21 December 2023

Achdut among Rabbinic Leadership, by R' Kenneth Cohen

9 Tevet 5784 | ט' טבת ה'תשפ"ד


One of the important parts of the new Israel order: the Sanhedrin. Source

NB: Achdut = unity. Probably the best idea I've seen in years, if not in my lifetime! Toward the impending geulah shlemah!...be"H. - HDG

Used with permission. Source

From the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, until the year 358 CE., there was a legislative body known as the Sanhedrin. It consisted of seventy of the greatest scholars in Israel.

The Sanhedrin was viewed and accepted as the ruling body of Jewish Law. It was forbidden to challenge these rulings.

The Torah speaks of the זקן ממרא, who was a judge of a lower court, who defied the Sanhedrin. He was put to death for such defiance.

Aside from the end to the declaration of the New Moon by way of the Sanhedrin, their dissolution, represented much more. A set calendar was established with seven leap years every nineteen years, when they last met in Tiberius in 358. This may have been seen as a positive outcome, but it was mostly tragic when we lost this accepted ruling body.

It represented the dispersion of Jews to all parts of the world. This dispersion also represented the fact that there was no longer one accepted authority, followed by all Jews.

Over the centuries, the divisions among Jews became more pronounced. Various communities followed the teachings of “their” rabbis, and were not connected to other Jews in a uniform manner.

This became even more pronounced in our generation. Everyone has their rabbi, and their accepted standards of Kashrut. There are differences among Chassidic and Lithuanian Jewry, and among Ashkenazim and Sephardim. There are major differences of opinion regarding the State of Israel and the IDF.

All of this, got me thinking about the current situation we are in. We constantly hear how special it was when the war broke out. There was incredible “Achdut,” or Jewish unity. Many, like Yechiel Leiter, whose eldest son fell in battle, has emphasized that his beloved son, Moshe, will not have died in vain, as long as the Achdut continues.

If this Achdut is so important,(and it definitely is), why can’t there be Achdut among the rabbis, who continue to represent views that are very different from those of other groups?

Why can’t we demand that they all “bury the hatchet,” and learn to find common ground? Why can’t they agree that there should be only one definition and label of Kashrut? Why can’t they all agree to salute our holy soldiers of the IDF? Why can’t they find a way to accept a uniform of Halacha, as existed in the days of the Sanhedrin?

If the nation as a whole is urged to be united, because our enemies do not differentiate as to what kind of Jew they want to kill, how much more should our rabbinic leaders learn to be united?

We need them to guide us as to how to be united. What kind of example do they set, when there is so much factionalizing? We need to at least express these ideas. Perhaps someone is listening and will act on this cry for unity. Hopefully, all of the Jewish people will wake up and stand together. We are one family with one G-d guiding us. Let’s hope this can be done now, and it won’t take the Mashiach to get this done. If we do achieve this unity on all levels, including the rabbis, that might be the very thing that will hurry the coming of the Mashiach speedily in our time.

***

12 December 2023

It's God and Torah Time for the People of Israel!

29 Kislev 5784 | כ"ט כסלו ה'תשפ"ד
5th candle of Hanukkah | נר חמישי של חנוכה

NB: Credit for the title of this post is below, near the end.

At the same time the war between Israel and Hamas continues, last week some of the women in my neighborhood got together to make plain tambourines into decorations for the glory of God and to entice Him to bring the Geulah Shlemah now! The tambourine pictured in the video above (you will see it and others through their design development) in the end bears a message from Tehillim/Psalms 42:3: My soul thirsts...for the Living God. The whole thing is 1:20.

***

The two paragraphs below contain an observation and an insight, in that order, that I had last week:

Over an extended period of time, the Muslims have very well proved themselves to be the children of Hagar, their mother; now, let them prove themselves to be children of Avraham Avinu, their father and ours. Hospitality is not enough to get them there; they also have to recognize their cousins, the children of Yitzhak-and-Ya'acov, in a positive manner.

A hint to the evil of their behavior: Their epithet "itbakh al-Yahud" not only means "slaughter the Jew" but also "slaughter gratefulness"! "Yahud" in Arabic is equivalent to the Hebrew "Yehudim", from Yehuda, whom Leah, the mother of most Jews, named out of her gratefulness to HQB"H (the Holy One, blessed be He) for having more than filled her quota of sons.

In our day, we can learn precisely from this why Jews are counted by who their mother is, and not by their father, because the mother inspires the heart of the children from the time they spend in her womb and throughout childhood.

The tribal assignation comes from the father, and a Jewish woman marries into her husband's tribe. This is a point most of us do not think about much; we are busy enough just trying to keep Jews going in our family tree! But there will come a problem in the not-so-distant future: Jews who have Jewish mothers, but who have no Jewish father, have no tribe! (This is more relevant for the men than for the women, since the latter marry into their husband's tribe, as mentioned above, and it could be relevant only to American Jews.) Where will they be able to live in Eretz haQodesh when the time comes? Who will decide this: Mashiah, the Sanhedrin or the rabbis of that day? This comes straight from the book of Shemoth (Exodus in English)...

The possibility remains that some of the fathers who assumed they weren't Jews will be called and set apart as Jews by the prophet Eliyahu, and will thus gain a tribe they thought they wouldn't be part of.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. First things first.

We are in a quandary with regard to our goal for this war. We want — no, we need — to win. But because even if we call out our enemy for who he is — Amalek — we will not be allowed to kill all of them as God commanded, due to the government's submission to powers that shouldn't be, of the sort that play both sides of wars all the time and who do things far worse than anything we've ever done in our long history.

Our Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, may God bless him with wisdom, has been quoted as saying that he both wants (and would adopt the Hebrew calendar as standard. What? We didn't do that already? It's not a religious practice so much as the time keeper we were given...) and doesn't want a Biblical/Talmudic government.

I tend to believe the second one more. It seems to be the desire of those in charge of keeping the status quo of the Israeli government system to keep people afraid of having a governance we haven't had in almost 2,000 years; it's easy to keep the civilians and the army vets alike afraid of the unknown, unless they're growing up with the Tana"ch. Years ago I noticed this in myself, so I've been working on it ever since my days among the nations when it occurred to me that every news story about Israel was specifically designed to keep diaspora Jews afraid even to visit, never mind decide that a long-neglected set of commandments from God should be taken out from between, or under, the mothballs in the place where they have been kept safely hidden away from the very people who should benefit from it.

But more than the state of our government, it's the paradigm we've been living under that bothers me more.

Sitting at the feet of the "democracy" enforcers in Europe and the United States, learning from them, taking their side on everything, and taking orders from them constantly for the more than 75 years since Israel became a "state" have kept us from examining our own God-given indigenous governance. On the other hand, our neighbors and cousins nearby don't believe in democracy, and many actually believe we're not the descendants of the Hebrews/Israelites in the Bible.

