Helping gentiles spiritually

The verse says that Pharoah was told "Go to Yosef. Whatever he tells you to do, you should do." Rashi explains he told the Egyptians to undergo circumcision. Why would he do this? Rav Yeruchum  Levovitz explains with a verse in Vayigash where the Egyptians said, "You have saved our lives." The Medrash says they were acknowledging his saving them in this world (with food) and in the world to come (with circumcision). It is a spiritual benefit even for gentiles to have circumcision as the orla contains impurity. Rav Yeruchum explains that Yosef had helped them in the physical realm, how could he not help them also in the world to come? 

Rav Yehonasan Gefen, The Guiding Light 2, Mikeitz

What Kind Of Job Is Best For You?

A person should choose a vocation for which he has an inclination. 

We find it confirmed in the Gemara that each person is generally satisfied with the way he earns his living. In fact, some people love their vocation. That doesn't mean they are madly in love with it, but they have an affection for that kind of work and they don't want any other kind of work. This is inherent in the way people are created. -- Ohr Avigdor Shaar Bitachon, Rav Avigdor Miller

the optimal setting for our individual and collective growth

 

Jacob was overjoyed to hear that Joseph was still alive and that he had remained true to Jacob’s ideals. Although he looked forward to joining Joseph, he regretted having to leave the land promised to his forebears. G d therefore appeared to him and assured him that his family would grow into a nation while in Egypt.

אַל תִּירָא מֵרְדָה מִצְרַיְמָה כִּי לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל אֲשִׂימְךָ שָׁם: (בראשית מו:ג)

[G-d said to Jacob,] “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for it is there that I will make you into a great nation.” Genesis 46:3

G‑d was not trying to soothe Jacob’s regret over leaving the Promised Land, for a Jew should regret not living in the Land of Israel. Rather, G‑d was telling Jacob that his regret over going into exile was the key to not becoming intimidated by it, and therefore, the key to overcoming it.

Since G‑d put us in exile, it follows that He has given us all the strength we need to overcome its challenges. As long as the exile continues, it is the optimal setting for our individual and collective growth and development. Here, however, lurks a great danger. When we realize that we have no reason to be intimidated by exile and that we benefit so greatly from it, we can fall into the trap of becoming habituated to it. As a consequence, we can become vulnerable to exile’s negative effects on us, and it goes without saying that we can no longer elevate it properly.

Therefore, like Jacob, we should always cultivate regret over the fact that we are not in our proper environment, the Land of Israel in the Messianic Redemption. As long as we remember who we really are and the lives we are really meant to lead, we need not fear exile; we will overcome it.1

7th Lubavitcher Rebbe

FOOTNOTES
1.	Likutei Sichot, vol. 30, pp. 234–235.

Torah im Derech Eretz Chassidus

 A friend commented the other day that the 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe practiced a Torah im Derech Eretz Chassidus. The following I would say is an example of that:

Although the Egyptians stored up grain during the seven years of plenty, as Joseph directed them to, as soon as the seven years of famine began, everyone’s grain except for Joseph’s rotted. The populace of Egypt thus found themselves dependent upon Joseph for food. Joseph agreed to give them grain on the condition that they circumcise themselves first.

Refining the World

וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה לְכָל מִצְרַיִם לְכוּ אֶל יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר לָכֶם תַּעֲשׂוּ: (בראשית מא:נה)

Pharaoh said to all Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you to.” Genesis 41:55

Egyptian society was steeped in the pursuit of self-serving carnal pleasure, which is reduced by circumcision. Thus, by having the Egyptians circumcised, Joseph subdued their obsession with carnal indulgence. Pharaoh himself instructed them to go along with Joseph’s condition; thus, even the living symbol of Egyptian corruption was willing to be refined, at least somewhat.

We follow Joseph’s example by remaining spiritually uncontaminated by our materialistic environment and even refining it. By strengthening our own commitment to Judaism, we influence our fellow Jews to strengthen theirs. Moreover, we influence the broader community of non-Jews to keep the Torah’s laws that apply to them (the “Noahide” laws). Thus, we will ultimately transform the entire world into G‑d’s home.1

FOOTNOTES
1.	Likutei Sichot, vol. 10, p. 141.

from DAILY WISDOM: Wednesday: Refining the World (Miketz), Chabad.org

basic human dignity

from Bitachon Weekly

 Chazal say since Yaakov lowered himself before Eisav, calling him Adoni my master eight times, therefore Hashem granted Eisav eight kings before Yaakov had any kings! Reb Yerucham Levovitz points out that from this we see how dangerous it is for a person to lower himself more than necessary; as it can turn around the entire world history. The Ramban says, during the second Bais Hamikdash we caused our own downfall into the hands of Edom by being Mach’nia ourselves to them. This was a result of the Jewish kings making a Bris pact with the Romans, and some even going to Rome which was lowering themselves to Edom. Because they put their trust [Bitachon] in the Romans, Hashem let them fall into their hands. The whole long Galus we are in, came as a result of our lowering ourselves into the Romans hands, as the Passuk a צַדִּיק מָט לִּפְנֵי רָשָע משלי כה כו :says Tzaddik lowers himself to fall before a Rasha, and Chazal say if a person flatters a Rasha, he will end up falling into his hands. Now we can understand how important your self-esteem is for your well-being. It can change your entire destiny! How imperative it is for a person to have a highopinion of himself [and of others].

