Hyehudi’s Rhetorical Triangle – Recently Read

Although the posting frequency is lower (and will remain so for the next few months), Baruch Hashem, we have no fewer visitors.

Here is what’s been popular lately:

  1. ספר ‘מענה לאגרות’ נגד שו”ת אגרות משה
  2. The Lubavitcher Rebbe Believed in the Myth of ‘American Exceptionalism’
  3. Abandoning the Priestly Blessing in the Diaspora – Why Do You Look So GUILTY?!
  4. חדש: קונטרס לכשרות בית מקדש תחת הקרקע
  5. ספר שדי תפוחים – שני חלקים: אוצר תיקוני עוונות
  6. ‘Liberated Parents, Liberated Children’ and Child Abuse
  7. A Pandemic of Mask Misinformation
  8. תיקוני תשובת המשקל של האריז”ל עבור חטאי עריות – חלק שלישי
  9. Did You Know Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s ‘Living Torah’ Is Online?
  10. בד”ץ שערי שלום Badaz Shaarey Shalom

Enjoy the good ones twice

GOOD NEWS: Berland-Toady *Shalom Arush* All Set to Discredit Himself!

The Master of the World had mercy on us!

As I wrote before:

Shalom Arush plays a calculating two-faced game. When speaking with victims of Berland and those courageous warriors working to set up a “Ma’akeh” against that awful stumbling block, he often pretends to understand the problems with his ex-rabbi. And then he goes right back to visiting gravesites and publicly praying for Berland’s welfare.

Now, as you can see in the following video clip — the man who still, STILL gratuitously calls Sabbatean womanizeridolatermurderer Eliezer Berland yemach shemoMy Teacher and Master” (!) to this very day — has spoken imprudently. Finally.

Probably misremembering Breslov sources (cf. Kochvei Ohr, sec. “Sichot Vesipurim” #4) Arush says Mashiach will come by the end of the next Jewish year.

So, either Mashiach won’t come, publically rendering S. Arush (akin to) a false prophet (just like his Teacher and Master, Berland, of course). Or Mashiach will come, in which case, this will doubly be the case…

God-willing, I hope to post a reminder after next Rosh Hashana.

Chafetz Chaim Lashon Hara chapter 4:8

כשבית דין (לג) אומרים לאדם דין אחד במה שהוא (לד) בקום ועשה, בין שהוא דברים שבין אדם למקום או דברים שבין אדם לחברו, ואינו רוצה לקים בשום אפן, ואין לו תשובה במה שאינו מקים, מתר לספר גנותו ואף לרשם את גנותו בספר הזכרונות לדור דורים. ואם השיב תשובה באמתלאות, שתלוי לפי דבר המסור ללב, דינו כך, אם אנו מבינים שהתשובה זו איננה אמת רק להוציא מדעתנו, אין אנו צריכין להאמינו (לה) ומתר לספר בגנותו ואף לרשם כנ”ל, אבל אם הדבר ספק, אסור לספר בגנותו.

Again, see the evidence here.

UPDATE: Mashiach didn’t come.

Please Keep Mentioning Israel’s Injustice System in Birkas Haminim!

Opinion: Israel’s Supreme Court cruel to the kind in politically charged decision David Isaac

Israel’s Supreme Court appears to be on a mission to erase any doubts within the Israeli public that it has been corrupted by politics.

In less than three weeks, Israel’s Supreme Court went from bleeding hearts to hard-hearted. After refusing to destroy the home of a confessed Arab terrorist, the High Court ruled on the destruction of 56 homes of innocent, law-abiding Jews.

Israel’s Supreme Court appears to be on a mission to erase any doubts within the Israeli public that it has been corrupted by politics. Not being lawyers, we won’t parse the rulings in too great detail, partly because it’s not necessary. The contrast is so stark.

In the first case, the court ruled that the home of a terrorist should not be destroyed (a punitive measure adopted by the IDF) because his wife and eight children live there and had nothing to do with the crime. In June, the terrorist had dropped a rock from a height, killing an IDF soldier.

Justice Manni Mazuz wrote, “The serious harm done to innocent family members cannot be ignored — those to whom no involvement in the attack is attributed.” Justice George Kara agreed: “Justice will come to the attacker when he gets his punishment. But the consequences of his actions should not be cast on those who have not sinned.

Jump ahead, and in under two and a half weeks, the court is arguing that 56 Jewish homes in Mitzpe Kramim, a Jewish settlement in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, have got to go.

One would have expected, if consistency has any part in justice, to hear from the court that “the serious harm done to innocent family members cannot be ignored – those to whom no involvement in the decision to move there is attributed.” And, “the consequences of the actions should not be cast on those who have not sinned.”

Instead, the justices, in this case Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut and Deputy Chief Justice Hanan Melcer, appeared to go out of their way to find the justification to destroy those homes. First, they overturned a Jerusalem District Court ruling allowing them to stay. Then they decided they knew what was in the heart of some unnamed clerk in 1999 – the year the Jews were allowed to move there – who allegedly made the decision with malice aforethought and purposefully ignored the evidence, not that there appeared to have been any hard evidence, that the ownership of the land was in question.

The justices needed to attribute nefarious purposes to someone. Israel has adopted an old Jordanian law in Judea and Samaria that has a “good faith” clause. In other words, if there’s an irregularity in property ownership, as long as the deal was made in “good faith,” with no intention to harm, the situation stands. The Jews who moved to Mitzpe Kramim certainly did it in good faith. The government told them to go there. They figured the government had the right to the land.

If malice lies anywhere, it’s with the judges, who are suddenly Detective Columbos, rummaging through old maps, reading into peoples’ minds and their intentions 20 years ago and spinning out whodunits all so they can smash a Jewish settlement. No appeal to humanity here. No call for mercy on the innocent. That’s reserved for terrorists’ homes.

The court has offered a concrete example of the old Jewish adage: “He who is kind to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the kind.”

From World Israel News, here.

Adolescent Immorality: What Works, What Doesn’t Work

Here’s what doesn’t work:

  • Torah study.
  • Therapy.
  • White knuckle sobriety.
  • Sweet GuardYourEyes texts.
  • Being in denial.
  • Denying\”healing” natural guilt feelings.
  • משביעו רעב.
  • Torah. More Torah. Deeper Torah. Etc. (“Don’t you believe the Nefesh Hachaim?!”)

Here’s what does work:

  • Contacting Venishartem and doing whatever they say.

    ארגון “ונשמרתם” נלחמת בחוסר המודעות, ומאפשרת יציאה קלה ותמידית מעוונות פגם הברית, העיניים והאינטרנט. להדרכות מוקלטות, ייעוץ אישי, והכוונה פרטנית, התקשרו אלינו: 077-222-222-1. לשאלות נוספות, כתבו לנו: 0772222221M@Gmail.com

Why?

With or without extras, Teshuvah consists of accepting upon oneself a voluntary, individual fast, or fasts (along with Vidduy and giving Tzedaka). (Mishna Berurah 571)

והנה פשוט הוא, שאם הקדוש ברוך הוא לא ברא למכה זו אלא רפואה זו, אי אפשר בשום פנים שירפא האדם מזאת המכה בלתי זאת הרפואה, ומי שיחשב לנצל זולתה, אינו אלא טועה ויראה טעותו לבסוף כשימות בחטאו.

Find a basic index for “Venishmartem” pamphlets here.