Or, at least, that's what they say. Maybe these objections are nothing more than excuses to engage in war and bloodshed, which they have loved for thousands of years and graphically displayed to the world with pride and pleasure on Simchath Torah/October 7th, 2023 with the massacre on the area we call the Gaza Envelope. Maybe they think it will be extremely easy to wipe us off the face of the earth (I picked up a possible clue that soon we'll be seeing similar things about the South of Israel, near the Negev) because our numbers have been small for an extremely long time due to constant attempts at genocide.

There, I've said it. GENOCIDE. It seems that's what the world wants now, for us to disappear from the earth, and they will enforce it violently, or allow others to do so.

(So, what should we in Israel look out for? Maybe of what R' Uri Sofer has to say about the dangers from within HERE: AUDIO ONLY, Hebrew with interspersed English translation, over one (1) hour. Tehillim recitations are followed by the speech and its translation.

Let's shake off the psychological operations that have been done on us, dividing us and taking advantage of a divided people, and plead to HaQadosh Baruch Hu together for salvation!)

Those three Ivy League-level presidents of US universities (they weren't all Ivy League, but have pretty much equal status in the hierarchy of educational institutions) all hedged on the question from Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R, NY) of whether threats of genocide were acceptable on campus. One of them, Lisa McGill, stepped down from her more-than-$2M-a-year job last Saturday, 9 December 2023/Shabbat Hanukkah 5784.

This comes from a long history of antisemitism in the US as well as the rest of the world. Here is a SEARCH on how antisemitism became an American crisis, which no one expected (so what else is new? No one expected it in Germany either...). I'm catching the search engines at their peak of Jew defense. Try this search again to see if it remains as positive and sympathetic as it looks at this writing.

***

It's G-d and Torah time for the people of Israel

CREDIT: This video is where I got the title for this post because it's so appropriate. Tzvi here talks about the "social ghettos" Israelis live in, how many of us never meet people outside our ghetto — and how our governance system encourages and enforces this dysfunction within the country, along with other related things. Can you see the connection to all our troubles and our latest war? This is the clearest video I could find with a short message (a tad over 18 minutes).

EVERY LITTLE MITZVAH A JEW DOES IN THESE TIMES HAS GREAT VALUE. ALL THE MORE SO IF WE DO THEM AS A PEOPLE, A NATION.

Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!

***

27 November 2023

The Jewish People Needs a Whole New System!

light of 15 Kislev 5784 | אור ט"ו כסלו ה'תשפ"ד

The Truth about Israel...Cutting Through the Psyops and Lies

"When the Jewish People are willing to stand up and say the truth, that God gave us this Land, in public, we will not need to go to war; we will not even need weapons..." —Shifra Chana Hendrie, quoting Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Warning: Men, if you're careful about guarding your eyes, you may want to listen rather than watch the video.

Now, I want to make clear that I am not Chabad (nor am I affiliated with any specific Jewish group, for that matter); I'm just citing a source as I know I should, for such a quote! The truth is that no matter what the results, we should state loud and clear, "in front of God and everybody" the truth about the land the Jews of Israel live in.

"It is a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations." BaMidbar/Numbers 23:9

If you don't like the above, I guess you shouldn't follow any religion that states this truth in their primary source, whether it be the Torah, the Christian bible or the Quran.

We see the results of having given physical and moral support to our neighbors, the Arabs who surround Israel and live within her. Not very nice, is it, to say the least.

The system we have lived under for more than 75 years has failed, having ended up in (hopefully, the last) war. We will not allow this to take us out...WITH THE HELP OF GOD!!!!!

Along with Him, we are JEALOUS OVER THE LAND HE GAVE US, and thankful for His choice of us as HIS PEOPLE!!!!! Our enemies, on the other hand, are envious of us and have been trying to divest us of any desire to cling to the Land for over 75 years. The Muslims who front for them have their own rule from the Quran that if they conquer a land and a people, they own them forever (they say "the Jews are our dogs"...sound familiar?), while Israel's leadership has done everything they can to keep certain Jewish population groups down and unsuccessful, even resorting to name-calling.

God told us that some lands aren't ours until He says so, but that the lands we hold now are part of the lands He told Moshe Rabbenu are ours. It is up to Him and to us whether we get the rest or not.

We shall see whose rules stand the test of time, and whether the Muslims really believe in God, or in opposition to Him. For that matter, will Israel's leadership believe enough in God and the Torah (let alone the Talmud) to even desire to hold on to what we have, by the hand of God?

(It wouldn't surprise me if I were to see evidence that Israelis' tax monies are being used to support the Arabs' takeover of the Holy Land, in the name of "peace." It's bad enough that US, Canadian and European money is being passed to them, but for us to fund our own demise — What???!!!)

Watch this video (over an hour) for the surprising details:

Growing Arab Muslim Antisemitism Due to Internal Israel Issues

~~or click on the video on the top of the sidebar on the right, as long as it's there.~~

***

The rest of the post features a few of the many enablers of Israel's physical and psychological woes. One thing to keep in mind:

The more the nations condemn Israel for striking back and even overdoing it (as they perceive it), the more they are pushing us to consider changing over to Torah law, rather than what passes for law now. Do they have a clue as to the significance of the changes in many Jews, both in Israel and among the nations, due directly to the worldwide antisemitism that has manifested in the most virulent way ever, in collective living memory?

The more you force us back together, the more clarity there is in the collective punishment you are imposing on us (but see below, it seems the Muslims have also been imposing collective punishment on all Jews!). Therefore, you should expect collective punishment of our enemies from God Almighty, whether through our hands or not!

***

A note to PM Netanyahu: The government has a deadline with the proposed global government (the WHO) of 1 DECEMBER 2023 (this is true of all the governments in the world, by the way). You may want to check this out independently, pronto (here's a shortcut) if you haven't already. LAST CHANCE NOW! Since we're in a war for our survival literally on our soil, with more threatened to come, the country really can't be bothered with deadlines that might divert our attention from...let's just say...more important things.

***

One of my pet peeves for decades is the women's rights movement that doesn't really seem to fight for women's rights. I noticed this when I saw that they didn't put up any fuss when it became known that Arab women are really in desperate need of advocates for their rights, back in the '90s. Not that there wasn't anything against Jews going on, see below.

I don't often have the opportunity to express it, as we do now. I have a message today for the UN WOMEN...

UN WOMEN, YOUR SILENCE IS UNFORGIVABLE.

Whether you, dear reader, are a woman or a man...I've joined many others who signed THIS PETITION. I encourage everyone to stand up for the women, girls and baby girls of the Israeli border of Gaza who were victims of the SIMCHAT TORAH MASSACRE in many nightmare-making ways. Kindly let me know in the comments if you do, or have already signed.

I've been slow as usual, having this post in editing over a month. Sorry about that.

I also recognize that the men, boys and baby boy victims deserve the same attention. Justice for all!