----

basic human dignity is an important part of Torah and is well expressed with Torah Im Derech Eretz

Government is not the solution. It's the problem.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. Gerald R. Ford

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Ronald Reagan

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P. J. O'Rourke 

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams

Four Divinely-ordained institutions

"The Book of Genesis lists four Divinely-ordained institutions: Shabbos, keshet [the rainbow], mila [circumcision], and gid hanasha, [the prohibition against eating the "sinew of weakness"]. The first two are of significance to all of mankind, the latter two have a similar meaning in the narrower sphere of the Jewish people. The Sabbath insures the survival of the spiritual and moral calling assigned to all mankind; circumcision guarantees the survival of Israel's mission. The rainbow is the emblem of the history of mankind; the "sinew of weakness" is the emblem of Jewish history. But is is the moral action of man, and the fate ordained for man by God, that together determine the sum total of all individual and communal life on earth."

Rav Samson R. Hirsch, Bereshis 32:33

Dr. ROGER HODKINSON, 29TH NOVEMBER 2020

https://www.bitchute.com/video/HbaOVR9pehji

Dr Hodkinson is a board certified pathologist in the USA and Canada. He studied at Cambridge University in the UK before emigrating to Canada in 1970. He has held a number of leadership positions in his profession both in his own province of Alberta and nationally. His career has spanned general practice, community hospitals, academia, CEO of a large retail clinical laboratory and various other entrepreneurial activities in private medicine.

Chief Science Officer Dr. Mike Yeadon - The PCR test is unreliable as a diagnostic tool

Dr. Mike Yeadon, the former Chief Science Officer and VP, Allergy and Respiratory Research Head with Pfizer Global R&D, is an Allergy & Respiratory Therapeutic Area expert with 23 years in the pharmaceutical industry. He trained as a biochemist and pharmacologist, obtaining his PhD from the University of Surrey (UK) in 1988.

He says that the large number of positive Covid-19 tests is not indicative of the number of active cases,. Like immunologist Dr. Beda Stadler and medical microbiologist Professor Sucharit Bhakdi, and so many other SCIENTISTS, he says that the PCR test detects remnants of the coronavirus in the RNA, but it cannot tell if they came from live viruses or those long conquered by the immune system. There are also many false positives. He says even the count of deaths is inaccurate because the deaths are marked as COVID-19 largely based on the PCR test, which is the test being used all over the world. When you hear that the infection rate is "soaring" it's based on the Polymerase Chain Reaction test.  Like Dr. Scott Atlas and so many others, he says that immunity is seen not only in antibodies, which is all that's commonly being tested for via a blood test (separate from the swab-based PCR test), but in T-cells. (Beda M. Stadler is the former Director of the University Institute of Immunology at the Insel Hospital in Bern,  Professor Sucharit Bhakdi was the was head of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Dr. Scott Atlas, MD is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and former head of neuroradiology at the Stanford University hospital).

Dr. Yeadon made a video of his findings. RT says that youtube banned it; although it's back up now.  Now who is anti-science?

Some quotes from Dr. Mike Yeadon's article, "Lies, Damned Lies and Health Statistics – the Deadly Danger of False Positives," 20 September 2020.

PCR is not a diagnostic tool

"So, to this article. Its about the testing we do with something called PCR, an amplification technique, better known to biologists as a research tool used in our labs, when trying to unpick mechanisms of disease. I was frankly astonished to realise they’re sometimes used in population screening for diseases – astonished because it is a very exacting technique, prone to invisible errors and it’s quite a tall order to get reliable information out of it, especially because of the prodigious amounts of amplification involved in attempting to pick up a strand of viral genetic code. The test cannot distinguish between a living virus and a short strand of RNA from a virus which broke into pieces weeks or months ago." 

"That all said, Government decided to call a person a ‘case’ if their swab sample was positive for viral RNA, which is what is measured in PCR. A person’s sample can be positive if they have the virus, and so it should. They can also be positive if they’ve had the virus some weeks or months ago and recovered. It’s faintly possible that high loads of related, but different coronaviruses, which can cause some of the common colds we get, might also react in the PCR test, though it’s unclear to me if it does."

"Because of the high false positive rate and the low prevalence, almost every positive test, a so-called case, identified by Pillar 2 since May of this year has been a FALSE POSITIVE. Not just a few percent. Not a quarter or even a half of the positives are FALSE, but around 90% of them. Put simply, the number of people Mr Hancock sombrely tells us about is an overestimate by a factor of about ten-fold. Earlier in the summer, it was an overestimate by about 20-fold." 

"This test is fatally flawed and MUST immediately be withdrawn and never used again in this setting unless shown to be fixed."

"I have explained how a hopelessly-performing diagnostic test has been, and continues to be used, not for diagnosis of disease but, it seems, solely to create fear."

"Pillar 2 testing has been ongoing since May but it’s only in recent weeks that it has reached several hundreds of thousands of tests per day. The effect of the day by day climb in the number of people that are being described as ‘cases’ cannot be overstated. I know it is inducing fear, anxiety and concern for the possibility of new and unjustified restrictions, including lockdowns. I have no idea what Mr Hancock’s motivations are. But he has and continues to use the hugely inflated output from a fatally flawed Pillar 2 test and appears often on media, gravely intoning the need for additional interventions (none of which, I repeat, are proven to be effective)."

Asymptomatic spreading is rare

"A very long prelude, but necessary. Part of the ‘project fear’ that is rather too obvious, involving second waves, has been the daily count of ‘cases’. Its important to understand that, according to the infectious disease specialists I’ve spoken to, the word ‘case’ has to mean more than merely the presence of some foreign organism. It must present signs (things medics notice) and symptoms (things you notice). And in most so-called cases, those testing positive had no signs or symptoms of illness at all. There was much talk of asymptomatic spreading, and as a biologist this surprised me. In almost every case, a person is symptomatic because they have a high viral load and either it is attacking their body or their immune system is fighting it, generally a mix. I don’t doubt there have been some cases of asymptomatic transmission, but I’m confident it is not important."

What Is Wisdom?

 What Is Wisdom?

