre-WWII wholly assimilated maskilim & completely secular commies are ultra-Orthodox or Chassidic simply because that's how they grew up.

Actually, some historians did this with the heartless Warsaw ghetto police force.

Because some of the police grew up frum (even though long before the Warsaw ghetto, they cast off all vestiges of Torah Judaism), some historians labeled them as Orthodox Jews — simply to vilify Orthodox Jews, even though, if I remember correctly, not even one was actually a practicing Jew at that time.

One of the heads of the ghetto police was even a former Christian pastor; so go figure.

I'm not saying charedim never behave badly. I've lived in charedi communities in Eretz Yisrael since 1994, and I know the ins & outs, and even the specific issues of different groups.

(I've also lived among other groups, both Jewish & not, so I've what to compare too.)

But to incite people to fear & hate charedim more than the group that produces suicide bombers & baby beheaders?

And most severely, this fear-and-hate fest infests the secular Jewish media.

Ending on a Positive Note!

It's also important to note that Israeli society has been improving in this regard as more people meet actual charedim (rather than relying on the media to form their opinion) & also develop an interest in exploring their own religion.

Many non-charedi Jews feel kinship with charedim (along with other types of Jews), and this has been a welcome transition — which the secular Jewish media continues to fight with rabid disproportion.

For related posts:

And just because I know some people (again, misled by the secular Jewish media) will have answered "Neturei Karta!" to a couple of the bulleted questions above, please see this post in response:
whats-the-deal-with-neturei-karta.html
(It's essential to read the comments in which a knowledgeable Satmar chassid contributes to the discussion.)

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Scientists are Documenting the Keter d'Reisha d'Lo Ityada—Only They Don't Know It

1/9/2021

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For obvious reasons, the handling of the covid phenomenon has fanned increasing distrust & contempt toward doctors & scientists.

Yet it's not true that all doctors & researchers lack integrity & are part of a conspiracy.

Likewise, not all are driven by greed & fear & kavod (though the kavod aspect is particularly difficult to rise above; after all, these people don't exactly have a regular mussar-learning session).

Some doctors & researchers feel genuine concern about the covid virus & its mutating variants. They want to find a solution

They want to make meaningful contributions & help people.

They do not want harmful substances in a vaccine.

Yet even the well-meaning ones seem affected by fear (though they try to act confident), and the confusing nature of covid isn't helping.

But at least these scientists are willing to acknowledge their confounded expectations & the phenomenon's lack of conformity to the understood norms of virology.

"We Want Something We Cannot Achieve, And We Don't Know Why."

For those who aren't familiar, Nature magazine is a highly respected science magazine.

It's a prestigious achievement for a scientist to get his or her work published in Nature.

Here's a link to a Nature article about covid & herd immunity:
Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00728-2

Note: When reading any science article, it's vital to note when something is a FACT and when the material seeks to promote a theory without actual proof.

When there is no hard evidence, the article promotes an idea by using words like "indicate" "appear" "might" "perhaps" "assume" "suggests" "intriguing" and so on.

("Intriguing" is a particularly beloved word among scientists when speaking of unproven theories.)

For example, in this Nature article, it's clear they seek to push the vaccine.

Fortunately, the entire article is also about their lack of clear proof & data regarding their goals.

In fact, they're refreshingly honest about their lack of knowledge & the issues involved!

(I really appreciate this; it's not the usual among science articles.)

Just to be fair, this article was published in February 2021. They probably know even more—or less—by this time.

Anyway...the researchers cheerfully admit to being confounded by several issues.

One issue is:

They don't feel they have a vaccine safe for children.

Another is:

People's resistance to an experimental unproven jab.

(The article notes the resistance of Israeli youth—but were coaxed by offers of free pizza & beer. Very unhealthy, BTW.)

Yet another confounding issue is:

Brazil experienced an infection rate "estimated" at 60%, which should have conferred herd immunity—but didn't.

For example, a resurgence of covid swept through Brazil.

100% of the infected of the Brazilian city of Manaus tested positive for the Gamma P.1 variant.

So one scientist now muses the percentage (60%) may have been an overestimate.

But why? And how could that happen?

If people were tested, with the test results registered in the clinics, then you have solid data to collect.

You see clearly the number of positive results compared to the number of the population.

So where is the need for estimating?

And get a load of this gem from the same article:

The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer–BioNTech, for example, are extremely effective at preventing symptomatic disease, but it is still unclear whether they protect people from becoming infected, or from spreading the virus to others.

That sounds so weird to me.

The vaccine prevents symptoms, but does not prevent the actual disease? Why? How does that even work?

Doesn't that make it NOT a vaccine if it cannot prevent you from actually contracting the disease?

It sounds more like a glorified cold 'n' fever symptom reliever.

(Is that worth free beer & pizza? For me, that would depend on what kind of beer & pizza...just kidding.)

Here's the official dictionary definition of the word "vaccine" (boldface mine):

vac·cine /vakˈsēn/

noun

a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases...

So the vaccinated supposedly walk around feeling fine, not even suspecting they are actually infected with a supposedly dangerous disease?

Okay...so even though the above-named vaccines don't seem to actually vaccinate ("provide immunity"), they at least prevent symptoms...

Where is the proof?

Actually, some evidence appears in this article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00450-z

So in conclusion, the vaccine might have limited benefits—just not the one it's promoted as having.

Also, there is some indication that while the current covid vaccines do not protect against actual infection by the Delta variant, vaccinated people experience lighter viral loads & fewer symptoms & fewer hospitalizations:
www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective-against-hospitalisation-from-delta-variant

(Again, no proof. Indications. Regardless of which side you take regarding the covid vaccine debate, we see anything connected to covid becoming increasingly UNPREDICTABLE.)

And whether it harms or helps at all seems more dependent on the attitude of the person being vaccinated, rather than the actual composition of the vaccine.

(All this also confirms the absurdity of making this non-vaccinating vaccine obligatory.)

What's Going On?

The reason why scientists are confounded & bewildered is because we have entered the era of Keter d'reisha d'lo ityada (or Keser d'reisha d'lo isyada, if you prefer Ashkenazi pronunciation).

The spiritual light of the 50th gate within the 50th gate [both on the sides of good and evil] is referred to by the Kabbalists as the Reisha D’lo Isyada, “The unknowable beginning.”

It is the point known as Keter, and the innermost level of this is Keter D’Keter.

***

Every person can see now that no one knows what will be.

Basically everything now is cloudy and unclear.

This corresponds to the revelation of the point of Reisha d’lo isyada, to the unknowable beginning, and it is being translated in our world as a reality in which people are not able to know for certain of what is going to happen.

The End of Days is the general name of today’s times, and we do not know precisely for how long it will continue.

It will be overcome only when the presence of Hashem completely fills each person’s heart.

https://bilvavi.net/files/Bilvavi.Corona.Q.and.A.pdf, page 61 (boldface & underline mine)

Just try telling them that.

Rav Itamar Schwartz sums up what researchers are documenting (boldface mine):

The light of the Keser will continue to be manifest on our world in all kinds of different ways, switching between different forms at alternating times, and it will keep being mysterious to those who see it.

question.bilvavi.net/blog/2021/02/18/deeper-meaning-behind-corona-vaccine-part-2/

May we all merit to experience the light of Redemption right now, do teshuvah from love, and merit Mashiach b'rachamim.

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The Message of the Yellow Star

23/8/2021

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This post discusses on aspect of the Holocaust that I believe contains a message for us today.

Rav Avigdor Miller, Rav Shach, Rav Elchonon Wasserman, the Satmar Rav, and others considered much of the Holocaust unfathomable.

However, they also believed aspects of it contained messages for us.

Rav Avigdor Miller wrote a book about this called A Divine Madness. This book has helped many of us by explaining Hashem's messages & answering the existential questions that plagued us. And those messages continue to help us in our personal paths of self-improvement today.

On the other hand, other great rabbanim like the Lubavitcher Rebbe & Rav Hutner considered the Holocaust completely unfathomable and therefore turned away from the kind of analysis & mussar the above-mentioned rabbanim engaged in.

Many people find solace & meaning in this approach too.

Either way, all the above rabbanim were successful in their efforts toward rebuilding the Jewish people with enthusiastic authentic Judaism.

With that said...the following article discusses the messages according to Rav Avigdor Miller's approach.

And this approach may not sit well with people who hold like the Lubavitcher Rebbe & Rav Hutner.

But even though their approach is unquestionably honorable & valid, it doesn't mean the rest of us can't discuss things according to the approach of Rav Miller and others.

To see the view of the Lubavitcher Rebbe: https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/62160/jewish/1939-45-The-Rebbe-on-the-Holocaust-Rebuilding.htm

For Rav Miller's view: https://torasavigdor.org/tag/holocaust/

The Yellow Star

We all know about the Nazi order for Jews to sew a yellow star-shaped patch on their clothing.

Many memoirs reveal the different responses to this command at that time.

Some did so robotically, feeling helpless against yet another Nazi law. They didn't think to disobey because the slightest upset meant some kind of torment or even death.

And with the yellow star sewn on their coats, some avoided as much as possible going out, so as not to suffer harassment as such an identifiable Jew.

Yet others went out as usual, feeling their obedience provided some kind of protection.

But many others weighed the risks of wearing or not wearing the yellow star.

Some decided, after great deliberation, to wear it. They wore it with pride or with fear—or with both pride & fear.

Many realized the yellow star invited harassment (or worse).

Yet if they went out without the star & others realized they were Jewish, this also invited harassment in the form of a violent arrest and possibly death.

There was no "right" answer because so much depended on mazal & how you looked—and regardless of coloring & facial features, many Jewish eyes during the Holocaust contained a sadness or hunted look, making them stand out from the non-Jewish population.

It depended on whether your former non-Jewish acquaintances would recognize you—and if so, whether they would betray you.

For some Jews, wearing the yellow star worked out; it saved them from arrest or immediate death.

In some areas, the yellow star did not even invite harassment from the locals.