You know what? Sign the petition even if you advocate only for the male victims' rights. The site is named "me too--unless you are a jew" for a reason. And no, I'm not part of it in any way. I just received an email from a friend, that's all.

***

You should know that Israel did not plot to massacre all "Palestinian" Arabs, never mind all Arabs. They struck first! We live "next door" on all sides to neighbors who keep trying to murder us. We were forced to accept them (at least on the physical level) since that was one of the conditions of our having a state. Thus, we must have firm boundaries between us and them in order to get along at all. Since the boundaries were breached, we say: NO MORE, THIS HAS TO STOP! As far as I am concerned, THEY CAN NO LONGER LIVE NEXT TO US.

What would you do if you had a murderer for a neighbor, but the rest were good? A pedophile? Would you be the one to leave the neighborhood, or would you insist that the murderer or pedophile leave?

What would you do if...you had an alternative in your back pocket the whole time and didn't use it because our people didn't want it even during the period of the Kings of Israel. We call it "politically incorrect" nowadays; it seems that Bibi EITHER promised to adopt the Hebrew calendar and make the court system based on Talmudic law OR Israel will not be governed by Talmudic law. (Both from Times of Israel! Horrible and hilarious at the same time!)

Our primary source document is called the Tana"ch; it stands for Torah, Prophets and Writings. In English, it's called the Bible (I think my readers know this, but it's always good to have a reminder.). I'd like to see all the Israelis I've heard about who returned their thoughts to God since the Simchat Torah massacre looked more closely at what's involved in having a unique Jewish government, and find out what they think, in the light of this latest attempt at genocide in our homeland.

I think we need to consider how our current system is failing us miserably, even as we try to get our hostages back, including children aged 4 and 8 (who I think turned 9 in captivity, if it was Emily Hand they were referring to) in exchange for Arab teenage boys 14 years old and up caught attempting murder by shooting, stabbing and more. (This reminds me of about ten years ago, when throwing stones and boulders wasn't considered a crime in Yehuda and Shomron. These things, used as weapons, kill, and I hope by now that our system recognizes them as such, anywhere remotely resembling Jewish soil and certainly within "recognized" Israeli territory.)

What could be worse than giving our enemy (freeing) actual criminals who were serving jail time in exchange for our kidnapped hostages, and three times as many of their guilty ones as of our innocent ones?

There is a HUGE difference in quality between people taken hostage, as opposed to criminals caught attempting murder. Attempted murder is a serious crime anywhere else, and people who did this are being released as though they're the same as people taken captive.

It seems as though Israel is sending the message that they are the same here. This cannot continue if we intend to survive anywhere in the world, never mind as Jews in our homeland after a couple thousand years in exile. And so I ask...

WHERE IS KFIR, THE BABY BOY LESS THAN A YEAR OLD???
HOW IS HE THE SAME AS AN ATTEMPTED MURDERER???
WHAT DID HE DO TO DESERVE BEING KIDNAPPED AND IN CAPTIVITY???

These are serious violations of derekh eretz, common decency, not to mention current law. Don't you think it's about time we searched our own primary sources for the replacement of our current governance, since it has proven it can be, and has been, influenced by the evil of the world?

***

I got an email recently from an organization that claims it has been raising money to provide defense materials for the periphery of Israel (the "Gaza envelope", Judea and Samaria, northern Israel) for the last 30 years. Here's what I wrote back:

I understood that all the weapons were taken away by the army BEFORE the massacre in Otef Aza, and have been (and maybe still are being) taken away from the towns of Judea/Samaria. Wouldn't you want to check out whether the weapons you gave the border communities, as well as Yehuda and Shomron, were taken away as well?

I was visiting Israel in August 2005, when Gush Katif was about to be expelled by the army from what we know as Gaza today, I was here on the very day they were expelled, and I made aliyah in 2007. I do not trust the government when it comes to these sorts of things. It would seem that the money people donated to your organization might have been a waste back in 2005.

I like your idea very much, but I think somebody should be making sure that anything (in this case, weaponry) provided by the public's money donated for defense purposes should be left with the citizens that are holding it. It is a weak hope I hold that this was the case back in 2005, and even weaker that it was the case before the current Arab war against the Jews, supported by governments around the world and, it would seem, even Israel itself, began on Simchat Torah 5784.

***

The Zionist Organization of America (I have always understood them to be referring to Zion which is Yerushalayim, not as the stolen term of the erev rav) demanded recently that Al-Azhar University revoke their all-encompassing fatwa against the Jewish People in Israel. This fatwa (decree) is evidence that the Muslims here are ordered to WIPE US OUT. It would be embarrassing for them to have to deny its existence, since they're so proud of their Jew-hatred and especially their hatred of Israel and Israelis, including non-combatant women and children (sound familiar?). I also wonder from whom the "University" received the order to make their fatwa against us. More about sharia law: books by Andrew Bostom.

ZOA also published a report: Children as young as 10 took part in Hamas' Oct. 7 Terror Attack, survivors say

Please read it. It should speak for itself. You don't need me to tell you whether or not Gazan civilians participated in the massacre.

***

The last thing you should know: "hamas" חמס is biblical Hebrew for robbery (Bereshith/Genesis 6:11), injustice (Bereshith/Genesis 6:11 and 16:5; Tehillim/Psalms 25:19) and fraudulent (Shemoth/Exodus 23:1) according to Artscroll's supercommentary on Rashi there. Rashi also notes that in the passage in Jonah 3:8, the word hamas is used in the last phrase in the verse ("...and from the robbery that is in their hands") to indicate that the people of Nineveh had stolen goods in their possession.

Hamas (the thing the organization is named after) is the sin that tipped the scales and made God decide to wipe the earth nearly clean of mankind and Creation itself. Fortunately for us all, God has been patient and kind, allowing the world to develop these last several thousand years; but now, we must choose the side we'll be on for eternity.

Choose wisely, Official Israel (whether in the current government coalition or in the opposition). Do you want to be identified with the evil of the rest of the world's leadership? I for one don't want to be dragged down with you, should you so choose.

Let's pray that our leadership doesn't make a mockery of our upcoming Hanukkah!

30 October 2023

Dear World: I Don't Care, by Avi Lewis

light of 17 Heshvan 5784 | אור י"ז חשון ה'תשפ"ד

Dear World: I Don't Care, by Avi Lewis.
Used with permission.

Dear World: I don't care

I don't care that you sympathize with Hamas

I know you wouldn't tolerate any of the things they did to us if they would've done it to you

I don't care that you're outraged by Israel's response to the massacre more than the massacre itself

I know you would do everything to eliminate such pure evil if you experienced it yourself

I don't care that this doesn't fit neatly into your carefully constructed narrative of 'Israel as aggressor' and 'Palestinian as victim'

The truth hurts sometimes, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your feelings

I don't care if you think we are at fault, that we had it coming, that Hamas' actions didn't occur in a vacuum (or to deny they ever happened)

If you feel that the poster of a kidnapped child hurts your cause, maybe yours is a lost cause

I don't care about your calls for a premature ceasefire, about your demand that we provide them with electricity, that we stop fighting for 'humanitarian reasons'

What of a humanitarian gesture to release our 230+ hostages — elderly, children, babies snatched from their cribs?