Wisdom doesn’t just mean knowing things; it means being Aware of the presence of Hashem in the world. As David Hamelech says, "Reishis Chachma yiras Hashem — The highest of wisdom is the fear of Hashem" (Tehilim 111:10). This doesn’t mean we have to be in a state of fear. It means that we have to be Aware that the presence of Hashem is everywhere. That realization is the pinnacle of wisdom. — Ohr Avigdor Hakdama

A PCR test cannot be used to diagnose anything

Professor Sucharit Bhakdi: Now anyone who has studied infectious diseases knows that a PCR test cannot be used to diagnose anything. A PCR test is a lab test that may be used to support a diagnosis. So if you think someone is ill, has fever, is coughing, and short of breath then it's quite legitimate to do a PCR test to try to find the gene of that virus that you are looking for and if you find it -- or parts of the gene because a PCR test only looks at part of the virus genome, very small parts -- then it's OK,  then you say alright, this would confirm the clinical diagnosis. But a real doctor doesn't go around testing people with a test that has never been put on the market for use to diagnose a disease. It's only there to see whether you have parts of this virus genome sitting around in your throat or nose. And then the terrible thing was that whenever this PCR test was positive that person or patient was labelled COVID-19 case....A positive PCR does not mean that you are infected. (starts at 6:00)

Interviewer: So to put it in very simple language for people  listening, what you are really saying is the the PCR test is likely to massively exaggerate the number of people who are actually suffering symptoms of COVID 19." (starts at 12:25)

Professor Sucharit Bhakdi: Oh yes, horribly, I mean so much that it's criminal to say that these are COVID-19 cases. Because everyone in the world believes oh my God now we've had 250,000 COVID-19 cases in Germany, but in fact you probably have had I won't be able even to estimate, I can tell that probably we have had 10,000 COVID-19 deaths but of these 10,000 COVID-19 deaths 90% were death due to other causes, like heart attack or stroke or whatever, it's just that they happened to test positive for this damn virus with a PCR test that lights up the moment bits and pieces of this virus or another virus that is related to this virus has gotten into your throat."

Interviewer: So Dr. Bhakdi, if this is the case, right, and of course I trust what you are saying, then why is it that we are going into lock down. Because you can't be the only person to think this I'm sure there's great sweeps in the medical profession that do.

Dr. Bhakdi: Well, to our great relief, the world's foremost epidemiologist Professor John Ioannidis of Stanford actually published a paper that was back three weeks ago and this paper is peer reviewed which means it has been seen by 3 to 4 experts, leading experts in the field and the WHO put this paper on its bulletin which means the WHO accepts that this is the correct data, alright, and you go and read that paper because John Ioannidis said what we said months ago, that this virus is no more deadly than a seasonal flu and for people under 70 it is even less deadly than the seasonal flu. If you are under 70 your chances of dying with or because of this virus are less than 0.1%. Alright. In fact they are about 0.05%. This means 5 out of 10,000 infected people may die because of the virus. 5 out of 10,000. This is so little that there is no reason to do anything. Not only are the lock-downs nonsense, everything else is nonsense, everything. And this is published. Everyone who is watching now should stop and think for a moment. Anyone can look at this paper, anyone can look at the bulletin of the WHO and should and then they should come back and say, listen, since it is now internationally accepted that this virus is not the killer virus that one thought it was, and now since the pandemic has actually come to an end, the epidemic does not exist in Europe, it does not exist in America, the number of case and fatalities have almost gone down to zero. Anyone who says that anything is being done for any scientific reason is lying.

Interview on Triggernometry channel on youtube, Nov 17, 2020

Professor Bhakdi studied at the Universities of Bonn, Gießen, Mainz and Copenhagen, and at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. He was professor of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and from 1991 to 2012 was head of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene there.

Charedi infection rate is lower than the general population in Israel - Israel National News

All those irresponsible people who have lambasted Charedim for months, charging them with irresponsibly infecting the country can go eat their words.

According to a report by Public Broadcasting Corporation health correspondent Katie Dor, Edelstein asked senior officials in his Ministry to examine whether conclusions may be drawn that might be used by the Health Ministry in the fight against the virus in the general sector as well.

"There were prophecies of doom that within three weeks all the haredi communities would turn red," Dor said. "Not only did this not happen, but the opposite happened; the infection index in the haredi sector is lower than in the general sector."

According to her, in the general sector there is an infection factor of 1.06 percent, and among haredim the infection factor is 0.96 percent. "The index of serious patients is significantly lower," Dor adds, "far fewer serious patients in the haredi sector compared to the secular sector and the Arab sector where it is on the rise."

Read full

New study: Lockdown has no significant impact on COVID mortality - Technology & Health - Israel National News

New study: Lockdown has no significant impact on COVID mortality

Study based on data from 160 countries, recommends "increasing population resilience with better physical fitness."

"A new study published last week in Frontiers, a peer-reviewed journal, has concluded that government measures designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus are not linked to reduced levels of mortality.

"The study was conducted by a number of scientists from French universities and biomedicine and epidemiological research institutes, and based on an analysis of data from 160 countries, accounting for a total of 846,395 deaths over the first eight months of 2020. The authors of the study collected data on: life expectancy and its change over time; public health context (metabolic and non-communicable diseases as well as infectious diseases); GDP and government financial support; and government measures designed to fight the pandemic."

Read: New study: Lockdown has no significant impact on COVID mortality - Technology & Health - Israel National News

Dr. Roger Hodkinson, MA, MB, FRCPC, FCAP, CEO "Masks are utterly useless."

Thank you very much. And I do appreciate the opportunity to address you on this very important matter. What I’m going to say is lay language, and blunt. It’s counter-narrative, and so you don’t immediately think I’m a quack, I’m going to briefly outline my credentials so that you can understand where I’m coming from in terms of knowledge base in all of this.

