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Techeiles-Wearer R’ Lichtenstein Presents: Just the Highlights

6/5/21– Shiur 325 – The great Techeilis debate – Hear from the Gedolei Hador and Gedolei Haposkim

Do we know what the Techeilis is – Is it the murex or the cuttlefish? Are you obligated to wear it because of Safek? 

with Hagaon Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky – Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia – 20:10
with Hagaon Rav Menachem Mendel Shafran – Av Beis Din Hayashar V’hatov Yerushalayim, Rosh Yeshiva Noam Hatorah Bnei Brak – 20:34
with Hagaon Rav Dovid Cohen – Rov of Gvul Yaavetz, Renowned Posek, Mechaber seforim – 21:30
with Hagaon Rav Herschel Schachter – Rosh Yeshiva & Rosh Kollel YU, Leading Posek of OU –   25:10
with Hagaon Rav Nissin Kaplan – Maggid Shiur, Mir Yerushalayim – 28:26
with Hagaon Rav David Yosef – Rosh Kollel Yachveh Da’at Kollel, Chief Rabbi of Har Nof, Member Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah – 34:57
with Rabbi Bentzion Halberstam, Rav of Khal Chassidim Westgate – 36:03
with Hagaon Rav Moshe Heineman – Rov of Agudas Yisroel Baltimore, Renowned Poseik – 55:40
with Rabbi Michoel Shlomo Bar-Ron – Founder Torath Moshe learning center – 1:11:54

Continue reading…

From Headlines in Halacha, here.

The State of Israel’s Misandric Divorce Laws

Bezalel Smotrich: ‘Insane’ that divorced fathers shouldn’t have anything to eat

‘Discrimination against divorced fathers one of the worst crimes today in Israel, percentage of suicides is disproportionate,’ Smotrich says.

Yehonatan Gottlieb , Jul 08 , 2021 4:06 PM

MK Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Knesset’s Religious Zionism party, has called on Welfare Minister Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) to eliminate the discrimination against divorced fathers.

“One of the worst crimes happening today in the State of Israel is the discrimination against divorced fathers,” Smotrich said. “It’s a complex and complicated issue. It has a lot of facets and small letters.”

Smotrich recalled his pre-election promise to change how the issue is managed, prevent parental alienation, and prevent abuse of false allegations as a way of managing divorce.

“Attorneys make money off of giving the couple bad advice, telling them to submit false claims against each other and pass the buck to the children,” he emphasized.

Turning to Cohen, Smotrich said, “These are negative trends. Instead of us knowing how to isolate, and then dealing very seriously with true complaints, today we are encouraging false allegations as part of divorce disagreements.”

“The results are horrendous. The percentage of suicides among divorced fathers is disproportionate to every other part of the population in the State of Israel. The fact is that today there is no decent living stipend, no minimum that you leave the father before you start taking child support at astronomic levels. There’s no standard.

“I have no argument against this, that when both partners can allow themselves they should provide their children with everything they need with grace and abundance. But when Dad does not have anything to live off of, and he goes to live with his parents or on the floor in some storage room, and he doesn’t have anything to eat, and when he takes his children to his home he has no way of buying them food and he goes to collect donations to cover it – that’s something that’s completely insane.”

“We need balance. We’re not against women, and we’re not against men. Divorce is an awful thing, and we need to strengthen the institution of the nuclear family. Preventive treatment is always better. The divorce rates in the West are awful and horrific. It’s awful for society, for parents, and for children,” he concluded.

From Arutz Sheva, here.

Benzi Gopstein: The Temple Mount Yeshiva and Kollel

The Sleeping Heart Begins To Awaken – The Temple Mount Revolution!

Benzi Gopstein’s latest “Behind the Flames” column in the Shabbat publication Matzav HaRuach:

The Sleeping Heart Begins to Awaken – The Temple Mount Revolution!

In honor of the “Between the Straits/Ben HaMeitzarim” season and the impending month of Av, I saw fit to dedicate the column to the most central and critical issue of our national existence – the Temple (Beit HaMikdash).

Just as a person who has many organs, but the heart pumps blood to all of them – so, too, do Am Israel have a heart. The heart of Am Israel is the Temple. The Temple is the source of all abundance, all the good that Hashem pours out on us. All Israel gathers to the Temple on foot, where they atone for their iniquities, where they gather in times of trouble and celebrate in times of victory.

There are different kinds of struggles, and there are various groups working for various and important causes for Am Israel. But the heart of Am Israel – the thing from which everything stems, into which all struggles drain – is the struggle over the Mount of Hashem’s home. When our Rabbis saw the wilderness and desolation on the Mount of our holy Temple, even seeing a fox running out of the Holy of Holies – tears streamed from their eyes. Today, there’s no wilderness. And no foxes there. There are murderous enemies who robbed us of our sanctuary and our glory, who robbed us of the heart of a nation, but over the many years of exile, the heart was sealed and emotions blocked, until even in the face of the great desecration of G-d’s name that we all see – there is almost no compensation here, and no one says a word.

We said ‘almost’, because even with the apathy of the general public, there are outstanding individuals who are waging a stubborn and uncompromising battle against the cruel enemy from the outside, and even more difficult than that – against the ridicule and contempt from within us.

For more than 4 years now, via the Temple Mount Yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Eliyahu Webber shlit”a, every day, every morning people go up to the Temple Mount after immersion in a mikve according to Jewish law, for the Shacharit prayer and to study Daf Yomi on the Mount. The Yeshiva takes care to guide those coming, and especially those coming up for the first time, on how to arrive according to all the rules of Jewish law, when a great emphasis is placed on the mitzva of Awe of the Temple and the gravitas of the aliya, thus keeping a positive mitzva of the Torah – “and My sanctuary you shall fear.”