I don't care that you've rallied for Palestine as part of your march for LGBTQ rights, trans rights, workers' rights, socialism, climate change, intersectionality, Black Lives Matter, fighting Islamophobia and 'all forms of racism'

Your gullibility would be laughable if it wasn't so hypocritical. None of those things exist under Hamas

I don't care that you 'love Jewish people — just hate Israel', that you have some friends that are Jewish, that maybe you're ethnically Jewish yourself — and therefore you're entitled to levy every libel in the playbook against us

Words matter. They lead to actions. When a lie is repeated often enough it's accepted as truth. You are laying the groundwork for more attacks against us

I don't care that you wave the flag of 'human rights', that you've become overnight experts in international law, that you shout fancy slogans you don't understand such as proportionality, occupation and apartheid

Your humanity is selective. In your mind, human rights don't apply to us because we are undeserving. You didn't speak up when our women and children were horribly assaulted

I don't care if you think we are colonialists, imperialists, and settlers and that we should just go back to where we came from

We are back to where we came from

I don't care if you believe in a one state solution, a two state solution, a federation, an internationalized Jerusalem or any other theory drawn up in your ivory tower

We won't readily hold out our necks and endanger our lives in order to satisfy your thought experiments and placate your conscience from afar

I don't care if you consider yourself anti-Zionist but not antisemitic

We've seen enough Jews around the world attacked over the last 3 weeks under the guise of 'anti-Zionism'

I don't care that you think we are too powerful, too technologically advanced, too sophisticated

If we didn't build ourselves up to this point, we'd get eaten alive by Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran and Palestinian terrorism

I don't care that you blame us for 1948 refugees, for the fact that they have no state, for the keys that they wave in their fantasy of 'right of return'

Three weeks ago we got a glimpse of that 'return' looks like and what it means for our children

I don't care if you think we aren't real Jews, that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism, that Jews are a religion and not a nationality and so we deserve no state

Your denials have zero impact on the strength of our ideals and the self-affirmation of our identity

I don't care that you accuse us of flaunting the myriad of UN resolutions, inquiries and statements

They reflect more on the institutional decay of the UN than on us

I don't care about your media coverage, the lies, the equivocation, the acceptance of Hamas talking points and statistics

Your echo chamber is just another weapon in their strategic arsenal

I don't care that you accused us of bombing the Al Ahli hospital

It was only a matter of time before you found a symbol for Israel's wickedness. The subsequent retractions were a fig leaf once the truth emerged that Islamic Jihad was responsible and that the hospital is still standing

I don't care that you see us as a criminal state, a terror state, usurpers, baby killers, Christ killers, Khaybar Jews or any other depravity that exists in your mind

Your libels lay the groundwork for our dehumanization. Rings a bell. We will fight it

I don't care that you've inverted the truth by accusing us of genocide

If positions were reversed and Hamas held the power we do now, you'd see what a genocide looks like

I don't care that you're angry, boiling and outraged

I don't care that you're glued to your TV screens and Telegram channels

I don't care that you're mad

I don't care if you're out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans

We won't die silently the way you want us to

For the first time in 2,000 years we are organized, we are motivated, and we will defend ourselves

We fight for light over darkness

Morality over evil

Not that it matters to you — but we will stick to the rules and hold the high moral ground not because you expect it from us, but because they are a value for us

We will do so ethically and thoughtfully, for we are the People of the Book

Our power and strength are our necessity, because the alternative for us is:

Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Pittsburgh, Toulouse, Farhud, Hebron, Birkenau, Belzec, Babi Yar, Kristallnacht, Kielce and Kishinev

Do you think for a moment that we would return to that reality just to make you feel a little better?

You are deeply mistaken

World,

For so, so long, I really, deeply cared

I cared about fitting in

I cared about what you think

I cared about being a model citizen

I cared about setting a personal example of how a tiny people in a tough neighborhood could still be a Light unto the Nations

How the world's oldest minority — now a majority here — could treat its own internal minorities par excellence amidst the complicated and messy reality of ethnic conflict

How we could painfully dismember parts of our homeland and offer them on the platter of peace to Palestinians that want neither peace nor some parts (they want all of it)

How we could dazzle you with USB sticks, drip irrigation, operating system kernels, Nobel Prize winners, swallowable medical cameras, deep tech, quantum mechanics, generative AI and cures for disease

But now I'm finally accepting that you don't care

You never did

You don't see and you don't hear

And because I cared about what you think so much, that so deeply hurts

...but you don't have my best interests at heart

You take issue with my base identity, with what I represent

Don't expect me to wait for your approval this time

It doesn't matter what I do, you're not going to change

It doesn't matter how I act, because your issue is with who I am

Now I'm going to block out your noise, and do what it takes to win this war

Today
Finally
I no longer care

***

19 October 2023

Clarification of the Jews' place in the world, in three videos, and more

4 Heshvan 5784 | ד' חשון ה'תשפ"ג

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2cnHt9Fgo

One small correction: We are not the authors of morality. God, the Creator of everything, is; Moshe Rabbenu took dictation from Him directly, to put it in modern terms. Moshe also asked Him questions and wrote down (at least some of) these conversations.

The normal term for this is: Revelation.

This is not a small thing; I don't mean to make fun of Moshe, or of the video host, who seems to be from England (if someone knows more precisely, please comment!). I find his viewpoint refreshing and unapologetic without being arrogant. I hope this video will give strength to the weary.

This ambitious young man has begun a video series about Torah Morality for the World, starting with this one, Who Does the Holy Land Belong To? — Torah Morality for the World, #1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqz3K5ZkE7I

You'll find the creators of these two videos on the sidebar under the section "Get Israel Out of the Defendant's Chair" 🢥: J-TV: Jewish Ideas. Global Relevance.

***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNf40sBcvKk

This videographer is Israeli; I thought you'd like to hear his view as well. He requires real proof from people who disagree with him concerning the rights of the Jews to the Holy Land.

These are just a small sample of what's coming up. I had never seen or heard of these people before.

***

Lastly, R' Chananya Weissman: The Bitter Truth That Must Be Accepted

I have heard that the government is making/has made a law that Israelis who disagree with their conduct of the war will be punished/put in jail (I'm pretty sure I read it recently, but I don't remember where.). I don't think this is the right move, since our leadership hasn't yet overcome the tendency to become "captive in wrong conceptions."

I don't want to avoid reality, but I also hope this isn't true. We don't need leadership to be in denial. Please send me links one way or the other; I can't find them.