I’m a medical specialist in pathology which includes virology. I trained at Cambridge University in the U.K. I’m the ex-president of the pathology section of the Medical Association. I was previously an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine doing a lot of teaching. I was the chairman of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada Examination Committee and Pathology in Ottawa, but more to the point I’m currently the chairman of a biotechnology company in North Carolina selling the COVID-19 test.

And I might you might say I know a little bit about all of this. The bottom line is simply this: There is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians. It’s outrageous. This is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.

There is absolutely nothing that can be done to contain this virus. Other than protecting older, more vulnerable people. It should be thought of as nothing more than a bad flu season.

This is not Ebola. It’s not SARS. It’s politics playing medicine and that’s a very dangerous game.

There is no action of any kind needed other than what happened last year when we felt unwell. We stayed home, we took chicken noodle soup, we didn’t visit granny, and we decided when we would return to work. We didn’t need anyone to tell us.

Masks are utterly useless. There is no evidence base for their effectiveness whatsoever. Paper masks and fabric masks are simply virtue-signaling. They’re not even worn effectively most of the time. It’s utterly ridiculous. Seeing these unfortunate, uneducated people — I’m not saying that in a pejorative sense — seeing these people walking around like lemmings, obeying without any knowledge base, to put the mask on their face.

Social distancing is also useless because COVID is spread by aerosols which travel 30 meters or so before landing. Enclosures have had such terrible unintended consequences. Everywhere should be opened tomorrow as was stated in the Great Barrington Declaration that I circulated prior to this meeting.

And a word on testing: I do want to emphasize that I’m in the business of testing for COVID. I do want to emphasize that positive test results do not – underlined in neon – mean a clinical infection. It’s simply driving public hysteria and all testing should stop. Unless you’re presenting to the hospital with some respiratory problem.

All that should be done is to protect the vulnerable and to give them all in the nursing homes that are under your control, give them all 3,000 to 5,000 international units of vitamin D every day which has been shown to radically reduce the likelihood of infection.

And I would remind you all that using the province’s own statistics, the risk of death under 65 in this province is one in 300,000. One in 300,000. You’ve got to get a grip on this.

The scale of the response that you are undertaking with no evidence for it is utterly ridiculous given the consequences of acting in a way that you’re proposing. All kinds of suicides, business closures – funerals, weddings, etc., etc. It’s simply outrageous! It’s just another bad flu and you’ve got to get your minds around that.

Let people make their own decisions. You should be totally out of the business of medicine. You’re being led down the garden path by the chief medical officer of health for this province.

I am absolutely outraged that this has reached this level. It should all stop tomorrow.

Thank you very much.

Full transcript of the comments made by Dr. Roger Hodkinson, MA, MB, FRCPC, FCAP, CEO and medical director of Western Medical Assessments. Dr. Hodkinson made these comments at a public city meeting in the Council Chambers of the City of Edmonton in Western Canada on November 13, 2020. [This was originally transcribed by Lifesite news.]

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MB is the British equivalent of the American MD degree.

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Doctor destroys ‘utterly unfounded public hysteria’ over COVID-19 | News | Lifesitenews

_____________________________________________________________________

US and British Medical Degrees Explained -www.squaremouth.com

Eliot C. Heher, MD

American Medical Degrees

First the basics. Most graduates of American medical schools receive the “M.D.” or Medical Doctor, degree. Of course graduates list the degree after their name, “Peter Rabbit, MD” and are referred to as doctors–“Dr. Rabbit”. The D.O., or Doctor of Osteopathy, is another medical degree that is awarded by 19 or so medical schools in the United States. Physicians with a D.O. degree are also referred to as doctors and are equally eligible with M.D.’s for medical licensure and practice (note that regardless of what degree a physician receives, he or she must receive and maintain a medical license from the State in which they practice, which requires extensive training after medical school).

The Ph.D. degree is a doctorate but is usually not associated with clinical practice or patient care. One very common exception is that of the Clinical Psychologist, who often have a Ph.D. or similar degree (unlike psychiatrists, who have an MD degree, Clinical Psychologists are typically not licensed to prescribe medications). Some physicians may possess both an MD and a Ph.D., though the Ph.D. is generally in an academic field involving research rather than patient care.

British Medical Degrees

In contrast, most graduates of British medical schools (and schools in countries with an historical connection to the UK, such as Australia and New Zealand), do not receive an “MD” degree but receive a degree in each of three major areas of medical study: medicine, surgery, and obstetrics. To receive a degree the graduate must pass the qualifying examination in that area. And because in many cases these physicians-in-training have gone directly from high school into a six year program that combines college and medical school, the degrees awarded are bachelors degrees.

The MB degree, which stands for bachelor of medicine, is awarded for passing the medicine exam examination, thereby qualifying as a medical doctor. This degree is really the equivalent to the MD in the United States–it’s the standard degree.

The BS, ChB and Bch degrees (which are are equivalent to one another) stand for Bachelor of Surgery (Ch=Chirurgie, which is latin for surgery). These degrees are awarded for passing the surgical portion of the exam.

BAO, which stands for Bachelor of Obstetrics, is awarded for passing the Obstetrics portion of the exam and thus qualifying in obstetrics.

Thus physician graduates of the British system posses the “MB, [BS, ChB, or Bch], BAO” degree. They may present themselves as “Peter Rabbit, MBChBBAO”, or “Peter Rabbit, MBBSBAO”. In practice, the BAO portion is often dropped for convenience: “Peter Rabbit, MBBS”.

To make things even more complicated, keep in mind that on occasion the “MD” degree is awarded by medical schools in the British system, in place of the MB. To receive an MD rather than an MB, students must complete a thesis and receive some additional training (e.g., research training) over and above what is required for the MB. Senior, academic physicians are more likely to have an MD; community physicians will typically have the MB degree.