For other Jews, wearing the star brought their downfall, making them a target for random Jew-haters, plus unexpected Nazi round-ups in the street utilized the yellow stars as a pointer from which the star-wearing Jew could not escape.

Furthermore, several Holocaust memoirs report the good deeds of a non-Jew saves a Jew wearing the patch & even encourages the Jew to take it off.

One Girl's Story: Better Off without the Yellow Star

For example, in Rosalie Lamet's Holocaust memoir City of Diamonds, she recalls how she and her best friend, Helene (also a religious Jewish teenager), encountered a Nazi parade as the girls stood window shopping in Belgium.

Fortunately, a non-Jewish shopkeeper called them into her store & then insisted the girls remove their yellow stars.

At first, the Jewish girls protested, expressing their fear of the harsh punishment in store for Jews who disobeyed the order to wear the yellow star.

But the non-Jewish shopkeeper related her experience of a similar march, which resulted in the capture of dozens of Jewish youth—young Jews easily identified by the yellow star on their clothing.

Tearfully, the shopkeeper said, "Can't you see? The star is condemning you! Without it, you still have the chance to be overlooked. So please, I implore you, let me cut that yellow emblem from your garments before it spells your doom!" (page 200)

When the girls still hesitated, the shopkeeper took their coats and started removing the yellow stars herself.

After wholeheartedly thanking the kind-hearted courageous shopkeeper, the girls walked home.

To their surprise, the two girls felt "no qualms about parading around without our stars. On the contrary, we felt relieved!" (page 200)

This was clearly Hashem telling them they didn't need to wear the yellow star. For them, life was safer without it.

How One Teenage Jewish Girl Saw the Message

But ultimately, the entire purpose of the yellow star (as Rav Miller describes it in his book) is to look at the message from Hashem, which is obviously to stop assimilating.

It's like you wanted to be like the goyim around you & blend in to be more goyish? Well, davka now you're going to be FORCED to unassimilate.

Now you're going to look like a Jew whether you want to or not—and now it's not going to be pleasant.

Despite her youth, this lesson was not lost on the teenage Rosalie Lamet.

On page 190, she recalls:

The first time Mama and I walked down the street wearing our yellow stars, I felt everyone's eyes upon us.

The words of the prophet Balaam crossed my mind: "The Hebrew people shall stand alone among the nations," words he had intended as a curse but had been transformed into a blessing.

Later (page 202), she recalls how after she returned home from the righteous shopkeeper, she gazed at the yellow star no longer part of her coat & reflect on the strong feelings it evoked in her.

She decided then:

Right now, that slip of yellow material was a badge of shame and disgrace, but I prayed that one day soon it would be reinstated to its rightful place — a place of honor, beauty, and holiness.

Then the Jewish star would shine like a blessing for all to see!

So what Rav Miller & many other Gedolim pointed out did not lie beyond the grasp of the Jews of that time.

Eighteen-year-old Rosalie got it.

And she wasn't the only one.

Yes, the Jews needed to pay attention to the world around them and the consequences for their actions (consequences often impossible to predict with any certainty—as noted above, mazal decided more than anything else).

Rosalie was raised in a religious Jewish home, but one not very different than a lot of highly Americanized mainstream Orthodox Jews. As committed as her family was to mitzvot, Rosalie also describes them as culturally very Belgian (though 2 of her brothers chose to become very yeshivish).

Rosalie describes herself as brought up strictly religious, but her Jewish education had been "neglected," meaning that by 18 years of age, she knew only the basics of Jewish history & how to read Hebrew.

Yet even amid all the terror & stress & lack of the deeper Torah hashkafah some Jews received, Rosalie still managed to notice the spiritual message within the terrible nisayon.

Looking Objectively (But NOT Atheistically) at the Yellow Star Law

Again, the yellow star was not the deciding factor for who lived or died.

It was a factor. But not the only one.

Yes, it often proved to be a life-and-death decision—but not the only one & not outside of Hashem's Plan.

For instance, while neither Rosalie nor Helene suffered any harsh consequences for not wearing the yellow star, only Rosalie survived Holocaust.

Helene, despite her innovation & dynamism, was caught in a Nazi raid on her own home.

The yellow star was only ONE factor in a whole web of factors—as is always true in life.

It hurts to say it when discussing horrific events, but Hashem is orchestrating everything.

HE decides—and ONLY He decides.

(And here, I'm reminding myself as much as—or maybe even more than—I'm reminding you.)

So yes—many Jews argued, deliberated, and agonized over whether to wear the yellow star.

Either way, they knew they were making a life-and-death decision.

And some people who wore the yellow star died.

And some people who wore the yellow star lived.

And some people who refused to wear the yellow star died.

And some who refused to wear the yellow star lived.

It was individual; some could get away with not wearing it.

But mostly, it was a matter of mazal (Divinely orchestrated "luck")—while wearing or not wearing the yellow star factored into their mazal, it didn't decide their mazal.

Other factors & other unknowable cheshbonot played a vital part in survival (or not).

Either way, the message of the yellow star (as intended by Hashem) remained & still remains for us today.

(Some, like Rosalie, immediately sensed the message in the Nazi order to wear a yellow star. It isn't impossible to sense a message in such an event.)

It all goes together.

Dealing with the Natural World while Absorbing the Divine Message

Finally, it's worth noting that the Holocaust and the whole process leading up to the actual deportations & slaughter were part of a great conspiracy.

It even had a documented name: "The Final Solution to the Jewish Question"—the official term used by January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference in Berlin.

(The term "the Jewish Question" has been around since the 1800s.)

Horrifically evil people wielding great power took over and, in a "war of nerves" (their name for an aspect of their "Final Solution" conspiracy), gradually imposed laws on the societies they conquered, all leading up to genocide.

During that time, it was hard not to notice anything else but how to survive.

And it's unfair to judge people for the decisions and responses they made at that time. Things weren't as clear as people now like to think and people who weren't there cannot say they would know better.

But the messages (according to Rav Miller, Rav Wasserman, the Satmar Rav, Rav Shach, and other Gedolim) were definitely there.

Sitting there in the Slabodka yeshivah in Lithuania with the Nazis nearly upon them, the young Rav Miller and all the others in yeshivah understood what was happening & they davened their hearts out to avoid it.

But as Rav Miller often emphasizes, the awareness & heartfelt davening was primarily just them in the yeshivah, not the rest of the town.

So even if great evil really is overtaking the world & even if the conspiracy theorists are right, we still should not lose our focus on the messages behind the actions.

Those messages are from Hashem trying to wake us up.

He wants to help us.

He wants to give us tons of chances & lots of time to both understand & incorporate into our lives His Messages to the best of our ability, each according to his or her own level.

We can't ignore the actual ordinances & events in our lives. They exist & we must deal with them however we see best.

At the same time, we must not ignore the messages contained within the events.

A continuation of this post:
www.myrtlerising.com/blog/the-message-of-the-registration-quandary

Related post:
http://www.myrtlerising.com/blog/covid-19-the-meron-tragedy-hamas-missile-attacks-rioting-yishmaelim-the-bleacher-tragedy-in-givat-zev-whats-the-underlying-message

Just a reminder regarding the new non-comment policy:
blog-update-of-2-changes-1-a-new-most-popular-section-and-2-no-more-comments-including-a-lengthy-explanation-of-why.html

1 Comment

A Deeper Look into the Deceptive Terminology Popular among Anti-Torah Elements within Eretz Yisrael—and Why We Need to Detach From It

7/7/2021

7 Comments

At the risk of sounding really dumb, I admit to struggling in figuring out what was up with this new citizenship bill some Knesset members tried to pass.

My relationship to the news is fluid; sometimes I remain out of the loop (for example, I didn't initially realize that Bennett had become Prime Minister), yet other times I read parts of it obsessively.

So I thought maybe I struggled to understand because I'd been out of the loop.

Then I realized...no.

So regarding the Citizenship Bill:

See, I thought that naturalizing within Eretz Yisrael non-Israeli non-Jewish citizens who are married to Israeli non-Jewish citizens is a bad idea.

It's a bad idea halachically & a bad idea practically.

It's especially a bad idea concerning a group that traditionally produces lots of anti-Jew terrorists and generally votes against the well-being of Jews & acts against the 7 Laws of Noach.

Apparently, the Knesset enacted a law in 2003 preventing citizenship for Falestinians married to Israeli-Arabs.

This happened because many of these married-to-an-Israeli-Arab Falestinians used their newfound Israeli legal status to carry out terror attacks against Jews.

Bennett & his buddies wanted to extend this helpful law.

Yet all the parties you'd think would approve this extension voted against this law—just for spite (although they included other reasons too):

Likud (Netanyahu's party & considered right of center)
Religious-Zionist party (or whatever they call themselves this year; headed by Smotrich)
United Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi charedi)
Shas (Sefardi charedi)
Joint List (a bunch of Arab parties who got together under one brand because they're too pathetic to make it on their own)

Even a member of Bennett's own turncoat party—Yamina—voted against Bennet's extension.

Even more confusing, 2 members of the Arab party Ra'am voted for the bill (which you'd think is NOT in their best interests).

The Leftist secular Jewish parties voted for the bill (again, you'd think they wouldn't).

Out of the bunch, Joint List was one of the only voting honestly.

Mostly, Bennett-haters voted against their own interests just for spite—just to prevent him from passing a bill & to prevent any appearance of him holding real leadership.

It got even more confusing when I read quotes by other Knesset members, who saw the bill's extension as a way give Falestinians the right to citizenship "in installments" & reaching agreements with supporters of terrorism—criticism of which seems the opposite of what this Jew-friendly bill's extension seems to do.

So you see why I was confused.

I tried asking more politically savvy people, who clarified things somewhat, but at the same time, they also seemed a bit confused.

Everyone in the government is now operating out of spite & tug-of-war, rather than trying to actually govern the country.

In other words, we still don't have a government.

Yippee.

(UPDATE: Lest this gives the wrong impression, I never supported Bennett. The late Rav Ovadia Yosef ztz"l definitely had Bennett's number when Rav Ovadia quipped that Bennett's Jewish Home party was actually "a non-Jewish home.")