Nevertheless, don't blame the entire world Jewish population for this decision (if it was even made) or any decision like it. Do not apply everything you read about a Jew, or even a group of Jews, to all Jews. It has never worked that way.

***

My personal opinion: The Israeli government system needs a complete overhaul, and nothing less will do. When this "matzav" is over, I'd like to see how many people will welcome a new religious system for the Jewish people in Israel.

The signs are good. After all, the current drive for every soldier to own and wear tzitzit is driven by our soldiers themselves. Even the ones who don't wear a kippah/yarmulke. I have videos on my phone that attest to this, but I don't know how to get them here for you to see.

And lots of women are reading and reciting Tehillim (Psalms) all the time, all day long.

We need to keep this up!

***

11 October 2023

Suddenly, real war is thrust upon us...

26 Tishrei 5784 | כ"ו תשרי ה'תשפ"ד

War - the Temptations (the original version, 1970)

If songs like this one had changed the world, we wouldn't be having this war now.
My beracha (blessing) is that our enemies will end up singing this song,
and the more shortly, the better!

***

The Eternal God of the Jews is a Jealous God, and He does not change, despite what others may tell you.

It won't be easy to explain to people who were taught that jealousy and envy are one and the same, synonymous. It wasn't always that way, and since this is a time of sorting things out and coming to clarity, I would like to contribute to that effort, even if only a little bit, by explaining why we need to separate them again in people's minds so that each has its own meaning, even though they usually refer to the same issues.

What does jealousy mean? What is different about it from envy?

I'd like to share my studies on how and why God dealt with our "rubbing Him the wrong way" (my expression; our Torah example can be found in the Book of BaMidbar/Numbers, chapters 25 and 31, in parashioth Balak and Mattoth, respectively...) long ago, and how that relates to what's going on now.

Of course, the offense back then was really much worse than a brush of another's hair in the wrong direction; part of the reason is because we don't fully understand God's prerogatives as the Creator, as opposed to our rights as human beings. Some have though that what God does is an example for them to follow, with disastrous results. Misunderstanding this, and many other things, has led to many mistakes, and even criminal actions, on the part of humans the world over.

We do have courts of justice to settle these things...or do we?

The work may be difficult if not impossible, but that doesn't mean we desist from hard questions. I am writing further about this topic, and how it applies to God and our relationship with Him. The war between Israel and Hamas (which might turn out to be between Israel and the "Palestinians" and even more) is a good place to use as an example before we start. I think that God allowed this war because we in Israel especially haven't been paying attention to His role in keeping it relatively peaceful here. Because our leadership is always blocking Him and His ways regarding how the country should be run, He cannot defend it fully. But He will, eventually, when enough of us say, "ENOUGH!"

I should not have to remind my readers that if we had done things the way He wanted them in 1967, when we had just won the Six-Day War, there would be total peace here (I'm looking at you, Moshe Dayan, who made the mistake of letting the wrong people have the Temple Mount at the worst possible moment, and a few others as well, for being all too generous after the war.).

Stay tuned. We may be in for a rocky ride here. Or — and this is what I'm hoping and praying for — a better way up and out of this situation and into the culmination of geulah shlemah for us and for all the good and decent people in the whole world.

***

08 September 2023

"Why Hasn't Mashiah Come Yet?"

22 Elul 5783 | כ"ב אלול ה'תשפ"ג

That's a question I'm always wondering about, too. But now, an answer that makes sense has finally been revealed!

Because generations of people have been so focused on when Mashiah will come, for such a long time, that...

...well, you'll have to watch R' Anava's video below to find out!

Here's a hint: God is the One who sends His servant, Mashiah, to redeem the Jews and the world. He can do it right now, any day now, or He can delay until R' Anava (and perhaps others like him) think He will come. And anytime in between.

Today is the first anniversary of when I was let in to that secret, during my Shacharit (morning) prayer, last year.

As for the cruise ship in the video picture, the Rav affirms about it; he will really be there. I am not going (I wish I could!), so if there is any chance someone who reads this blog goes, please let me know how it went for you!

Happy Jewish New Year 5784 ! שנה טובה ה'תשפ"ד

21 August 2023

Are we mourning our dead in Israel...instead of working toward our goal for a peaceful life in our holy land?

4 Elul 5783 | ד' אלול ה'תשפ"ג


From Arutz-7 article about the terrorist attack, at the scene

CORRECTION a few paragraphs below...

Please pray for Aryeh Leib ben Ella. He was in a pigua (terrorist attack) this morning that was in the news all over Israel (yes, even in Haaretz, which wouldn't let me see the article because I run an ad blocker on my computer!), and is still in the hospital, with surgeries and other treatments to go through. Thank G-d he's alive!

Unfortunately, Batsheva Nigri, the kindergarten teacher who was with him in the car, died of gunshot wounds, which her ~~six~~ twelve-year-old daughter witnessed.

[The video of the 12-year-old daughter who was in the car with her, giving a eulogy (hesped in Hebrew) is HERE on Pulse of Israel, in Hebrew with English subtitles.]

Fortunately, the ~~little~~ girl escaped her mother's fate, although I can barely imagine the impact this will have on her, going forward. If I had seen her name anywhere, I would have added it to Aryeh Leib's, to pray for her. UPDATE: Shir'el bat Batsheva.

Full disclosure: My husband and I have known Aryeh Leib's parents almost since we made aliyah in 2007.

***

TL:DR: It's a very bad idea to leave a group of people alone with no legal recourse* against enemies that live close by, or even in the same territory, as they. You never know, they might just take whatever law there is into their own hands...even if the world considers their territory "not theirs," if too many of them die at their enemies' hands.

Really, Israeli Government System, you would have had the most loyal soldiers ever in the millennial generation...but ever since you kicked them and their parents out of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron in 2005, and otherwise shown hatred and neglect toward this sector of Jews since 1967, you have finally lost their trust, and ours too. They're family, they're friends, we're bonded to them, and they, to us.

Furthermore, the land they live on is part of Eretz Yisrael. We're bonded to her, and she, to us.

These are the problems. Solve them. Stop making the Jewish People out to be crybabies with our heads down, and get serious about our presence here. Otherwise, go ahead and leave, as you've been threatening to do for years, anyway. We'll do just fine. God has His promises to fulfill for us, and He will.

*If you read the article linked to there, take particular note of the "partial list of where the "reasonableness concept["] was used by the courts". Nine items are included, but there have been many more in the past 30+ years.

***

I received a call from a friend as the end of my Torah class early this afternoon about the attack that had occurred this morning, urging me to spread the word and to pray for our friends' son. Shortly thereafter, when I started speaking about it to my classmates, my teacher and the daughter who accompanied her to the class and arrived late, I was informed that they knew about it because they had been delayed due to the attack, which had occurred on the road they were traveling on.