Osteopathic physicians with a DO also exist outside the United States. And, just as in the U.S., regardless of what degree they receive physicians outside the United States must be licensed to practice, and licensure often requires extensive training after graduation from medical school.

Yerushoseinu

 We are very pleased to announce that the eleventh volume of Yerushoseinu, for the year ה'תשפ"א, is now available.

 

We will be happy to mail you a copy of this volume for a minimum donation of $ 36.00

 

Please mail your request for this book together with your donation to:

 

Machon Moreshes Ashkenaz

503 South Broadway

Suite 215

Yonkers, NY 10705

 

Your donations which are tax-exempt, are vital to our work and are deeply appreciated.  

 

Thanking you in advance for your support, and wishing you a good and healthy winter.

 

Rav Avigdor Miller on The Rambam and Aristotle

 Rav Avigdor Miller on The Rambam and Aristotle 

Q: 

You quoted from the Rambam that we should stay away from the gentiles and wicked people. But the Rambam himself was very much involved with gentiles, in particular with Aristotle. Why?

A:

I’ll explain it to you.  When you’re sitting now by that tape recorder recording this lecture, you’re taking something made maybe by goyim and thought up perhaps by goyim. You ride on buses driven by goyim. If you have a car, so the car and the gasoline are made and supplied by goyim. 

The answer is, whatever useful things goyim have to give you, you take it; if it’s an implement, technology, you can use it. And Aristotle to the Rambam was just a useful mechanism.  He supplied him with information.  But the Rambam wouldn’t sit with him.  He wouldn’t sit with him!

Now the truth is that the Rambam wouldn’t advise us even to read Aristotle’s books. He was able to read the books and pick out of them the things that seemed to him useful. And the truth is, after all is said and done, the Rambam took from Aristotle things which he thought were completely true but they weren’t.  You know, today it's a pity because we learn the Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah and everything there is perfect except for the few things that come from Greek philosophy. Today they’re meaningless.

So what the Rambam took from Torah is forever and ever.  But what the Rambam took by following the ways of Aristotle are useless today.  That’s why certain parts of Moreh Nevuchim are meaningless today.  And the Vilna Gaon, the Gra, says about the Rambam: הפילוסופיה הארורה הטתו ברוב לקחה, that the cursed philosophy deceived him.  The Gra says that; the accursed philosophy deceived the Rambam! So even when the Rambam tried to pick out the useful things, in some cases he was deceived.  

But that was the Rambam’s approach to Aristotle.  It’s like our approach, let’s say, to medicine.  If a gentile specialist tells you that this and this diet or this or this medicine is good for you, so it’s not associating with him.  It’s just like using his tape recorder.

TAPE # 4

Here's what hysteria does to you

 Chabad shulchim convention group photo before COVID hysteria:

and after COVID hysteria

In the sefer Chafetz Chaim al HaTorah [Va’eschanan] the Chafetz Chaim explains why the posuk of “vi’nishmartem meod l’nafshoseichem”, which includes the commandment to guard one’s health, uses the term of nefesh, rather than the term guf. He explains that while engaging in the process of guarding the physical health, one may not thereby trample on his spiritual health.

Erev Shabbos?! Time to prepare sweet divrei Torah for your Shabbos table

Go to parshagems.com & listen to 2-min parsha insights.

secular subjects

 Q:

Why do you oppose the study of secular subjects? Didn’t the Villa Gaon study secular subjects?

A:

I didn't mention secular subjects at all tonight. I did not mention it at all, so I'm innocent. However, on the question of secular subjects, there's no question at all that knowledge of secular subjects comes in handy. No question at all; very handy. The problem however is where to get it from; that's something else.

TAPE # 60, Rabbi Avigdor Miller

For most of population, lockdown far more deadly than COVID-19 -- arutz sheva

Artuz Sheva, Israel National News: For most of population, lockdown far more deadly than COVID-19
Given doubts by scientists about lockdown effectiveness, most moral choice is targeted protection for at-risk populations. Opinion

Mordechai Sones , 19/10/2

Coronavirus is dangerous to people over the age of 65 or to those suffering from certain background diseases. They should be more careful in their close contact with others, at least until enough people around them become infected and develop immunity naturally. This, according to an article appearing in Walla News by researchers and physicians Dr. Uri Gavish, Prof. Ariel Munitz, Prof. Moti Gerlitz, and Prof. Udi Qimron.

The good news is that if you do not belong to these risk groups and you get infected with COVID-19, chances are you will not become ill at all. Antibody tests in Israel and around the world confirm that most of the infected are not ill. Most of the time, your immune system inhibits the virus before it spreads and causes any symptoms.

If you still catch it, chances are your symptoms will be mild. The chance that you will survive, by the way, is higher than 99.9%. If you are a parent of preschoolers, you will surely be happy to know that coronavirus is far less dangerous to them than the flu. This, according to dozens of studies and hundreds of state and regional reports. This is also the official position of the American Center for Disease Control.

And it does not end there. Once you return to testing negative, you are likely to be immune to the virus. The chances that your immunity will last for at least a year are excellent and there is a good chance that it will last for a much longer time. Although tens of millions have tested COVID-19 positive in the last nine months, so far a negligible number of people have been reported to have been infected twice, with a large proportion of these reports found to be incorrect.

This is significant because epidemic outbreaks always subside when a large enough number of people develop immunity, whether naturally, following exposure to the virus, or through artificial vaccine. Every person who develops immunity becomes a part of the protective shield around the people in the high-risk groups, because the chance of an immune person being re-infected and passing the virus on is negligible. A nursing home or hospital employee, for example, who became COVID-19 infected and was discovered in time and recovered, becomes part of the protective layer of that institution.