A Little Bit about Where I'm Coming From

That was all just an introduction to focus on the terminology used & what's wrong with that.

But before I discuss the terms like "Tziyoni" and "Tziyonut," it's important for you to know I USED TO BE A ZIONIST. I WAS A SECULAR ZIONIST AND THEN I WAS A RELIGIOUS ZIONIST.

(I used ALL-CAPS here because sometimes people debate me on issues as if I'd been stuck in a bucket of frogs until now, and just recently emerged. So just wanted things to be clear.)

So please know that at one point, I was firmly in the Zionist camp, longed to serve in Sherut Leumi, joyfully davened Hallel on Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, and so on.

Also, I read Rav Kook.

So if I reject the whole Tziyoni thing, it's not because I just emerged from living within a bucket of frogs & don't understand.

It's because certain observations & research brought me to different conclusions.

Ironically, some people are very enthusiastic about Zionism and proclaim themselves Zionists, yet will never settle in Eretz Yisrael.

I've lived happily in Eretz Yisrael for over half my life.

I own a home here.

I produced children here.

I haven't been outside of Eretz Yisrael for even a visit (not even to Eilat!) for over 18 years.

Yet because I'm not politically Tziyoni, some people think I'm sludge.

They think they're much holier & far superior for living in Chicago as self-proclaimed Zionists and writing impassioned pro-Israel letters to editors & congresspersons, and donating money to Agudah L'maan Hachayal (the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers).

Okay. You can't please everybody.

But, in addition to showing us that we have no leader other than Hashem, I think events are also Hashem's way of showing us He wants us to look at who we really are and our reasons for living in Eretz Yisrael and how to best help ourselves.

What is Tziyonut & What Has Resulted from It?

It must be acknowledged that many Jews serving in the IDF very much want to protect Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael.

Many have and are willing to act with the highest self-sacrifice on behalf of their fellow Jews.

It also must be acknowledged that there isn't much difference between Jews like me and the very religious Zionist Jews.

In such cases, the word Tziyoni becomes more semantics than anything else.

However, the terminology (as discussed here: a-look-at-mainstream-media-bias-how-it-affects-even-the-frum-media.html) proves a problem.

As also previously discussed, the idea of Tziyonut does not exist anywhere in traditional Jewish scholarship.

Tziyonut was only coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum, who was a secular ethnocentrist at that time. (He did complete teshuvah later, baruch Hashem.) He promoted Jewish nationalism based on the Yiddish language and culture (which means...what exactly?).

By amputating the idea of Jewish Statehood from the actual mitzvah, bizarre and harmful phenomena developed.

One result is how my son shared a room on an IDF base with 2 Russian Christians wearing crosses, who also decorated their Israeli army room with shiny holiday tinsel and belted out carols ("We wish you a merry...!") during the month of December.

Did I make aliyah for my son to be surrounded by pagan decorations & caroling while serving in "the only Jewish army in the world"?

Do all the pro-aliyah Tziyoni proponents ever mention this type of phenomena?

(Yes, my son served in the Israeli army. I should really put that in ALL-CAPS too so that people don't do the whole dynamic of: "Oh, you must have recently emerged from inside a bucket of frogs, so let me explain to you that...")

But the Tziyoni Law of Return allows for the non-Jewish children of completely assimilated fathers & non-Jewish mothers to receive full citizenship in Israel—including the freedom to practice a religion that not only violates Eretz Yisrael, but also the 7 Laws of Noach (which insist on the belief of ONE God, not 3.)

As IDF-serving Tziyonim, these cross-wearing caroling Christian Edomites are considered a more vital & worthier part of Israeli society within Eretz Yisrael than my family, who learns Torah & keeps the mitzvot (including the ones unique to Eretz Yisrael, like terumot and maaserot), and generally upholds the Torah.

Because Eretz Yisrael is a Land that "vomits out her inhabitants" when those inhabitants don't toe the line, these cross-wearing caroling Christians with full Israeli citizenship—plus their embrace by Jews within society—actually ENDANGERS everyone living in Eretz Yisrael.

Yet because of Tziyonut, they are seen as advantageous & really cool, rather than disadvantageous & really destructive.

According to Tziyonut, THEY benefit society.

Me and my kind are simply parasites who do not "share the burden."

Irrational Values Proclaimed in the Knesset

With all that said, let's take a look at an article with quotes from different Knesset members:
https://hamodia.com/2021/07/06/coalition-suffers-defeat-knesset-votes-citizenship-law/

Here's a Likud MK, who believes that an extension of the bill is merely a cover-up to facilitate later infiltration:

"My position is to vote against the bill and the anti-Zionist deal between Shaked and Abbas."

His comment may not sound weird if you (like me) grew up with a pro-Zionist outlook.

But to the currently more investigative me, it sounds bizarre.

Is that really the core problem—it's anti-Zionist?

What does that even mean in this context?

The reason for the bill (and the whole issue) is that terrorists use marriage to Israeli citizens to facilitate terror attacks against Jews. (Sometimes non-Jews end up as victims too, but the main target is Jews.)

What does that have to do with Zionism?

Meaning, if they wanted to use legal means to carry out terror attacks prior to Nathan Birnbaum's coinage in 1890, would it be okay then?

No. But that's what it implies.

How about this instead (i.e. what a normal person would say):

"We vote against any deal that opens loopholes for mass murder against Jews."

That's the real issue at stake.

It has nothing to do with nationalism—just morality.

Now here's Netanyahu:

“Bennett and Shaked say they have formed a ‘Zionist government,’ but they aren’t capable of passing such a simple law because they’re dependent on anti-Zionist entities that oppose Israel being a Jewish, democratic state.”

Again, no one seems interested in forming either a moral government or a functioning government.

Just a Zionist one—a nationalist government.

Nationalist for whom?

Because, as a Zionist nationalist government, they've let in a tremendous amount of non-Jews who are hostile to Torah values (both Yishmaelim & Africans & non-Jewish Russian Edomites who played a massive role in Avigdor Lieberman's success with his anti-Torah Yisrael Beteinu party).

Intermarriage is a rising problem in Eretz Yisrael (something that both datim & charedim aren't paying much attention to, for some reason).

Intermarriage with Muslims has always been an issue in the modern State, but even worse is what's happening with the many thousands of non-Jewish Russians who assimilated into Israeli society & speak fluent Hebrew.

Living within Israeli culture & attending Israeli schools, they attain familiarity & comfort with Jewish holidays and customs, making them seem like any other secular Jew.

They are perfectly attractive to secular Jews, who do not know enough to care.

To marry a secular or tepidly religious Jew, these non-Jewish Russians can access compromised "conversion" programs without true commitment to Torah & mitzvot, which then provide them & their children the appearance of Jewishness without actual being Jewish.

(If you cannot see this as a disaster in the making, well then...hopefully, Mashiach will come long before this all explodes.)

These people will never vote in a way that truly benefits Jews, and they will always seek to turn Israeli society into something more comfortable for THEM—while being considered loyal to the Zionist ideal.

Intermarriage (and all the pritzadik behavior that precedes marriage among secular people) is one of the most destructive forces against the Jewish people.

It is all the more terrible within Eretz Yisrael, as has been shown throughout Tanach.

Hashem hates it.

This calamity is a DIRECT result of Tziyonut.

It could never have happened with Jews who care about fellow Jews & Judaism.

As for Netanyahu's slam on those who oppose a Jewish, democratic State—well, what's Jewish in the eyes of him and his followers?

Again, everyone who votes for the Leftist parties, the Arab parties, and Lieberman's party opposes a Jewish State.

Why?

Because if you're not in favor of halacha, then you're in favor of non-Jewish values.

And those values end up destroying the Jewish people.

Also, the whole democracy thing...it really is 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

Without religious Jews exerting a lot of thoughtful advocacy behind the scenes, history shows that Jews always lose in a democracy.

It's weird to place such an emphasis on the Tziyoni aspect of the issue when it's about brutal terror against Jews in Eretz Yisrael.

Here's a statement from Likud:

“Bennett and Lapid wanted to buy two Ra’am votes in exchange for allowing thousands of Palestinians to enter, endangering Israel’s Zionist identity.”

Again, what is this whole "Zionist identity" concern?

Again, aren't we concerned about JEWISH LIVES?

What about JEWISH identity?

Why do the leaders of what's considered a Jewish State avoid talking about Jewishness and instead keeping falling back on a purely nationalist identity (Zionism)—which includes both assimilated Jews & non-Jews who uphold beliefs & behaviors that destroy the Jewish people?

Just being Zionist does NOTHING to preserve Jewish lives (including unborn Jewish lives)—as we've seen throughout the modern history of Medinat Yisrael.

(Don't even get me started on the State's early treatment of religious Jews & Sefardim, especially the Yemenite Jews, and the whole Yemenite Children Affair horror. Or the hellhole created by non-Jewish African migrants against poor Jews living in North Tel Aviv—all facilitated by secular Tziyonim.)

Some Examples of Why Defining Everything as Either "Tziyoni" or "Anti-Tziyoni" Creates Problems

The reason why treif restaurants exist within Eretz Yisrael is because of Tziyonut.

It's not anti-Zionist to eat pork on Holy Land.

A Tziyoni does not even consider Eretz Yisrael as Holy Land because he views it from a purely nationalist perspective.

A religious-Zionist may view treif as a problem (though not all do because some bought into the whole nationalism & democracy idea), but that's because he is religious—meaning, it's about Judaism not Zionism, whether he realize it or not. (Many religious Zionists conflate the two.)

Another example: It's not anti-Zionist to watch illicit images on your computer.

However, it's a terribly destructive force that brings down harsh judgement.

Really, keeping our minds & eyes clean do the most to prevent terror attacks and other disasters within Eretz Yisrael.

That's the best defense.

The mandatory draft of teenage girls into the IDF is considered wonderfully Zionist.

These girls consider it their Zionist duty to serve (some very reluctantly, some enthusiastically).

This results in wanton behavior (including outright assault & harassment against vulnerable girls), which the IDF plasters over by providing free abortions to female soldiers.