Over on the End of Days blog a while ago, we had a discussion in the comments on how we handle a fairly large uptick in murders in Israel (mixed up with other topics, of course). There is criticism especially toward people in "the territories" taking revenge on the murderers, who happen to be our "cousins."

From the outside it may look as though Jews in territories not our own are taking illegal revenge, but we all (whether in Israel or outside) must look at the situation in the Shomron (and Yehuda) in context, as a continuation of the forced separation/GERUSH (what the media called "disengagement"/hitnatkut) from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron in August 2005, and the attitude that prevailed in Tel Aviv, and its offices in Yerushalayim, before and since then. The government system has been getting away with neglecting the "settlers'" welfare since 1967 only because there weren't "settlers" before then, as we know them today...as I'm sure you're aware, dear reader.

But it seems to me that they forget that their immediate ancestors were "settlers" before Israel became a state. This is their downfall. They can't, or won't, empathize with another group of Jews in the same position they were in because the new-to-them group is religious. Not that it matters to them, but religious Jews were here before they were. (R' Yosef Caro, anyone? Shulchan Aruch? Just one of the many famous examples I could quote. But I'm not writing a book. Not today, anyway.)

Shaking my head.

To summarize, the Jews living on land that is our own territory historically and presently, fully part of Israel, have been badly abused by the leadership here, especially by the Bagatz/"supreme" court because, as Reb Dov Bear has stated repeatedly, they want the acceptance, approval and love of the evil world (not a direct quote).

I would put it as:

They have been in cahoots — plotting — conspiring with said world to destroy the Jewish people, and Israel along with us. "The world" expresses its distinct disapproval of the expansion of our territory to include parts of the land Jews have lived in and walked on for thousands of years.

They might as well throw out their Bibles, New Testaments and Qurans. They all testify to our presence here in one way or another. Oh, heck, why don't the enemies of the Jews throw a religious-book-burning party in public, and see where that gets 'em?

From handing the Sinai, and attempting to give Yehuda and Shomron, to the enemy after the 6-Day War, to allowing the world to delegitimize the victory and the fruit of said war, WHICH WAS NOT STARTED BY US, we must remember, and exercising two sets of laws, one for "the leadership and its supporters" and one for "the rest of us," which led to the GERUSH and its evil fruit since then, is enough for them to be permanently delegitimized and exiled. Whether they leave on their own, as they threaten often, or are threatened by our common enemies to be bombed out, do you think HaShem Yithbarach would allow them back, after all they've done?

Can they even do teshuvah?

In any case, you must admit that in our day, leaving the "settlers" basically alone with the enemy and allowing said enemy to do away with whomever they please, as they please, which these "authorities" would never allow in "Israel proper" as they call it, actually legitimizes the actions of those who live there. If all these authorities ever do is "show up late to the party" (attending shiva homes for publicity, for example — a major offense even if not illegal), then it's hypocritical of them to punish the residents for acting in self-defense and even in offense, no matter how badly trained they are. The authorities should consider themselves fortunate that the majority of these residents, living on legitimate land the state will never take responsibility for, believe in G-d and derech eretz. Others in other countries in our position have done worse.

And, let's not forget, many of the gerushim were children when it all went down. They're army age or adults now, coming up on 18 years later. I wouldn't count on them seeing the army as warm-and-fuzzy, or on their side; fortunate if they do happen to see it that way. Let's all of us put ourselves in their place and think about what we would do!

I left out many details. The revenge, as some call what they think it looks like, on Turmus Ayya is because there is no strong military presence protecting Jews in that area. We should all have had enough of letting Jew-hating "neighbors" have their way with us, whether we have protection or have to do it all ourselves.

***

I just found an article that describes what TURMUS AYYA is, from a link on my blog's sidebar. An Arab from there KILLED MY YOUNG NEIGHBOR, Yehuda Guetta, in May 2021. NO ONE from the ISRAELI government has DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

What do I mean, "NO ONE from the ISRAELI government has DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT"? "LIFE IN PRISON" MEANS NOTHING IF the next Jew kidnapped by Hamas or Hizbullah, or whatever enemy organization, is freed, means SHALABI WILL BE RELEASED TOO.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US as far back as I can remember, THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON MURDER. HAS THAT CHANGED?

And, as far as I understand it, there is none in the Torah, either.

The Settler Intifada by FirstOneThrough

Snippet:

Palestinian-American Muntasir Shalabi, age 44, did a drive buy shooting in E49 and killed a teenager and injured two other 19-year old boys on May 2, 2021. He was sheltered by Palestinians for a few days but was ultimately captured and sentenced to life in prison. His home, in the wealthy West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, was demolished in June despite American protests.

***

The government sent soldiers into Jenin in the evening of 2 July 2023. It looks like, here (WAPO), that we've done this 5 times this year alone. I wonder if they will do it right this time.

JUSTICE, JUSTICE SHALT THOU PURSUE!!! If Judea and Samaria fall due to the lack of diligence over the years, what do you think will happen to Haifa and Tel Aviv?

צדק, צדק תרדוף

***

Reb Dov Bear responded to me as follows:

HDG: From reading and studying Sefer Yechezkel 37:15 until the end of the chapter and Zekharia chapter 12, 2 things become clear. The entire area of Judea and Samaria from the Hevron hills in the south up to Ofra and the Talmon Junction in the North (in ancient Shevet Binyamin) is the reconstituted lands of ancient Judea while all of Israel within the pre-1967 boundaries and the Hill country of Ephraim including Shilo and Ariel is the reconstituted lands of ancient Israel. So all the area around Yerushalayim to the north, east, and south of the City is to be considered "Judea".

2. Mashiach ben David will arise SPECIFICALLY in this area around Jerusalem described as part of ancient Yehudah and Binyamin as the head of some sort of para-military force to protect the "Judean" settlers from hostile forces as the Israeli Army "retreats" because of fears of international pressure and the "Almighty" dollar as the Umot HaOlam's #1 weapon forcing this retreat. Mashiach will wax greater and greater as the Israeli army retreats into its comfort zone which is defined as what Leftist Erev Rav Jews in America think is moral, totally based on what policies make them popular amongst the Western world's exponentially growing reprobate majority. Bibi (the last "melekh" described as the leader from Shevet Levi and the House of Natan in Zekh 12) will be too impotent to protect us. In this way Mashiach ben David will arise to fill the vacuum as the last leader of the Erev Rav (Armilus/Olmert) crushes the crumbling power of the Medinah to redefine itself. Sometime this week it seems he will close down Ben Gurion Airport. G-d only knows how Hezbollah will react to all this. Psalm #2 is just around the corner.

Thankfully, a commenter later said: Apparently no retreat this time around.

***

HaShem, please send Mashiah and the Geulah System before it's too late!

***

13 August 2023

SATIRE: Groundbreaking Research: Children Were Born with a Jewish Soul in a Secular Body...