Contrary to popular belief - due to the focus on rare cases or over-interpretations - there is currently no evidence of long-term side effects of the disease that are unusual in their severity and prevalence in non-at-risk patients, compared with those occurring in other common respiratory viruses.

This is evidenced in a letter by some 50 international experts to trade union leaders last month, stating unequivocally that there is no evidence of long-term heart damage as a result of coronavirus infection, noting that the media plays a key role in reinforcing these baseless speculations.

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https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/289428

New York Rabbi Begs For President Trump To Help Jewish Community

Watch

Gmar Kasima tova

 May Hashem bless you all with a safe and prosperous year. May whatever sins we have done to cause this mess we are in be cleansed and may we seek brighter days ahead.

boundless goodness

 

The boundless goodness of God, that is unfathomable to the limited powers of human understanding, טובו, is the prime mover and mark of all His loving actions. (The English word "God" is also derived from His goodness). Despite its fullness, it does not act blindly, but changes according to the worthiness and need of the person to whom it is given. To the faithful, it is expressed as a bounty in recognition of their worthiness, חן, to the undeserving, as mercy, חסד, and even to those who have forfeited it or could never lay claim to it, as compassion, רחמים.

God's benevolent action is not sparing with its love, but extends לכל בשר, indiscriminately to all, although in differing amounts.

R' Marcus Lehman, Passover Haggadah, p. 236

לשנה טובה

 

לשנה טובה

 תכתב ותחתם

 לאלתר

לחי'ים טובים וארוכים

 !ולשלום 

continuation in the future

 

“It is an important characteristic of God's boundless love, which allows us to conclude from the fact that He has not hitherto allowed us to suffer want, that in the future too, He will not permit us so to suffer. The narrow human attitude, While sparing with its love, is quite the reverse. The greater the benevolence we have received from our fellow-men in the past, the less right and the less expectation do we have of receiving similar benevolence in the future. Only with God's inexhaustible and patient love is the benevolence already received a guarantee of its continuation in the future. This is an aspect of God's loving rule that recurs constantly in our holy writings, and especially so in our prayers."

R' Marcus Lehman, Passover Haggadah, p. 237

love, inexhaustible, unbounded love

 

“The actual Essence of God is love, inexhaustible, unbounded love. Where both this love and the name of God are unrecognised and God therefore finds it necessary to maintain and preserve His glory from lack of recognition and waywardness, it is 'כבוד ה the glory of God which procures recognition by storm, judgement and punishment. Where God appeares in punitive form, as in the overthrow of the
Egyptians, and with devoted love, as in the liberation of His people, He reveals Himself ובעצמו בכבודו in His glory and His whole real Being. Here God appears on the one hand as the sublime, unapproachable and inviolable Holiness, who disseminates death and fear, whereas on the other hand He appears as the source of all love and blessings, all existence and hope, or expressed in other terms: as הקדוש on the one hand, and ברוך הוא the other. קדוש expresses the concept כבודי

(ונקדש בכבודי ) whereas the description of עצמו in shortened from is ברוך הוא”

R' Marcus Lehman, Passover Haggadah, pp. 131-2

The Nineteen Letters

 "The Nineteen Letters [is] a precious and marvelous work on the Jewish faith ... With this distinguished work he achieved great things; he reestablished the glory of our faith in the kehillos in Germany and taught understanding to the confused ... All his words are drawn from holy sources and sevenfold purified in the crucible of true insight and straight thinking ... .I am very pleased that this work has now been translated into our holy tongue .... and I pray to God that.. .just as this work had a great impact upon our brethren in Germany, so may its effect and splendor multiply among the Jews in our country ....I hope that many of our brethren will bring this precious book into their homes for a blessing, for the strengthening of the faith, for our sacred Torah, and the knowledge of Judaism in its holy purity." 

[Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, 1896]

Thy commandments

 "Thy commandments are the end which I love; all other things have value to me only to the extent that they serve as means to the attainment of this end." Rav Hirsch on Tehillim 119:44-48

God's love

 "As His creating word calls forth the sun, and summons the light of the world, so has God's love appointed Israel as the bearer of the light of spirit and life, and as the bearer of Torah. O that you would be mindful of such a high task! O that you would allow heart and spirit to be infused by the spirit of the Torah and allow your life, in word and deed, to be but a copy of the contents of this Torah! You would thus surrender yourself to God in love just as He summons you in love." Horeb 628

Soviet subversion model

Soviet subversion model: Demoralization (15-20 years) Destabilization (2-5 years) Crisis (2-6 months) Normalization ("indefinite")

"The main emphasis of the KGB is not in the area of intelligence at all. Only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage and such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion or active measures ... or psychological warfare."

"As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who is demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell him nothing, even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents and pictures. ...he will refuse to believe it... That's the tragedy of the situation of demoralization."

–Yuri Bezmenov [1983], former Soviet agent who defected to Canada.

Seder at KAJ in Washington Heights

they are only concerned with the [well-being of the] body

from the Sentry

Hagaon Rav Yehudah Cohen shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Yakirei Yerushalayim, recently spoke about what is transpiring in the Israeli yeshiva world, he said; “This situation of the corona has confused gevulos olam, ba’avonoseinu harabim. Only one thing is left ‘saru maher min haderech asher tziveesim asu lahem maseichah’ [maseichah in Ivrit is a mask], [the message is] if you have a mask you have everything, if not you have nothing. With this one starts in the morning modeh ani lifanecha, and with this [he says] krias shma al hamitah. This is the aseres hadibros, this is the Torah, the mitzvos, everything. 