A little-known fact about abortion is the deep ongoing trauma it causes to many women & girls who choose to abort, in addition to the destruction of an innocent life—and in the case of many female IDF soldiers? The destruction of a Jewish life.

Yet none of this is considered anti-Tziyoni, even though it's clearly destructive and anti-Jewish.

By placing the emphasis on "Zionist," it also facilitates an alliance with Christian-Zionists (some of whom are truly well-meaning), but the majority of whom do NOT have our best interests at heart and who, if they got their way, would destroy us spiritually and annihilate our entire eternity...all with the best of intentions.

Yet they're considered "kosher" and even really wonderful & beneficial solely because of the "Zionist" appellation.

Another problem this terminology created is the idea that a Jew can be anti-Torah and married to a non-Jew and completely living in sin, etc....but as long as he considers himself a Zionist, he's okay. He's a good Jew.

But he's not. He's a failed Jew on the path straight to Gehinnom. According to Rav Avigdor Miller, the Rambam doubts whether such a person is even from the seed of Yisrael.

(See here: Rav Avigdor Miller on Are You a Descendant of Avraham Avinu?)

So this leads to a lot of self-deception that harms uneducated Jews who might have otherwise done teshuvah.

In fact, the Tziyoni government does the opposite by hosting toeva parades on Holy Soil, and generally allowing all sorts of appalling lewdness within the boundaries of its territory.

This is all incredibly harmful—yet it's not anti-Tziyoni, so only the truly committed & knowledgeable Jews care.

Because of all this, the whole Tziyonut issue presents an obstacle to true teshuvah and to becoming the best Jew you can be.

It creates an imaginary issue when there's really no issue at all.

In other words, it gets people debating whether something is Zionist or anti-Zionist—when the debate should really be about whether it's moral, whether it's just.

Reaching Our Authentic Self

I realized that no matter how much you love Torah & your fellow Jews, and no matter how religious you are, and no matter how much you devote yourself to actually living in Eretz Yisrael...the minute you say, "I don't embrace this whole Tziyoni hashkafah," then you get eviscerated.

So please note: If you are a religious Jew anywhere in the world, you are doing VASTLY more for the Jewish people than any self-described Tziyoni.

If you are a religious Jew living in Eretz Yisrael for spiritual reasons, you are the only kind of person doing any good for the Jews in Eretz Yisrael.

All the people who transgress Shabbat in Eretz Yisrael, who intermarry, who eat treif, and so on—they are bringing terrible din over Am Yisrael.

This din is only mitigated by the truly religious Jews (or Jews who are at least on the path to true commitment—as discussed in an earlier post, it can take a while to get there when you first start out).

As far as fighting or preventing Jew-hatred, Chazal has always been clear this has to do with our actions & relationship to Torah, and not just a matter of physical location.

Meaning, creating a Tziyoni state does nothing to prevent & fight Jew-hatred (as we have seen).

Yes, many people thought it would.

Even many devotedly frum Jews initially thought it would (until after 1948, when they saw the terrible discrimination against religious Jews, particularly new Sefardi immigrants).

But it didn't and it doesn't.

Contrary to how many people will perceive this, my position is based on genuine concern for my fellow Jews.

This is all really about being real with ourselves and who we really are at the soul level.

http://www.myrtlerising.com/blog/what-do-the-sephardi-gedolim-say-about-tziyonut-the-medinah-and-all-that (especially important to read the comments by R' Kash at the end)
https://torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-driving-out-the-palestinians/
https://torasavigdor.org/our-response-to-anti-semitism/ (video)
https://torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-supporting-medinas-yisroel/
https://torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-rising-anti-semitism/
http://www.myrtlerising.com/aliyah/tefillah-the-most-crucial-part-of-aliyah
A Prayer to Make Aliyah & Live in Eretz Yisrael

"The primary purpose of going to Eretz

Yisrael is for the rectification of the soul."

— Rav Eliezer Papo, Pele Yoetz, 1824
(in the chapter titled Eretz Yisrael: English Hebrew)

7 Comments

A Look at Mainstream Media Bias & How It Affects Even the Frum Media

14/6/2021

0 Comments

Like a lot of other people, I turn to frum newspapers (online or print) to receive news in a kosher manner & also to keep in touch with what's happening in the frum community specifically.

To its credit, frum media faces enormous challenges that regular media refuses to even acknowledge.

This makes frum media more ethical & uphold higher integrity than non-frum media.

However, due to constrained resources, frum media reprints articles from other sources—mainstream respected sources in the industry (which actually lack respectability & integrity).

The frum outlets do this legally with attribution to the original source.

In fact, most news outlets throughout the world do this.

However, the formerly respected mainstream news outlets no longer even attempt to present the news objectively.

In turn, this causes everyone to glean from a biased, manipulative source.

So I found myself reading obviously slanted and biased articles meant to ensure you think one way (the liberal anti-Torah way)—in a frum newspaper.

For example, articles about the police officer who kneeled on the neck of a womanizing criminal drug addict frequently emphasized that the cop was white and the dead perp was black.

This only serves to fan flames in one specific direction only.

Yes, these articles fan the flames in that direction despite the FACT that young black men murder each other (not by accident, as in the Floyd-Chauvin case, but with pride & full intent) far more than any other group (and are therefore more dangerous to each other than any cop is to them) and despite the FACT that black cops were 3 times more likely to shoot than a white cop:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/2330443X.2015.1129918?&~nfopt(fileDistorted=5900056764552855)

At the same time, I must give credit to these same frum outlets for offering better coverage as time went on (though the emphasis on the abusive cop as a WHITE POLICE OFFICER and the dead career criminal as a BLACK MAN continues—again, due to reprints from the mainstream—and not from frum journalists who possess more intelligence & integrity than the mainstream journalists).

But initially, reading the reprints hosted by the frum media forced me to read lines like this about the loose criminal junkie:

"...whose death has become a worldwide symbol in demonstrations over calls for changes to police practices and an end to racial prejudices."

An end to racial prejudices? Seriously? Is that what the Floyd-sympathizers do?

Is that the goal of BLM?

NO.

They care nothing about racial prejudice in general—only what they perceive as racist against them (emphasis on their own perception, whether it reflects the reality or not).

For example, attacks against Far East Asians in America continue to be either ignored or reported minimally (with no popular demand for action).

Attacks on Jews, including elderly Jews, have risen.

Have you ever heard of a Floyd-sympathizer demonstrate about these racist attacks...or even merely comment on them?

Black-on-white racism (including violent & even fatal attacks) continues to be ignored, though whites who attend predominantly black schools in the inner city can tell you that such racism exists and can be frighteningly violent.

I remember when one of my high school teachers told us that in her previous job teaching in an inner city school in New York, one of the black students pushed her down the stairs simply because she was white.

She was a skinny blonde blue-eyed woman in her early 20s at the time.

Very threatening, I'm sure. Takes a real man to give her a push on the stairs... [sarc].

The pro-Floyd & pro-BLM radicals only concern themselves with perceived racism of whites against blacks.

They show no interest in anti-Asian racism, anti-Native American racism, anti-White racism, or anti-Jewish bigotry.

In fact, BLM showed up to protest a police brutality event only to discover that the victim was white, so they dispersed.

The above demonstrates how any statement that BLM or pro-Floydists are demonstrating to "end racial prejudices" is a LIE.

In general, Floyd-sympathizers (and BLM for that matter) care nothing for "racial prejudices" as a whole.

They focus only on black people (particularly—and bizarrely—on black criminals, rather than on decent, law-abiding black citizens)—whether the situation involved actual racial prejudice or not.

So again, their actions clearly show they care nothing about general racism or even actual prejudice.

As another example of how this seeps in to our psyche, the frum media gave voice to Floyd's brother's views (via a reprint)—which are wrong.

Floyd's brother cried that Floyd listened to the officers and did not fight back.

False.

Floyd resisted (and that's not the only time he resisted arrest either, though he was indeed breaking the law) and did not listen to officers.

Floyd's brother wants us to "stop the pain."

Yet what about Floyd's own children, two of whom he hadn't seen in so long, these adult children did not recognize their own father by name or by face on TV until their mother told them who he was?

What about the terrible pain caused to children when their father completely abandons them?

What about Floyd's criminal record & the pain of his victims, including violent crime, and his ongoing addiction to hard drugs?

What about how Floyd behaved like the Johnny Appleseed of babies, producing 5 children with different women over the years without marrying any of the mothers?

How could he abandon his own children (and their mothers) like that, with no contact for the rest of their lives?

But the media focused on how he maintained warm contact with only one child (after having dumped that mother and gone on to yet another woman).

Statistically, that's much more painful and damaging to the children themselves and society at large because fatherless children commit crimes and self-harming behavior at a much higher rate.

(71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, 85% of under-18 prison inmates grew up without fathers, etc...[source]. And it's the children of unwed single mothers—more than divorced or widowed mothers—who are more likely to turn out this way.)

And why does the media refuse to include the fact that many criminals beg, plead, cry, and claim illness or injury—even when they've no illness or injury?

For example, you can see bodycam videos of officers called to a scene to deal with a suspicious man, who proceeds to whine & kvetch like a first-grade girl in desperate need of the lavatory:

"Why are you bothering meeee? I didn't do anything, dude. Awwww, c'mon...can you just leave me alooooone? It ain't fair. Why are you doing this to meeee?"

And so on.

The police officers remain calm, even cajoling, while calmly and firmly insisting the suspect keep his hands where they can see them and get out of the car (or whatever).

The suspect continues to whine and act like a victim...until he suddenly whips out a gun and shoots one of the cops in the lung.

If you've seen them, then you know that these psychopathic tough guys aren't embarrassed to whine like victimized pansies until they either shoot or try to run over or otherwise attack or escape the cops.

If you talk to police officers or read their surveys and forums, you see it's surprisingly common for guilty and even violent suspects to whine, cry, and claim suffering ("I can't breathe! Ouch, eek, you're hurting me, man!") when arrested by cops.

All media should include this dynamic in their reports.

Why?

