Year: 2020

Rules For Thee, Not For Me

Pelosi Confused By Strange Word ‘Laws’ These Peasants Keep Using

September 6th, 2020
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Amid a controversy involving getting her hair done and possibly being set up like some kind of patsy, Nancy Pelosi has been hearing a weird word some of the lower classes keep using: “laws.”

“Huh? Laws? What are those?” Pelosi asked, confused after hearing rumors that people were upset she was breaking them.

“So these ‘laws’ are like rules or guidelines the peasants are supposed to follow?” asked a confused Pelosi to one of her many servants. The servant explained that laws are a set of agreed-upon rules that everyone abides by.

“That sounds awful! Why don’t they just stop being peasants? I wouldn’t want to live like that. I’m glad we in the politician class don’t have any of these strange — what did you call them again? Loos? Lawns?”

“It’s ‘laws,’ your majesty,” the servant explained as she opened another pint of ice cream for the Speaker. Unfortunately, she then timidly informed Pelosi that even the Speaker of the House was supposed to follow the laws. Pelosi immediately pulled a nearby lever and sent her plummeting through a trapdoor into the dungeon.

From The Babylon Bee, here.

The Word Kalkalah In the Sense of “Basket”

An excerpt from Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein’s “What’s in a Word” column:

The word kalkalah in the sense of “basket” appears multiple times in the Mishnah (see Peah 7:3, Dema 7:6, Terumot 4:6, Maasrot 1:5, 4:2, Shabbos 20:3, 21:1, Eruvin 3:8, Kiddushin 2:7, Keilim 16:2, 22:9). Rabbi Tanchum HaYerushalmi (a 13th century exegete who lived in the Holy Land) writes that a kalkalah is an especially big sal that people would typically use to store all sorts of foods. Because its contents generally provide sustenance and nourishment, the word for this type of basket is a cognate of the verb kalkal (see, for example, Gen. 47:12) which means “to sustain.” Another word for “basket” in Mishnaic Hebrew is kefifah (sometimes spelled with a KUF and sometimes with a KAF). This term seems to refer specifically to a “wicker basket” (see Shabbos 2:2, Sotah 2:1, 3:1, Keilim 26:1).

Persecuted Minorities Should Emulate This Man

This teacher’s story of compassion has a twist that will leave you touched

Dec 01, 2019

The exact details of what happened to Laurence C. Jones one day in 1917, are uncertain.

But several reports tell that on a certain day, a lynch mob of angry young white men chased the African American school teacher, surrounded him, and threw a noose around his neck.

Jones was an influential and compassionate educator.

He had devoted his entire life to helping the poorest of the poor, the most underprivileged children, wherever he could find them.

In Mississippi, Jones had started a school in a sheep shed to teach poor kids in a county with an 80% illiteracy rate. When he learned about their lack of education, he had taken it upon himself to change that. And he did.

He was also black, during a time when African Americans were lynched for minor offenses.

His “offense” was supposedly inciting a riot, because he was overheard at a speech earlier using words that were misconstrued as calls to take violent action, which they were not.

So on that day, he stood surrounded by this mob, his life in their hands.

And Jones began telling them about his school. Perhaps how needy these kids were, and how he stepped in to change that.

He told them how he has been trying to raise money to pay for school supplies.

He told them that they misunderstood him when he was giving that speech, and he was not trying to incite any kind of riot.

It’s said that he even cracked a couple jokes to lighten the mood.

It worked. All of it. They angry crowd had a change of heart.

And then something truly miraculous happened.

The lynch mob, so moved by Jones’ words, decides not only to let him go…

but to raise money for his school themselves!

 

“No man can force me to stoop low enough to hate him”.

That’s a quote from Jones.

Jones devoted his entire life to helping others learn, grow, and understand.

By turning an angry mob into donors to his cause, he showed the selfless power of compassion, love, and turning against hate, which would have been difficult, faced with a mob after your life because of who you are.

Sources:

Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad
Hall of Fame: Laurence C. Jones
Crisis, Volumes 6 – 7
Des Moines Register
Wikipedia

From History Hustle, here.

For When Extraterrestrial Colonization Becomes a Reality…

Excerpt from Rabbi Avi Grossman:

כל שבים, טהור–חוץ מכלב המים, מפני שהוא בורח ליבשה, דברי רבי עקיבה.  העושה כלים מן הגדל שבים, וחיבר ֿלהם מן הגדל בארץ–אפילו חוט, אפילו משיחה–דבר שהוא מקבל טומאה, טמא.

  ויש במה שנברא ביום הראשון טומאה, בשני אין בו טומאה, בשלישי יש בו טומאה; ברביעי ובחמישי אין בהן טומאה–חוץ מכנף העוז, וביצת הנעמית המצופה.  אמר רבי יוחנן בן נורי, מה שנה כנף העוז מכל הכנפיים.  כל שנברא ביום השישי, טמא.

Anything within the sea [i.e. anything that originates in the sea, whether animal vegetable, or mineral,] is ritually pure [i.e., it is not susceptible to ritual contamination] except for pinnipeds (seals) because they retreat to to dry land [and are therefore considered land animals] – according to Rabbi Akiva [and the halacha follows him]. One who fashions implements from that which grew in the sea, and attaches something of terrestrial origin to them, even if just s string or a hem that is susceptible to contamination, then the implement is susceptible. Some of that which was created on the first day is susceptible to contamination.

Maimonides explains that many things, including water and the matter that makes up the earth, were created on the first day along with the light, which is explicitly mentioned. Water and other liquids are susceptible to contamination, as are vessels made of earthenware.

Of the second day, none is susceptible.

The firmament was the only thing created on the second day, and it would be impossible for it to be impure.

See the rest here…