What about limud haTorah? ‘Im lo brisi yomam va’laylah chukos shamayim va’aretz lo samti’, without Torah the world has no existence … 

I attended a meeting last week of Roshei Yeshivos in Bnei Brak, together with officials of the Ministry of Health. They said openly; the percent of infection at home is higher than anywhere else… The bocherim are begging and crying; allow us to go [to yeshiva], and they are not listening to them, [they are not permitting them] to go learn…

Rav Chaim of Volozhin writes in Nefesh HaChaim that not only is the existence of the world dependent on learning Torah, but the world’s situation is dependent on the amount and quality of Torah learning in Yisroel. Therefore, if we see that the world is full of sickness and problems, it stems from bittul Torah, for abundance [of good] comes exactly in proportion to Torah learning of the am segulah… 

This they forgot, they are only concerned with the [wellbeing of the] body… Thousands were infected with corona, and Baruch Hashem from tens of thousands of bochurei yeshiva nothing happened from the corona… On the other hand hundreds and thousands of pure souls went lost to aveiros. Who will [be able to] give judgment for this? It’s okay to take care of the body, but what about the neshamos?...

All are busy with the coronavirus, from the morning until late at night. But no one is talking about this; what about the Torah? What about the lomdei HaTorah? How can am Yisroel survive without limud HaTorah?

In Chodesh Adar when it all started, I said to myself, Ribono Shel Olam, thank you, the days of mashiach are coming. And that should have happened. But the Yetzer Harah, who is the Satan, took charge of the entire show. Everything became one issue; how to take more and more care [of the health]. What about the shuls? What about yeshivas? What about shiurim? What about yaldei Yisroel? What about them? The media people are uninterested in these matters, they don’t speak about it…”

One example of spiritual deterioration; a Sephardi bocher, a serious ben-Torah who has already completed all of shas, was forced to go home when his yeshiva closed. At home he had a wayward brother. With the extended time they were spending together, he was negatively influenced and has now gone astray as well.

And now the new “capsulot” system for the yeshivas has been announced for Elul zman. The capsule arrangement is extremely difficult, and last zman a large percent of bocherim left the system mid-zman. In the best case scenario of the new system, an estimated 20% of the bochurei hayeshivas will not have a yeshiva from the onset. 

It is interesting to note that in the capsulot yeshivas the bocherim must wear masks only when davening and learning, and not when in the dining room or dormitory. One wonders if the Ministry of Health has come to an agreement with the virus, and it has promised to stay out of the dining rooms and dormitories, and only when engaged in “dangerous” activities such as devarim shebikedushah one must take precautions. Or perhaps the intended message is; critical matters such as eating and sleeping must be tended to at all costs, however “extras” such as davening and learning can only be done if and when all precautions are taken.   

Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares (1869-1931)

A recent post by Alan Brill discusses Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares, a 19th century figure who seems like a Torah Im Derech Eretz personality in many respects. Here are some excerpts and a link to the post. Originally, from Grodno, R' Tamares studied at Volozhin. He was a very sensitive person who focused on the dignity of man and the ways of peace. At first R' Tameres joined the Zionist movement when he saw it as a possibility for liberation of Jews but became disillusioned with it when he came to see it as materialistic and violent.

Brill:

"Tameres was the emblematic image of the rabbi who would seek the leniency for the poor widow who cannot afford another chicken or who allowed an elderly Torah reader to not be corrected to save his honor."

"Rabbi Tameres attended the fourth Zionist congress in 1900 and started his slide away from political nationalist Zionism seeing it as just another form of materialist political machinations and self-justifying violence. He became a life-long pacifist preaching that the way of Torah is ethics, peace, humanism, and spiritual growth. According to Tameres, 'for us, the Jewish people, our entire distinctiveness is the Torah and Judaism; the kingdom of the spirit is our state territory.' Tameres called himself 'the sensitive person' who feels the pain of the world.'"

Some quotes from Rabbi  Tamares:

We approved the naturalistic outlook... that it throws the primary blame for war upon the class that holds power. For however much the ugly clay of war may be imbedded in the hearts of the mass of people, yet those who busy themselves with this nice material, moistening and shaping it for their goal and bringing it to completion—these are surely “the ruling classes.”

Regarding Zionism: 

From that point on the children of Israel became “political,” and the Torah became merely a kind of constitution, similar to those constitutions from “cultured nations” that we today know all too well: on paper, drafted and signed, but in practice, the complete opposite. Corruption begets corruption. The corruption of the ethical sense, which followed in the wake of the invasion from without by the spirit of “political nationalism,” soon brought them to request that a king be set over them also, “like all the nations surrounding them.

The Jews remember always that their God is the God of Truth and Justice who shattered the yokes of their oppressors. They must plant deep in their hearts absolute faith in the power of Truth and Justice to triumph finally…this idea, when firmly rooted in their hearts, will itself serve to defend them from all violent and lying persecutors.

Every single human being on the face of this earth was created and endowed by the Lord with the capacity to look after his own life….and to worry about death and perishing; each was created for his own sake. The breath which the Lord breathed into the nostrils of Rueben is for the sake of Rueben. It is for him to live and exist and not be a bloody sacrifice for the sake of someone else.

The culture of creation in the Book of Genesis: Life, tangible life, the life of the blood and the spirit, this is the need which must first be sought. The life and secure existence of the individual: these are the basis of life on this earth; from them all comes, and in them all is included!

This is the implication of “I am the Eternal” that concludes the mandate, “You must love your neighbor as [you love] yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Look toward the Eternal, toward the Source of all existence, the First Cause, and you become aware that you and your neighbor are equal in God’s eyes; that insight validates the commandment. The power of Torah to incline human beings toward the good derives from its putting us directly in touch with the Creator of all, the Source of goodness and generosity, thus rekindling the spark of our Divine awareness.

Even a cursory examination of the singular purpose our nation is destined to fill, namely, the purpose of spreading Torah, can cause the hypnotic power of nationalism to dissipate, and we can gaze without fear into the eyes of the nations who are so proud of their territories and monarchies.” Since National Territories have been the cause of mass slaughter, a crucial mission of Jews in the world is to prove, by example that a people can survive and thrive without a National Territory. There is an alternative to survival by the sword.