Because it's common for even hardened murderous psychopaths to engage in this whiny pathetic behavior. That's why cops do not take whining & kvetching & crying & pleading seriously.

It's SO common!

And it's so often just an act.

At the very least, the frum media should include this fact in their reporting.

But they don't because they reprint from the mainstream media sources, which refuse to present a fair & complete picture.

The Most Massive & Monstrous "Child" in Human History

Another example:

When describing a previous encounter when Chauvin kneeled on another guy's neck & back for 17 minutes in 2017, the frum outlet described the perpetrator as a "child."

This sounds horrific.

However, the "child" was actually a 240-pound, 6'2" 14-year-old male whose own mother called the police after he assaulted her with the accomplice of another sibling.

Ooh, poor widdle baby!

The report emphasized how the mother cried & begged for Chauvin to get off her son, spotlighting how abusive Chauvin seemed.

However, it is so common for female victims of domestic violence to turn around and plead for mercy on behalf of their assailant.

Especially mothers. She just wanted her baby boy to stop abusing her. As a mother, despite his abusive behavior toward her, she still found it difficult to see her baby suffering.

Why did the frum outlet report the event this way?

Do the frum editors sincerely view violent mommy-abusing 6'2" 240-pounders as "children"?

I can't imagine they do.

Again, a look at the attribution shows the article was a reprint from a mainstream news source.

And Guess What? I Don't Like Any of Them.

BTW, I'm not a Chauvin defender. It's fine with me if he stays in prison.

If you've read about psychopathy, his history fits the paradigm.

His 17 (or 19?) official complaints (versus the police average of 6), the way he clearly takes pleasure in making others suffer, and even his medals of valor came after he handled dangerous situations with self-protective violence.

He shot people holding guns and tackled another guy holding a gun.

Heroic behavior can be either truly heroic or psychopathic, depending, because psychopaths lack a normal sense of fear and get their thrills from risky behavior and risky situations.

So if you put psychopaths in a situation in which they get to shoot or assault someone and it's either legal or socially acceptable for them to do so, they love that.

It's fun for them.

The fact that his Hmong wife dropped him like a coal on fire, never to be heard from again, hints that she saw her opportunity to flee what was probably an abusive marriage.

(She did it in a very smart way too, by declaring her actions as a protests against his racist, abusive behavior while expressing sympathy for Floyd and family, which kept her from being a victim of BLM & the media.)

I don't know of course. It's just my suspicion because it fits a certain pattern. Maybe I'm wrong.

Also, Chauvin's own bodycam during the arrest of the world's most massive "child" allegedly shows that after the young Goliath refused to obey the police order to come out of his room (and yes, they gave him time to comply), the police rushed into his room & grabbed the "child" by the throat. (Seeing as the tallest of the 2 cops didn't even clear 5'9", the young Goliath was significantly larger than them.)

Chauvin whacked the young Goliath on the ear with his flashlight twice (causing bleeding and the need for stitches), and knocked him to the ground where Chauvin kneeled on the young man for 17 minutes, even though the young man was handcuffed & bleeding & even unconscious at one point (regaining consciousness a few moments later) & the mother was begging Chauvin to stop.

Even if the young Goliath initially fought the police (as Chauvin claimed), why keep kneeling on him after he is handcuffed?

And Chauvin did all this knowing it was filmed. (Though conniving, psychopaths can also be a foolishly cocky bunch.)

Though I think the gargantuan bully deserved what he got, it's clear that Chauvin used excessive force, seemingly deriving pleasure from it too.

Another one of the complaints against Chauvin came from a woman whom Chauvin stopped for going 10 mph over the speed limit, and pulled her out of her car with his own car-cam conveniently turned off for the incident.

(Police investigators justified the woman's complaint & agreed that Chauvin used unnecessary force.)

And psychopaths tend to be attracted to positions of authority, where they can get away with all sorts of nasty behaviors.

However, he did not commit intentional murder.

If the prosecution's autopsy reports are correct (and conflicting reports exist), Chauvin committed accidental manslaughter.

(If the Hennekin autopsy reports are correct, then Chauvin's knee didn't kill Floyd; rather Floyd killed Floyd via his own reckless drug use.)

And just for knowing: I don't personally care about any of the 3 above.

I think Floyd was a hopeless bum doing more harm than good in society.

I think the 6'2" 240-pound mother-abuser (who ganged up on his own mother with the accomplice of another teenage sibling: 2 against 1—how manly and fair!) is a hopeless brute.

And like I said, Chauvin displayed psychopathic traits throughout his career.

However, the reporting is so revoltingly biased and intended to brainwash the public.

And, by riling up the populace & causing threats against the jurors, the manipulative reporting prevented a fair trail & a just verdict from taking place.

At this point, frum media needs to find another solution because reprinting from mainstream sources no longer works due to the criminal bias propagated by such sources.

(And yes, the bias is criminal when it incites crime & violence & mistrials.)

Poor Terminology regarding the Jewish World

In the immediate aftermath of the Meron tragedy, frum media reported the tragedy as a "stampede"—after all, they gleaned their reports from the mainstream media.

And gleaning from the frum outlets, I initially also used the term "stampede."

To my chagrin, we all quickly discovered the wrongness of using that term.

There was no stampede.

(I apologized & corrected what I originally wrote.)

Furthermore, "stampede" carries degrading & accusatory associations against the victims—degrading & accusatory accusations which proved false.

If it's true, then using that term is accurate & fine.

But it WASN'T true!

So that term—which is still being used in some media outlets—is false. It's a lie.

Even more recently, an alert correspondent informed me that one of the secular Jewish newspapers labeled the yeshivah victims of the Tapuach Junction terrorist attack as "seminary students."

I've seen this terminology used before in secular media.

However, in the frum community, "seminary students" are always girls.

Otherwise, "seminary" for boys has a more Christian connotation.

Why not just say "yeshivah students"—especially if you are a Jewish (though secular) outlet?

The term "yeshivah" already entered the mainstream years ago (kind of like Hanukkah or menorah—though you could describe them as "Festival of Lights" or "8-armed Festival-of-Lights candelabra" if you wish).

And the handful of secular Jewish media readers who've no idea what a yeshivah could possibly be can easily look it up online.

But for a purely English term, I've seen yeshivah translated as "Talmudic academy," which is a much better and more accurate term.

But "seminary students" sounds softer & more Christian.

"Talmudic academics" or "academic Talmudists" or "Talmud students" give much more weight & respect to the idea of the yeshivah bachur—something the secular journalists do not feel.

Sure, when writing for a mixed audience, you can fall into the trap of using a poor but common translation. I've unintentionally done it myself (though correct it immediately upon becoming aware of the blunder).

The problem isn't the occasional & accidental misuse of terminology. No one is perfect.

The problem is the intentional & frequent misrepresentation in media.

The secular Jewish media consists of professional journalists who know their audience and also write about yeshivah stuff enough to know to use a better term.

So why don't they?

The Latest Headline at Knucklehead News: WHALES DID SOMETHING ANATOMICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO EVER DO!

To conclude with a laughable point of manipulative media terminology, let's look at the latest headlines & clickbait regarding an unusual event:

DIVER SWALLOWED BY WHALE!

Really?

Nope. Not a chance.

As we've all discovered by now, the hapless diver was NOT "swallowed" by any whale.

Simply by accident, the whale sucked the diver into his mouth, experienced severe discomfort, and spit out the diver.

Some of us immediately suspected the headlines because—guess what?--a humpback whale cannot swallow a human.

Their esophagus is way too small. A small bird is the biggest thing they ever swallow, and even that's pretty rare.

Only the most massive whale could swallow a human (though they wouldn't want to)—and humpbacks aren't it.

Yet all over the world in even the most reputable outlets (including the science magazines, which for sure know better), you see DIVER SWALLOWED BY WHALE!

Or even: DIVER SWALLOWED WHOLE!

The outlets that wish to avoid looking completely stupid simply weasel their way into clickbait headlines by declaring: MAN ALMOST SWALLOWED BY WHALE!

But again, this is all false. It's a lie.

Or this particularly weasely headline: MAN CLAIMS WHALE NEARLY SWALLOWED HIM WHOLE!

Interestingly, the guy actually said the whale was "trying" to swallow him. That could be. The whale's instinct is to swallow what's in its mouth...but the diver is too big.

(Actually, that might not be correct either. Whales swallow tons of water in order to filter out the plankton into their stomachs. They also automatically filter out anything too big.)

Anyway, if the report of the man's actual words is accurate, he never said the whale swallowed him or even almost swallowed him.

That would be impossible.

In fact, his first words to his rescuing crew members seem to have been: "Joe, I was in the mouth of a whale."

That's completely accurate—and not at all like the headlines pretending to quote him.

Because a humpback whale lacks the anatomical capability to swallow a human (especially a human wearing a scuba tank), a humpback whale cannot "nearly" or "almost" swallow a diver.

It's sort of like if I would jump in the air, then declare: "I nearly fell off the planet!"

No, I did not.

Gravity makes it impossible to fall off the planet. That's why space shuttles need so much force to escape Earth's gravity.

Because it's impossible, it cannot "almost" or "nearly" happen.

Five-year-olds talk like that. Adults should know better.

A humpback whale can NEVER swallow a full-grown man, especially one wearing a scuba tank.

It is physically impossible to happen and therefore, can never "almost" happen.

Yet headlines around the world, even in science magazines, declare the occurrence of an event that is physically impossible.

Truly, we cannot believe ANYTHING we read until we check it out for ourselves.

The Media is Saturated with Bias & Manipulation

I remember when the idea of politically correct terminology came into being. I was in 11th grade (1989-1990).

Presented as a way of being more sensitive and accurate, the politically correct pen has indeed been transformed into a savage sword by using incendiary terminology & omitting facts.

Innocent people are defamed, good people are demonized, bad people are deified, and events distorted.

Recent years in the USA have seen the distorted reporting & incendiary terminology result in violence, assault, looting, destruction, arson, and murder.

You can trust very little of what you read in any media at this point.