26 Av 5783 | כו מנחם אב ה'תשפ"ג

*WARNING: This article features parts of, and links to, a satirical article originally written in Hebrew, with my commentary in English.*

The second picture has a woman in it, standing near men who are praying. Neither side is looking at the other.

***

I have a serious question here. Maybe you, or someone you know, think it is all right for human beings to have a female soul in a male body, or the opposite, a male soul in a female body. Would you also accept the following:

***

Groundbreaking Research: Children were born with a Jewish soul in a secular body (key parts translated by David Israel, The Jewish Express)

Former President Reuven Rivlin attended a Jewish Pride event with children who transitioned from their secular to religious bodies — October 13, 2016. In this context it's *SATIRE* — but who knows? From David Israel's article.

English Snippet:

Until recently, children born to secular parents were determined from birth to have a secular identity, but new research shows that sometimes the Jewish identity in a person’s soul is different from the one determined from birth according to the identity of an atheist or non-Jewish mother.

The research concludes that in a case where a person is born in a secular body with a soul that does not fit his body, he should be encouraged to live as a member of the religious group that matches his identity or go through a process of adjustment to his Jewish identity, because these children suffer twice: not only were they born to non-religious or non-Jewish families who cannot understand them or satisfy their most basic Jewish needs, they are also persecuted due to the widespread hatred toward Judaism.

The purpose of this document is to ensure that every child born with Jewish identity in Israel and throughout the world will have the freedom to live his life according to his own path.

The rest of the article...

Original Hebrew version by Gali Bat Horin גלי בת חורין (pseudonym of Dalit Laub-Sutter):

מחקר פורץ דרך: ילדים נולדו עם נפש יהודית בגוף חילוני

(Hebrew snippet) קטע עברית

עד לא מזמן ילדים שנולדו להורים חילונים נקבעו מלידה כבעלי זהות חילונית, אולם ממחקרים חדשים עולה שלעיתים הזהות היהודית שבנפשו של אדם שונה מזו שנקבעה מלידה על פי זהות אם אתאיסטית או שאינה יהודייה

מסקנת המחקר היא כי במקרה שבו נולד אדם בגוף חילוני עם נפש שאינה מתאימה לגופו, יש לעודד אותו לעבור לחיות כבן הקבוצה הדתית התואמת את זהותו או לעבור תהליך התאמה לזהותו היהודית, מפני שילדים אלו סובלים סבל כפול ומכופל: לא זו בלבד שנולדו למשפחות לא דתיות או לא יהודיות שאינן יכולות להבין לנפשם או לספק את צורכיהם היהודיים הבסיסיים ביותר, הם נרדפים גם בשל השנאה הרווחת כלפי היהדות

מטרתו של מסמך זה היא להבטיח שכל ילד שנולד עם זהות יהודית בישראל ובעולם כולו יזכה לחופש לחיות את חייו על פי דרכו

שאר המאמר...

(I took off the periods that were meant to be placed at the ends of paragraphs here because they look so awkward when they appear in the wrong place! Another sign of prejudice against right-to-left printing, or just Hebrew? Or is it my computer, because it runs, language-wise, on an English-speaking foundation? — HDG)

One more pic from David Israel's article:

This woman who protested the fact that Jews wore Tefillin in public must ~~be taught to~~
work on overcoming her Judeophobia (not "Judiphobia"...which Judi are you referring to? 😂).

Fair is fair, right?

But seriously, I admit that I recognize the flaw in this article: It seems that we cannot carry around both sets of the ideas I presented here in our heads at the same time.

We must choose one.

I suspect that "Gali bat Horin" was thinking about this issue, too. And David Israel, after her. (Or, perhaps, before her. But he didn't write the original article and present it the way she did.)

At least the Jewish soul in the secular body doesn't require drastic physical changes (like the pressure to get hormone replacements and surgery, for example)...only working on understanding the soul, so that bringing it out so that it can live openly and breathe freely, which the person can do, as the Canadians say, themself, isn't such a problem.

Did you hear that, "Yehudit" and "Yehuda"? 😉

A happy Rosh Hodesh Elul ! ראש חודש אלול סמח

27 July 2023

Lamentations...and Exultations!

9 Av 5783 | ט' אב ה'תשפ"ב

A Holy Temple similar to this one is what we're looking for!
Ezekiel's Temple as imagined by
Charles Chipiez in the 19th century. Wikipedia

You know what this means...right? If you don't, here's a good explanation about why Jews fast: What happened on the Ninth of Av. To the list there I would add all the events leading to the Holocaust and the (mainly) Jew-extermination program itself, and dhimmitude (from Forward, no less! I'm shocked.).

It seems I'm late to post, according to regular Jewish time. I almost took until Rabbenu Tam time, this time around. Yes, I've been fasting since last night.

***

My first impression, this time around, is that we're back in the days of Yirmyahu (Jeremiah), or even as late as George Orwell's Animal Farm, with our government striving to keep a certain group of Jews from having the same rights as others. It's much more complicated than that, but for the purpose of this post I will restrain myself from involving other people who live in Israel; I will leave that for further reading of other bloggers who have more experience with them than I.

— we have been set up to fight one another for years already, by certain people who want to have nothing to do with HQB"H (God) and religious Jews, no matter what stripe. They want us to forget that

WE ARE FAMILY

and at least one of them dreams of Jews killing other Jews and making their bodies float in the Yarkon River, after a friend of his told him that he would be called to rule at that point (see video linked immediately above). What does that tell you?

One of the most damaging events in the 21st Century CE was the Gerush from Gush Katif...the video there is over an hour. I intend to watch, be"H, b"n.

ALSO...

Tomer Devorah has some of the latest news and analysis regarding the impending GEULA, be"H. She's back...at least for now. (She's been quite prolific lately.)

Rivka Levy has two articles about baseless hatred: Fixing Sinat Chinam and The Year We Beat Sinat Chinam, plus one about geula itself: The Geula is No Longer Being Held Up.

DON'T GIVE UP!

Even More Reading: More 'The Year We Beat Sinat Chinam' — In Action

04 July 2023

"May I please come home?" — a simple question any Jew who wants to return home to Eretz Yisrael might ask...

15 Tammuz 5783 | ט"ו תמוז ה'תשפ"ג

Wikipedia. I learned Torah across the street from the building site for about two years before it was finished.

***

For some who can’t make it right now, it may be as simple as “asking permission.”

It was, for me. We visited Israel for the first time in August 2005, right before the gerush from Gush Katif, and we were here for it. So I knew that we weren’t coming here for the political system — rather, in spite of it. (I did put "Eretz Yisrael" in the title, not Medinat Yisrael, for a reason.)

My desire had been there since 1967. I was eleven then, and my family was not religious at all.

Back to 2005. When I returned to my then-work place, I looked around the office space I shared with another employee, looked up to God and uttered the request that, b”H, set the wheels in motion: “May I please come home?”