The Jew will always seek to return to Israel and live there; Israel is vital and extant in his memory and in his very veins, it is this Israel which he has preserved in his memory at all times, it is this Israel that he yearns to see with his eyes…. Between this ancient Zionist yearning and the new Zionist yearning lies a chasm of difference, both in theory and in practice, both in the reason for this yearning and in its goals.
The political Zionists yearn for a land upon which our nation shall be “a nation like all other nations”—whereas our people yearn for a land upon which our distinctiveness from all other nations shall be further emphasized…The new Zionism hopes to revive in Zion what ostensibly died in exile: Namely, they wish to create in this Jewish homeland and in the heart of Jews, this coarse feeling of sovereignty, of which they had been divested in exile.

The blog post shares an interview with Everett Gendler, a translator of R' Tamares' writings and a pacifist himself, who explained R' Tamares' encounter with Zionism as follows:

"Later, at age 31, Tamares attended the fourth Zionist Congress in London in 1900 as a delegate. He was appalled to find what he saw not so much as a movement to liberate people but a movement to liberate territory. After a year of silently absorbing this discovery, he found the courage to denounce Zionism publicly because he saw that its goal was to be another European Nationalist Movement, rather than follow the Jewish mission of Torah and ethics. This independence of spirit and his fresh outlook you find throughout his writings."

Full post here:

https://kavvanah.blog/2020/07/26/interview-rabbi-everett-gendlers-translation-of-rabbi-aaron-samuel-tamares/

not in sorrow and sadness

"It is not in sorrow and sadness, not in self-castigation and torture that Judaism reaches its highest level; it's holiest goal is serenity, gladness, and joy." Rav SR Hirsch JE1, "Shevat," p. 39.

Hirsch Part 2; The Ideas

Hirsch Part 2; The Ideas by breuers2gether

Rav Hirsch. The Question

Rav Hirsch. The Question

a presentation by Breuers2gether

Leading epidemiologist Dr. John Ioannidis of Stanford University

https://usa.greekreporter.com/2020/06/27/up-to-300-million-people-may-be-infected-by-covid-19-stanford-guru-john-ioannidis-says/

Dr. Ioannidis: This is still a major challenge. COVID-19 has become a notifiable disease so it is readily recorded in death certificates. What we do know, however, is that the vast majority of people who die with a COVID-19 label have at least one and typically many other comorbidities. This means that often they have other reasons that would lead them to death. The relative contribution of COVID-19 needs very careful audit and evaluation of medical records.

...

 In terms of numbers of lives lost, so far the COVID-19 impact is about 1% of the 1918 influenza. In terms of quality-adjusted person-years lost, the impact of COVID-19 is about 0.1% of 1918 influenza, since the 1918 influenza killed mostly young healthy people (average age 28), while the average age of death with COVID-19 is 80 years, with several comorbidities.

...

The predictions of most mathematical models in terms of how many beds and how many ICU beds would be required were astronomically wrong. Indeed, the health system was not overrun in any location in the USA, although several hospitals were stressed. Conversely, the health care system was severely damaged in many places because of the measures taken.

Leading epidemiologist Dr. John Ioannidis of Stanford University

Turns out the best medicine is the body that Hashem made

"Firstly, it was wrong to claim that this virus was novel. Secondly, It was even more wrong to claim that the population would not already have some immunity against this virus. Thirdly, it was the crowning of stupidity to claim that someone could have Covid-19 without any symptoms at all or even to pass the disease along without showing any symptoms whatsoever."

"The term “silent carriers” was conjured out of a hat and it was claimed that one could be sick without having symptoms. Wouldn’t that be something! If this principle from now on gets naturalised into the realm of medicine, health insurers would really have a problem, but also teachers whose students could now claim to have whatever disease to skip school, if at the end of the day one didn’t need symptoms anymore to be sick."

"Those young and healthy people who currently walk around with a mask on their faces would be better off wearing a helmet instead, because the risk of something falling on their head is greater than that of getting a serious case of Covid-19."

Beda M Stadler is the former director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Bern, a biologist and professor emeritus.

Today the University of Bern is one of the top 150 universities in the world. In the QS World University Rankings 2019 it ranked 139th. The Shanghai Ranking (ARWU) 2018 ranked the University of Bern in the range 101st–150th in the world.[34] In the Leiden Ranking 2015 it ranked 122nd in the world and 50th in Europe. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings it ranked 110th in 2018/2019 and 2016/2017 (and 82nd in Clinical, pre-clinical & health 2017.

https://medium.com/@vernunftundrichtigkeit/coronavirus-why-everyone-was-wrong-fce6db5ba809

Talmud Beitzah 25b

It is taught in a baraita in the name of Rabbi Meir: For what reason was the Torah given to the Jewish people? It is because they are impudent, and Torah study will weaken and humble them. A Sage of the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught the following with regard to the verse: “From His right hand went a fiery law for them” (Deuteronomy 33:2); The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Based on their nature and character, these people, the Jews, are fit to be given a fiery law, a hard and scorching faith. Some say a different version of this baraita: The ways and nature of these people, the Jews, are like fire, as, were it not for the fact that the Torah was given to the Jewish people, whose study and observance restrains them, no nation or tongue could withstand them.

What's the basis?

I saw this:

1. Tetanus-not contagious 2. Hpv-transmitted through sex 3. Hep B-transmitted through sex & drugs 4. Diphtheria-0 cases in the US 5. Measles* 6. Mumps* 7. Rubella* 8. Chickenpox* * Historically a minor childhood disease in healthy children.

What’s the basis for mandating these?

Note: Mumps might be an exception because if developed in adolescence can cause sterility.