Even the frum media (which is the best of the lot) & most (though not everyone on staff) tend to be well-intended, with many sincere writers, copyeditors, & graphic designers doing the best they can under tight deadlines—yet even this media as a whole cannot be fully relied upon as long as they reprint articles from biased mainstream sources (sources which operate as propaganda tanks & greedy clickbait rather than reporters of actual news).

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Part I of How the Torah Provides Guidance for the Best Governmental Policies: Yosef HaTzaddik in Egypt vs. Socialism & Communism

31/5/2021

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Click here to skip to Part 2.

It's always amazing & validating to see how much applicable guidance the Torah contains.

A huge chunk of its wisdom lies in how the Torah demonstrates what great people did wrong AND what they did right.

The Torah proves exceptional in that respect.

With their insight into the Torah limited & distorted by their own sense of self-importance & narrow-mindedness, the am ha'aretzim & the Jew-haters misinterpret the Torah's analyzations of failures & mistakes by both tzaddikim & reshaim.

This prevents them from eliciting the invaluable lessons contained within.

When to Collect a Large Percentage of Citizen Earnings & When Not To

For example, I remember reading the stories of the kings of Yisrael and coming across the repeated theme of how raised taxes produced a disgruntled society.

As a youngster, I never thought to apply that to modern times because the assimilated Jewish environment in which I grew up dismissed most of authentic Judaism as impractical or irrelevant, only deriving the most superficial lessons from it (i.e., whatever is emotionally appealing to the secular liberal mind).

But modern economic theories show that, indeed, lower taxes mean more money for spending, which means more income for workers.

It creates a happy, productive cycle.

Yet we also find the example of Yosef Hatzaddik.

As second to Pharaoh in ancient Egypt, Yosef Hatzaddik tithed a tremendous amount from that nation—but only for a specified time period (7 years) and for a reason derived from exceptional forethought: to maintain Egypt's abundance.

In other words, Yosef's goal of accumulating Egyptian production was not for the personal extravagance of the royal family nor for ego-driven wars.

Yosef acted for the people & for their future.

So when the predicted 7-year famine arrived, Egyptians not only found themselves on top of the world, both personally & nationally, but those years of famine turned into years of plenty for Egypt as the entire world turned to Egypt to survive the famine, bringing Egypt income of all varieties.

And despite its superficial similarities to other movements, Yosef's strategy contrasts sharply to seemingly similar systems, like Communism & Socialism.

How Yosef HaTzaddik's Policies Differ from Communism & Socialism

For example, Yosef set a time-limit for this mass stockpiling.

It was not an eternal way of life as it is with Socialist & Communist societies.

But most importantly, Yosef did it for the people.

He set aside their own goods to provide for them in tough times.

He also displayed incredible integrity in organization, accounting, and supervision as he knew exactly what was happening, how much, and where it went.

Communist societies reveal their glaring hypocrisy in how the political leaders & mafias get rich off the people, permanently trapping their people in the lower-middle-class-to-poor stratum.

The successful (at least temporarily) Socialist societies (like Scandinavia) resign the entire society to a relatively content middle class. With some exceptions, less innovation or advancement occurs due to lack of motivation. (Working hard won't earn you much more & anyway, life is pretty decent, so why push yourself?)

Contrast this to how, for example, the need to irrigate land in new areas led Israel to become one of the world's best innovators in irrigation.

However, socialism not considered a good long-term system and it also depends on a society that remains of one mind on the value system making the system work (i.e., who won't exploit the benefits by not doing their share, like not working, or by using their free time for criminal & other harmful activities).

As we see now, a tremendous amount of drinking takes place in all the Scandinavian countries, plus their daisies-and-unicorns immigration policies and vapid attitude toward crime (including toward expressions of Jew-hatred—even when the Jew-hatred turns violent), these societies are starting to sink.

Furthermore, the Russian bear sometimes makes noises at their borders. (The truth is, anyone who'd want to conquer Finland, Norway, or Sweden could do so easily at this point.)

Yet most refuse to see their society's downward turn because of: "Please don't disturb my Scandinavian socialist utopia."

I think we could also fit France in here because they also had a seemingly socialist society, but I'm not sure about the details. Anyway, France is also tanking now.

In England, you have some people living off benefits in posh neighborhoods with more money than the middle-class workers who fund their benefits.

(BTW, most Brits on benefits do not find themselves in fine neighborhoods & good housing; it depends on their situation and the terms for receiving benefits. But it's bizarre & unfair that such a situation happens at all.)

This is obviously unfair & unequal and in opposition to the ideals of economic & social equality Socialism claims to provide.

Similar to feudal societies, you have the poor providing for the luxuries of the rich while the poor struggle or go without.

At the same time, you also have the working-to-middle-class providing for those who make easily avoidable yet bad decisions that cripple their income or provide for those who don't wish to work at all.

Increasingly, this dynamic appears in America too.

America, moving toward socialism over the years, also lives off its working class, middle class, and upper class, all of whom provide for the extravagant lifestyle of its political leaders (i.e., Obama constant retreats to Martha's Vineyard for golf & treating his daughter, plus her 12 friends, to a $115,000 vacation in the foreign country of Mexico, Congressman flying around in private planes & treating themselves to exorbitantly expensive haircuts, etc.).

As in England, American tax-payers fund those who make easily avoidable yet bad decisions that cripple their income, in addition to funding those who don't wish to work at all...

...all while raising taxes & prices on a wide variety of necessities.

Ironically, the welfare system—originally intended as a safety net for those fallen onto hard times—makes it difficult to get back on one's feet, in addition to funding a pool of dependents who haven't simply fallen on hard times and need a hand up, but instead fund a pool of poor decision-makers (as the majority; there exists a minority who really do need the welfare).

Even more ironically, the growing tent camps of homeless in American cities display the thousands of people who fall between the cracks.

In one online forum, a previously employed non-drug-addicted man had accepted upon himself a temporary stint of homelessness (less risky for a man than for a woman) in order to get back on his feet.

This man inquired about the most comfortable place to be homeless while he sought a new job, saying he expected to endure his homeless state for only 1 month. He figured on getting some kind of job pretty quickly, then being able to move in to a low-rent apartment after saving on rent & utilities during that 1 months.

He had no drugs, crimes, or warrants in his background, had a good job history, and rarely drank.

He preferred Idaho for its quality of living, but heard that homeless weren't welcome there.

It's true that, due to police & citizens more sympathetic to normal decent people (as opposed to drug-addicted/mentally ill who do nothing to help themselves), Idaho lacks the drug-addicted & mentally ill homeless taking over parks and streets occurring in other cities, and who thus endanger normal people & children, which also block these people from utilizing the parks & other facilities paid by their own taxes.

For example, the homeless shelter in Boise, Idaho, apparently limits stays to 17 days and the Boise campground limits stays to 3 days. People loitering in closed parks after dark face a $40 fine if caught.

People suggested this guy move to southern California, where more benefits & facilities exist for the homeless, plus the police leave the homeless alone (even when they commit crimes) & the citizens either ignore them or give them handouts. Plus the weather is really good for outdoor living.

(Although some made the sensible recommendation of applying for a job at Idaho's Sun Valley ski resort, which offers dorm facilities to employees.)

It's weird that someone decent like him cannot get government help for his temporary downturn, which is what many claim the welfare system is set up to do and what many tax-payers wouldn't mind funding.

And there you have it, folks.

Either way, the system seems to not work the way it claims it does.

And whether they sit among the oblivious wearers of rose-colored glasses or among the resentful observers, the above societies are suffering from their lack of integrity & morality in the ruling classes...unlike the ancient Egyptians under the rule of Yosef HaTzaddik.

WHAT MOST SOCIALIST POLICIES ARE REALLY ABOUT: FEEL-GOOD VIRTUE-SIGNALING—AND A WAY TO STAY IN POWER

Some sources used in the above article:
https://jcpa.org/article/recent-anti-semitism-in-scandinavia/ (the last half of it)

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-releases/judicial-watch-releases-records-detailing-government-funds-expended-on-first-daughter-malia-obamas-spring-break-trip-to-mexico/

Continue on to Part 2:
http://www.myrtlerising.com/blog/14-strategies-necessary-for-creating-a-successful-nation-or-society-as-gleaned-from-chapter-9-of-melachimkings-i

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I Support the Goal of Amazon Employees to Fulfill Their Ideals & Avoid Hypocrisy!

30/5/2021

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Because this is the Internet, and because any ability to perceive various uses of humor (sarcasm, irony, pathos, etc.) disappears during online browsing, please be forewarned that a large part of this post is written tongue-in-cheek.
What's more, I think that's what space aliens are REALLY mining here on Earth, IMHO. If you've noticed, the rise in UFO sightings has coincided with the decrease in the ability to utilize or perceive humor in writing. I really think I'm on to something here...

Hamodia recently published an article about people who clearly lack even the vaguest awareness of on which side their bread is buttered:
https://hamodia.com/2021/05/27/amazon-employees-ask-bosses-support-palestinians/

Their 4th demand states:

To sever business contracts and corporate donations with companies, organizations, and/or governments such as the Israeli Defense Forces.

Ironically, a significant part of their Amazon salary & source of their jobs comes from...Israel.

For example:

The USB flash drive we all use (and is widely sold Amazon, and which is used widely by Amazon employees & customers for Amazon digital products) was developed by the Israeli M-Systems in conjunction with IBM.

(Although to be fair, China, Singapore, and Taiwan all claim to have developed it independently at the same time.)

Intel 8088 processer, the first personal computer microprocessor (used by IBM), which inspired many Intel "offspring" in that field.

Waze, the popular GPS system.

I certainly hope these Amazon employees never use it and make no money off of selling anything to do with Waze, so as not to benefit their Israeli producers in any way, in accordance with the demands detailed in their impassioned letter.

I'm also very concerned about Amazon's selling of the Quicktionary translator pen, first produced in Yerushalayim by Wizcom Technologies.

I certainly hope these concerned Amazon employees will stop making any money selling these pens and refuse to use them themselves...EVER.

These Amazon employees also must not have anything to do with the Wix webhost.