This year, in addition to the Temple Mount Yeshiva, we were privileged to see the establishment of Kollel Drishat Tzion, with the help of G-d, headed by Rabbi Elisha Wolfson, a Kollel whose interest is in devotion to the redemption of the Temple Mount and the building of our Temple. The students of the Kollel go up in purity each and every day, for a public Mincha prayer and words of Torah on the Temple Mount. These dear students work so that during all the hours the Mount is open, the voice of Torah and prayer are heard on the Mount of Hashem’s home.

As anyone who is privileged to go up to the Mount can see, the permanent and diligent aliya of the Yeshiva and the Kollel has led to great improvements on the site – things we never even dreamed of only a short time ago, like prayer in a minyan – have been realized thanks to those pioneers.

At this time, I call on each one of us to join us and support the Temple Mount Yeshiva – 074-7871553, who are dedicating their lives to the heart of the nation, and in that merit, may we be privileged to see the Final Redemption quickly in our time.

To report/donate: 074-7871390
Comments: benzion444@gmail.com

From Lehava, here.

Ever Heard of ‘Giborei Chayil’? (Not Shmitah)

From GoogleGroups’ “The Sentry”:

One of the groups that don’t report to the draft offices is called “Giborei Chayil”. It is mainly composed of anshei yishuv hayashan. As they are deserters, they are open for arrest at any time. They thus declare 24/7; “We are not willing to cooperate with the selection of who gets a deferment and who doesn’t. We don’t want your honey, nor your sting.”

Being that they are a united group of thousands, who will “take-up-arms” to protest for one another, their arrest and the subsequent protests only creates more talk about the draft law problems, which the government wishes to avoid at all cost. They are therefore generally left alone by the police. In the last week alone, four stories took place of police disinterest in arresting Giborei Chayil.

Last Thursday a Gibor Chayil was arrested outside jail #4. When his information was entered in the computer, they realized that he is a deserter. They contacted the military police to come get their deserter. The military police responded; “Tell him to come to us on Sunday. After we administer a corona test, if it’s negative, we’ll arrest him.”

Last Wednesday Reb Asher Zelig Chanun was released after sitting in jail for forty days, for his crime of davening in shul during the corona lockdown. He is a member of the Giborei Chayil, [had already tested negative for corona], and was sitting in the hands of the police, yet they did not transfer him to the military police.

In Tzefas at a protest against missionaries, a Gibor Chayil was arrested. When it was realized who he is, he was immediately released.

This Tuesday morning at 9:20 police entered the Meah Shearim shuk to see what they could find. They exited with two yungerleit in tow. The one who was a Gibor Chayil was immediately thrown out, without receiving a fine for not wearing a mask. Why? When his information was entered into the computer, the officer ran in and shouted, “Throw him out of here, and quickly!” The other, who was not a Gibor Chayil, was kept for another hour and left with a fine in hand.

It seems that the police understand the message of “no cooperation” quite well, and accordingly leave alone those who don’t bite at the bait.

It’s a Miracle They Haven’t Ignited Another World-War Yet…

HMS Defender Versus The Russian Military: The Danger of Believing Your Own Propaganda

By 

Ron Paul Institute

June 29, 2021

Press reports suggest that there was a dispute between the UK defense and foreign ministries over whether to violate Russia’s claimed territorial waters with a heavily armed warship. According to reports, Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself jumped in to over-rule the more cautious Foreign Office in favor of confrontation.

As Johnson later claimed, because the UK (and the US) does not recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the UK was actually sailing through Ukrainian waters. It was an in-your-face move toward Russia just weeks after the US and NATO were forced to back down from a major clash with Russia in eastern Ukraine

This time, as was the case in eastern Ukraine, the Russians took a different view of the situation. Russian coast guard vessels ordered the HMS Defender to exit Russian territorial waters – an order they punctuated with rare live fire of cannon and dropping of bombs.

Having had their bluff called, the UK government did what all governments do best: it lied. The Russians did not shoot at a UK warship, they claimed. It was a previously-scheduled Russian military exercise in the area.

Unfortunately for the UK government, in its haste to create good propaganda about standing up to Russia, they had a BBC reporter on-board the Defender who spilled the beans: Yes, the Russian military did issue several warnings, yes it did buzz the HMS Defender multiple times, and yes there were shots fired in the Defender’s direction.

Similarly, in the spring, Russia rapidly deployed 75,000 troops on the border with Ukraine in response to a US-backed Ukrainian military build-up. The message was clear: Russia would no longer sit by as the US government and its allies intervened next door.

Russia now has demonstrated that it will protect Crimea, which voted in a 2014 referendum to re-join Russia. The Crimean vote was triggered by the US-backed coup in Ukraine. That is called “unintended consequences” of foreign interventionism.

The problem with the UK, the US, and their NATO allies is that they believe their own propaganda and they act accordingly. A famous 2004 quote attributed to George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove, clearly spelled out this line of thinking. Said Rove, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”

These two recent near-clashes with Russia demonstrate that the “reality” created by an almost religious belief in American or NATO exceptionalism can often crash hard against the reality of 75,000 troops or the Black Sea Fleet

The anti-Russia propaganda endlessly repeated by both political parties in Washington and amplified by the anti-Trump media for more than four years has completely saturated the Beltway and beyond. Even as the Russiagate conspiracy was proven to be a lie, the propaganda it spawned lives on.

Blustering Boris Johnson almost provoked a major war over an infantile desire to continue poking and prodding Russia in its own backyard. This time the war was averted, but what about next time? Will the adults ever be in charge?

From LRC, here.