I felt I was asking on behalf of my husband as well because…marriage…makes us one. And asking permission is a middah! It acknowledges that Someone Else owns the place, and we have to go through Him first.

And once you ask, you’d better mean it!

A warning: Expect a lot of dysfunction among our people. We have been C-PTSD'd to death and need time to heal. The Land is meant for our healing, but the system of governance blocks that, too much. However, thinking about returning to "hutz la-aretz" makes me shudder at how much more we're blocked there, than here. At least we can be ourselves here, to a large extent. A big step upward, in my humble opinion.

As I think of that, tears are coming to my eyes…we visited one more time, in 2006; it took two years to arrange our move, but I didn’t complain, unless you call my obsession with going there a complaint...

It wasn’t long after that request, after our first visit, when a young lady came to my synagogue to speak about aliyah. She was the first of a number of people who came to help us and others who wanted to come.

What’s even stronger is that I had two relatives who came on aliyah in the early 1980s, who passed away before completing even one year. I don’t know how that happened, so please don’t take this as boasting on my part. I thank God for the merit for my husband and me to be here almost 16 years now.

On natural terms, it is not a good time to move, especially when danger is obvious, rampant and neglected (or even encouraged?) by the authorities; however, if you and your family personally have the Owner's approval, you should be able to expect an easier time of getting here, and living here, than if you don't. And, He may well have an important assignment for you here, which you wouldn't have been able to accomplish over there!

If you've had the desire to make aliyah and couldn't, for whatever reason, even if you asked haShem and haven't been answered positively yet, please send me a note with your Hebrew name and your mother's Hebrew name, and I will pray for you, be"H, b"n. I'm on your side!

Whatever you do, don’t give up!

***

07 June 2023

Women: Do you want to give birth at Beilinson Hospital...or any other health care facility that does what they just did?

Light of 19 Sivan 5783 | אור י"ט סיון ה'תשפ"ג

from Wikipedia

Beilinson Hospital (also known as the Yitzhak Rabin Medical Center) has just started hospitalizing "gay" men, whose surrogate is giving birth, in their maternity ward. This link is from an article posted on Monday, 5 June, in A7. Originally written and posted at Israel haYom; I couldn't find it there.

(I had to be very careful about where to put the commas in the first sentence because the surrogate will not, or did not, depending on the timing of my post, give birth in the maternity ward, but in the gynecology department. Next door? I don't know. But can you imagine?)

The Jewish Press points out the waste of hospital bed space and the silliness of having these men hospitalized. Are hospitals supposed to promote "wokeness" or actually treat people in need...when it is clear that it is the woman giving birth who needs the care, consideration and privacy — all of them together — and not the men in question. (A whole other issue may arise for lesbian couples, but I haven't seen any relatively equivalent examples on the distaff side anywhere.)

Parenthood training can be done elsewhere: in a local clinic, for example. These men are not going to be baring their chests for the purpose of nursing the infants they bring home.

But my concern in this article is not the comfort and catering to these homosexual couples. It is the effect this will have on society around the world, not just in Israel — although, many Israelis expect our country to set an example in common decency.

We seem to be first to have a hospital that allows people who should not be patients at all to take up bed space and hospital supplies for the sake of "political correctness." I desperately hope I'm wrong. Consequences will follow; I just hope they descend early enough and swiftly enough that we as a nation don't come out too badly from the experiment.

We can, and should, protest this "advancement" in modern morés based on derekh eretz (common decency) alone.

After all, how many women really want to take a chance that after the birth they will share a room with two men? They are recovering from a difficult enough process without making it worse by forcing them to maintain the privacy and standard of care they require and deserve. Hospitals need to wake up and smell the burning coffee!

Maybe one of the men needs to have a C-section to make it more real for him (and his partner)? Or an episiotomy?

It began with ignoring the sullying of Yerushalayim for a month every summer with "pride parades" for years, with the support of various versions of our government.

In any case, how are these parents going to explain to their children, when the time comes, where they came from, and how babies are born? How far do we have to stray from the simple explanation?

And how can Jews support this kind of thing and expect to stay in the land of Israel? And if too many support it, how can any kind of state be sustained? If too many of our children completely transition, how many will be available to give birth to the generation after them?

God does not have to slaughter them all, as we see in the Torah (the "cowboy stories," as my husband refers to them, are in the book of BaMidbar/Numbers, the one we're in now, with all their guts and gore exposed.). He is eternal, He can wait the generation of time it will take for us all to see the results on the ground. And then who will defend the country?

I vote for the (by then) old people who advocated for this path and banned all the religious, God-fearing population from influencing our direction, whether they were for the coalition or for the opposition.

SMH.

***

Before I go, there is something else.

I want to make sure our youth who are considering transition, and possibly have begun it from their birth gender to the other one, have something to read and think about before they actually make it final. I hope that the articles I linked to in my last post will help; however, I want to make it even clearer:

Many before you did what you want to do now, but ended up not liking their choice.

They cannot change back.

Important parts, once taken off, and hormones that have been nullified by their opposite, cannot be replaced easily, if at all.

Think about this carefully. You may say that you're not them, and that you aren't going to have the same reaction they had. I mean, are still having! They found out that the doctors and psychologists and psychiatrists and their schoolmasters (er, I mean principals and teachers alike) who promoted this damaging farce did not have their best interest at heart after all. And they can't be put back together again.

As the old English nursery rhyme ends it:

All the king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Here's what the expression Humpty Dumpty means, when it doesn't come with the rhyme.

Ask yourself: Must I really follow the crowd, or the leader who won't have to pay my price?

I'd like to think you can think, fast-forward style, for yourself.

I hope you will do this just because you can.

I believe in you.

***

Here's a really good article with more background on the issue as it is being presented in Israel.

A Controversial Trend on Israel’s Doorstep: Ms. Abigail Shrier Brings the Transgender Debate to Tel Aviv

I pity the poor transgender children who think it's only about their rights to do whatever they want with their bodies. It's much bigger than that, the stakes are much higher.

If this trend continues and becomes successful among advocates for this societal change as well as born girls wanting to become boys (and vice versa), the chances are great that, less than twenty years from now, homosexual men won't have the choice of surrogates that they have today to give birth to their children, and that lesbians won't have the choice of men to father theirs.

All too many of them will have been "efeminized" (see definition in the footnote HERE) (and emasculated) without recourse to return to what they were. To make it plainer, they won't have gender at all (which is another term for s*xuality), in real terms.

And by then, it may not be so fun to be homos*xual, or transgender, anymore. Trends tend to change rapidly.

But the biggest question now, as we sit in front of our computer screens reading this is:

How will I be able to live with myself after it's all done, considering that others before me find it difficult for themselves?

Do I have to make the same mistake they did?

I hope that geulah shlemah (the complete redemption: the saving of the world and many of its inhabitants) will come well before it comes to that, with the help of God, its Creator and ours.

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