Do they know that every time they visit a website hosted by Wix, they are supporting an Israeli company in Tel Aviv? Do they ever use Wix for their own websites? I sincerely hope not!

I also hope they never sell or use anything to do with VoIP technology, produced by VocalTech in Herzilyah.

These Amazon employees MUST avoid this technology like the plague!!!

The origins of VoIP are worse than any of the above.

Read this scandalous reveal from Wikipedia:

VocalTec was founded in 1985 by Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty while still serving together in the IDF, and was officially incorporated in 1989.

Did you get the "while STILL serving in together in the IDF" part?

It doesn't get worse than that!

Also, Amazon employees, please STAY FAR AWAY from anything to do with Text-to-Speech technology, which provides revolutionary assistance to blind people. Alon & Lior made transformative developments in that too and practically invented the Hebrew version.

Also, no more Rummikub! Ephraim Hertzano invented it.

Okay, he first created it in Romania. But after coming to live in Eretz Yisrael in the 1940s (the 1940s? why would he leave Romania davka then? hmm...), he continued to develop the game in ISRAEL and then market Rummikub worldwide. Delete Rummikub from Amazon!

Okay, guys...you probably thought the above was bad enough.

But you know what?

I've saved the worst for last:

Kindle.

Yes, yes...THAT Amazon ereader.

Amazon corners the market in ebooks & ereaders.

And (deep breath) the original Kindle technology was mostly developed in...Israel.

The Herzliyah Industrial Zone, to be exact.

I'm so sorry.

Please, above-signed Amazon employees...PLEASE...just give your entire ebook market over to Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.

Toss out all the Kindles and just let Nook take over the entire market. (Or Kobo Clara HD. Or Apple Reader.)

Sever those business contracts with Israel companies, organizations, and/or governments such as the Israeli Defense Forces—and do so NOW!

It is clearly the best way to support the Palestinians along with the the Palestinian jihad ideology, Gazan missile attacks on civilians, Palestinian terror attacks, rampant domestic violence within their own community, FGM on their own females, using their fellow Palestinian children as human shields, and much more.

(Not that all Palestinians are bad, of course! However, as a society, they suffer from certain issues, such as Arabian male privilege, lack of diversity, and—well—a tendency toward unbridled za'am. No offense.)

Please, above-signed Amazon employees! Do your best to fulfill your stated ideals & avoid any vestige of hypocrisy or personal interest.

We're counting on you to do the wrong thing.

Image by Tablet Helpline from Pixabay

Buh-bye, Kindle! Your origins simply aren't "woke" enough!

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How the Texas Cold Disaster Revealed Torah Wisdom

10/3/2021

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As Jews, we're supposed to view the big picture as much as we can in our limited 3-dimensional state.

And most people (including me) struggle to maintain the balance between normal derech-hateva understanding & efforts versus maintaining a solid knowledge that Hashem is orchestrating everything down to the tiniest detail.

That's normal. But it's a paradox and not an easy one to live in (which is a massive part of our job here in This World).

Furthermore, all the different analyzations about a variety of subjects available today with finely tuned theories (which often include profound bias—or undergo adjustment to fit political correctness) often seem intriguing.

It's easy to get caught up in all the debate & analysis surrounding a hot topic or an intriguing phenomenon.

I have the same tendency, of course. So I try to rein it in as much as I can.

But over the years, I discovered that listening to our real Torah Sages and their conclusions help one arrive at the truth much faster—and putting it all together under a Torah lens proves even more intriguing than a sound-clip-oriented TV debate or the flaming back-and-forth in a forum or comment section.

A Brief Look at Winter in Texas throughout the Century

Let's look at Texas in February 2021, for example.

Shockingly cold weather hit Texas.

First of all, most people don't know that the state of Texas is huge:
268,596 square miles/695,662 square kilometers

The entire United Kingdom could fit into Texas.

Or the Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Luxembourg and Hungary could easily move into Texas together.

Some Texas ranchers own property reaching over 400 square miles.

So when we're talking about a polar vortex covering Texas, we're talking about something massive.

Climate-wise, most of Texas is hot-subtropical. The next biggest climates are hot semi-arid, cold semi-arid—with pockets registering as hot or cold deserts.

See here:

By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Redtitan" title="User:Redtitan">Adam Peterson</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

In much of Texas, winter temperatures rarely dip below the 40s (Fahrenheit) with many days of weather in the 60s.

A friend who grew up in Texas recalled going outside in summer clothes when it snowed in the winter.

Why?

The air was so hot, the snow melted on its way down. It never made it to the ground.

I never heard of such a thing. She said they watched the snow come down, then melt in midair.

That's a snow day in Texas.

In fact, most of Texas sees less than an inch of snow per year.

On the other hand, Texas gets hit with blizzards—but not over the ENTIRE state.

Northwest Texas got hit with 10-20 inches of snow in 1957, which killed off 20% of the local cattle population & defeated snow plows.

A 1985 January storm left San Antonio covered in over a foot of snow—the worst San Antonio had seen in 100 years (must be all that global warming!).

West Texas caught one of the worst blizzards in its history in 2017 (dang that global warming again...) with 8-foot snow drifts & 50 mph winds.

Houston's 2 biggest snowfalls hit in 1899 (20 inches) and 1960 (over 4 inches).

In 2018, the North American Ice Storm hit Northwestern Texas in a 1000-mile rampage.

But none of these caused anywhere near the damage & suffering Texans faced as a whole in February 2021.

Results of the Cold Disaster in Texas

Right now, you can hear Texans gnashing their teeth about their failed infrastructure during the February disaster.

Pipes burst or froze & the power grid failed, leading to millions of people stranded at home in freezing conditions without heat, electricity, or water.

(Even people with generators didn't necessarily have heat because key components froze.)

One house burned to the ground while the firemen watched because their equipment could not operate under the conditions.

Around 70 people died.

Texas lost over half its grapefruit crop and 100% of its orange crop.

Burst pipes resulted in the loss of 325 million gallons of water.

Overall damage resulted in estimates of 195 billion dollars.

Some Texans are receiving utility bills charging them tens of thousands of dollars—even when they didn't have power.

Texan pipes aren't made for such freezing conditions and many Texans blame their politicians because even though extreme cold rarely hits Texas, it still happens.

(Although when has such extreme cold hit most of Texas for such an extended period of time—10 days?)

I think the infrastructure could have been better prepared. Texas authorities also gave terrible advice by telling people not to drip their pipes, which would've helped prevent their bursting—maybe.

But even if Texas had been prepared for its rare short-lived snow storms, does that mean it would've been prepared enough for this one?

Despite cold weather hitting Texas periodically, it was only this severe storm that broke the water pipe in a northeastern building—a pipe that managed to survive since 1924.

While the Texas government must do its best to benefit its citizens, focusing solely on prepping & water pipes misses the big picture.

Winterized Infrastructure Would Have Helped, But Not Completely Prevented the Problems—Why?

Hashem knew the exact limits of the Texan infrastructure and He sent them a weather phenomenon to overwhelm their grid by a long shot.

Even if hot & dry Texas installed the kind of pipes used in North Dakota's frigid blizzards, a fiercer storm could still overwhelm that.

Such a bizarre weather anomaly should make us sit up & pay attention.

It reminds me very much of Dor HaMabul (Generation of the Flood).

Prior to the global Mabul, Hashem sent repeated warnings in the form of natural disasters: earthquakes, local flooding, constant thunder & lightening...He even caused the Sun to rise in the West rather than the East when Metushelach passed away (Me'am Lo'ez, Parshat Noach).

See more here: http://www.myrtlerising.com/blog/the-generation-of-the-flood-has-reincarnated-into-our-generation-heres-the-evidence-also-what-you-can-do-to-protect-yourself-others

I don't know why davka Texas got hit with such extreme cold weather. It could be connected to a certain gashmiut, like how America's oil mainstay exists in Texas.

Or something else entirely.

But several points stick out:

Such an extreme cold weather attack flies in the face of the global warming theory—a theory policy-makers use to extort money (carbon taxes, etc.) from citizens & invent useless programs (for both money & to gain or stay in power).

Yes, I realize part of the global warming theory contorts itself to make it seem like global warming ironically leads to global cooling. But anyone with common sense can see that such cold extremes deny global warming.

Even those prepared found themselves in dire straights when their preps failed them—like their generator.

Even those with enough food found themselves battling freezing temperatures with no way to even warm a can of beans or water for tea.

People with wood stoves didn't have enough wood prepared for this magnitude or couldn't always access the wood.

As noted by president of the Texas Farm Bureau, a dairy farmer himself for 40 years: "It's hard to prepare for what you've never lived in." (source)

His entire life, he never saw a weather event like this in South Texas.

And he was prepared! He needed to be because of his livestock.

So despite previous cold weather events, there was never any reason to prepare for a cold weather attack of this magnitude, especially in South Texas.

Yet discussions abound on how Texas can "combat climate change" and how to better winterize Texas infrastructure, plus which politicians to blame.

All that totally misses the point.

Dor HaMabul attributed their natural disasters to mundane reasons.

And so does today's generation.

The Information Superhighway Will Remain Open until the End

The Texas cold disaster also pinpointed a very interesting insight made by Rav Itamar Schwartz around a year ago in this PDF Q&A:
http://www.bilvavi.net/files/Bilvavi.Corona.Q.and.A.pdf.

(Please note that some of Rav Schwartz's students made transcripts of his original Hebrew lectures, then translated them into English, and one posted them on a website independently of Rav Schwartz. That's how I access his material.)

He claimed that the nisayon of the media/Internet would last until Mashiach.

That struck me because it flew in the face of the sensible-sounding predictions made in society, like, "There won't be any CNN around to film the End of the World."

Or, "The End of the World will not be recorded."

Or Einstein's: “I know not with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."

In other words, technology will be busted. Of course! How could it not?

But Rav Shwartz, with his Torah-knowledgable spiritually attuned point of view, said (page 10):

When the media will disappear, Moshiach will come.

But until Moshiach comes, the innermost level of the shaar hanun d’tumah [50th level of spiritual impurity/blockage] dominates in the world and it contains a mixture of kedushah [holiness] and tumah [spiritual impurity/blockage], from the highest level of kedushah all the way down to the lowest level of tumah.

That is why in this generation everything has become mixed and confused together in a disturbing way, which our logic cannot comprehend.

This will not change until the coming of Moshiach.

And even more clearly on page 66:

Q.
What will be happen with the media (mass communication)?

A.
This is the last thing which they the media will cut off from. It is from this the media that they live from.

From this, they the media will not cut off!

Hashem will be the One to cut it all off.

It's important to note that when Rav Schwartz says "media," he also means the Internet, social media, etc. (That correlation may not be clear in the above excerpts, but it's very clear throughout the original PDF.)

Anyway, his idea intrigued me because in trying to imagine an End of the World according to this idea, I found it difficult to imagine, especially in light of what most people (especially American preppers) predict.

Yet we saw exactly Rav Schwartz's insight during the Texas disaster.

During some hours, people lacked power, electricity, heat, water...but they had cell phone service.

They managed to call loved ones & communicate online (send tweets, update Facebook, comment on blogs & forums)...even as they were unable to bathe, cook, heat their home, or any other basic modern function.

Running out of food & water, they still managed to charge the cell phones in their car.

Isn't that weird?

Yet that's exactly what happened.

These are the times in which we live.

Following the True Wisdom as Best You Can

As you can see, I have Internet & email.

I have access to media (though even the frum media is increasingly disappointing...).

I place a lot of restrictions on my Internet usage, but I'm not perfect about those restrictions and according to Rav Schwartz, I really shouldn't have it at all.

But I still follow him in whatever I can manage because that's how we grow on our own level: by listening to someone who tells us to reach higher, to wiggle at least a little bit out of our comfort zone.

Same thing with Rav Avigdor Miller.

Do you think I manage to uphold every single thing he advises?

Ha!

But I try to do what I can.

The point here is to listen to the real Torah scholars. The ones who truly work on their middot, who possess real knowledge, who know how to think, and who understand how to analyze current events to offer us their true meaning & genuine wisdom regarding events.

True understanding is found among our own, starting from millennia ago until now.

Please note that Rav Itamar strongly & lovingly opposes Internet use. He is in no way associated with the Bilvavi website, which was established by one of his students (probably via a charedi Internet center using Netfree) solely for the purpose of kiruv for secular Jews. See here for more: https://eng.bilvavi.net/opinion/

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"This is the Third World War...and We are Currently Found in the Intense Part of It": Insights & Advice from Rav Itamar Schwartz on Surviving the War of Gog & Magog

3/3/2021

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UPDATE March/3/21: What follows is a tiny drop in the vast wisdom & deep ideas propounded by Rav Schwartz. If the following leaves you with more questions than inspiration, feel free to explore further on the website set up by some of his students, which contains the English translations of the transcripts of Rav Schwartz's lectures:
https://eng.bilvavi.net/

In the Bilvavi issue for Parshat Ki Tisa, Rav Itamar Schwartz reveals intriguing insights regarding the Geula and the current War of Gog & Magog:
http://www.bilvavi.net/files/Bilvavi_179_Ki.Sisa_Turning.Directly.to.Hashem_5781.pdf

The whole thing provides essential reading in only 4 pages (so it's very worthwhile & fascinating to read the whole issue).

Certain passages really struck me in the Q&A, like this one (page 3):

QUESTION:
What level of teshuvah and emes (truth) is needed in order for one to experience the Geulah?

ANSWER:
One needs a genuine ratzon (will [desire]) to do the will of Hashem, no matter how many various ups and downs he has been through.

Please note that the answer isn't "one needs to be an exalted tzaddik" or "a multi-tasking baalas chessed" or "the best boy in yeshivah" or "the best girl in school" or "a lamdan" or "a masmid" or "tamid b'simcha/eternally happy" or "one who never eats too many brownies" or "one who never gets persnickety" or anything else superlative (although if you are these things, then that can help a lot and...yashar koach on achieving such wonderful accomplishments!).

Rav Schwartz even acknowledges that the Geula-experiencer can endure both ups AND downs.

However, a basic SINCERE desire to fulfill the desire of Hashem needs to exist.

That's it.

Here's another on why we need to do teshuvah now, even though Mashiach ben Yosef and then Mashiach ben David will come & fix everything anyway (page 3):

Because doing teshuvah draws the Redemption closer.

The more that a person fixes with teshuvah, to that extent will a person merit the spiritual benefits that will come from the two Mashiachs, on his own level and to the degree that he does teshuvah.

Because even when Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben Dovid will arrive, not everyone will merit to equally partake of the spiritual benefits that they will bring.

It's a sobering thought, but very similar to what Rav Avigdor Miller always said: Your future enjoyment depends on your present investment.

Also, please note his emphasis on YOUR OWN LEVEL and what DEGREE you do teshuvah.

For example, someone can be very frum as a product of upbringing and never invest much thought or effort in inner frumkeit.

In other words, it's questionable whether they ever did any serious teshuvah or even a thoughtful chesbon hanefesh (self-accounting).

Another person could have been born into the 50th level of tumah and managed to drag themselves up to the 40th level with every intention to keep on going.

Yet another person may have seemed very frum, suffered a massive fall, and is now on the way back up again.

Externally, they look a lot less frum than the first example, but they are doing teshuvah on their own level to a very high degree.

So that's something to keep in mind.

In yet another instance, a person may have been born into a very frum family, yet decided to push himself even higher despite there being no external pressure to do so. He looks like a regular frum person, but is actually doing so much more.

Only Hashem sees what's really going on inside.

Also, any teshuvah you do brings the Geulah/Redemption closer.

And that's a very good thing. We should all be grateful to each other for that.

In another answer, Rav Schwartz emphasizes how we are already in the middle of the War of Gog & Magog.

(The first time I heard this, I actually found this somewhat reassuring. Instead of dreading the unknown looming of an upcoming disaster, I felt relieved to hear we're already in the middle of it. Is that a weird reaction?)

Anyway, the questioner wished to know whether the internal/spiritual aspect of this War will materialize as an actual physical war?

Here is Rav Schwartz's answer (page 3):

Certainly.

It cannot “spread” to the outer world – it is already going on!

There have always been wars taking place in the final years of our world.

But all of these wars are just the final outcome of something deeper and more internal.

All of these wars have been the result of the internal “wars” that have been taking place inside people’s souls.

The war of Gog and Magog will be revealed outwardly [in our world] as it will be, and it should make no difference to us how it will happen.

If a person is busy thinking about it, he is wasting his time.

So what we see in the outside world emanated from our inner world.

Also, it helps to know not to focus on this so much. Priorities help us aim our energies in the right directions. Again, it's the inner work, the teshuvah that matters.

Then there's this gem (page 4):

This is the third world war which the Chofetz Chaim spoke about – and we are currently found in the intense part of it, and there have already been many casualties, mainly in the spiritual sense, Rachmana Litzlan.

It mainly affects people on a soul level, and very little on a physical level.

Here are 2 quotes from war experts that describe what's going on now:

"In wartime,
truth is so precious that
she should always be attended
by a bodyguard of lies."
– Winston Churchill

This is where we find ourselves now: "Protected" by a "bodyguard of lies."

It's aaaaaaaaaaaaall for your own good, darlin'! Dontchya know?

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
– Sun Tzu

I wish I could quote this as being from the Yetzer Hara rather than Sun Tzu, but I suppose it's all the same.

Either way, we see this all over the world now.

People want everything that's bad for them because it's easier, feels better (at least temporarily), tastes better, and makes life easier (at least temporarily).

So they actively seek out everything that's bad for them.

They've been subdued without fighting.

Fighting back really does feel pointless at this juncture.

That may not be the right attitude, but it's an understandable one.

This is War...Now THAT Explains Everything!

I find this idea helpful for down times because this means it's not really me (or you!) that's the problem.

There's a war going on.

It's a war against your mind, heart, and your soul—but NOT in the way other religions perceive it.

(Meaning, there isn't some idolatrous battle between God & a devil. No one can fight God. That's ridiculous.)

And the down times, the times of despair or depression, are battle wounds, shrapnel, and so on.

The people you see walking around spiritually bereft are casualties of war. (This includes people who, conversely, may look fine & frum, but feel & behave spiritually bereft privately.)

And maybe you sometimes feel like you're going in that direction too.

(Hopefully, you don't feel that way. On the other hand, some people struggle in such impossible, never-ending situations, it's understandable if they feel like they're sinking under.)

Tragically, physical causalities result from this spiritual war when people harm themselves into oblivion via drug overdoses, disease-inducing food habits, eating disorders, reckless behavior, intentional suicide, and so on.

The main thing is to connect with Hashem (even for just a few minutes a day) and try your best to do teshuvah on YOUR level.

Let's end with a couple of quotes from Rav Schwartz from pages 4, 3, 2:

Repeat to yourself the emunah peshutah, the simple belief, that Hashem does everything and that there is nothing in the world which has any power, other than Him: Ain Od Milvado...[There is none but Him.]

Each person, at his own level [should work on whatever he can do].

One should set aside a few minutes to talk to Hashem, simply and earnestly.

This is the revelation we can come to in the Acharis HaYomim [End of Days]:

To uncover our power of directly connecting to Hashem, through having a very real relationship with Him.

We need to simply talk with Him, no less than how we talk to a friend...

May we please all merit to survive this War completely intact—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually!!!

Please note that Rav Itamar Schwartz strongly & lovingly opposes Internet use. He has no connection to the Bilvavi website, which was established by one of his students (probably via a charedi Internet center using Netfree) solely for the purpose of kiruv for secular Jews. See here for more: https://eng.bilvavi.net/opinion/

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This is War...Now THAT Explains Everything!

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"The primary purpose of going to Eretz

Yisrael is for the rectification of the soul."

— Rav Eliezer Papo, Pele Yoetz, 1824
(in the chapter titled Eretz Yisrael: English Hebrew)

"In wartime,
truth is so precious that
she should always be attended
by a bodyguard of lies."
– Winston Churchill

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
– Sun Tzu