Monday, June 29, 2020

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.
馃懚

What’s the basis for mandating these?

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



Helping another student

In a yeshiva in Bnei Brak the members of the hanhola were frustrated with the resistance of advanced talmidim who were asked to learn and help the newer talmidim but declined, claiming it was 'Bitul Torah'. The members of the yeshiva‎ ‎administration went to ask the Chazon Ish for advice. The Chazon Ish, zt'l asked to speak to them. He then asked them, "Do you put on tefilin every day"? They enthusiastically responded "Of course we do"!

Then the Chazon Ish continued "But why? Doesn't it take away time from learning"? You put on teffilin because it is a Torah mitzvah, so the Chazon Ish continued "Helping another student in his learning is no less of a mitzvah than putting on teffilin"


Sunday, June 28, 2020

3 Oaths - Not Aggadata

There's a myth going round town that very few gadolim viewed the Three Oaths which prohibited immigration en masse and conquest of Eretz Yisroel pre-Mosiach as binding halacha. Many people think that only the Satmar Rav said this, as if that wouldn't be substantial in itself. 

However, even according to leading figures at YU, many if not most gadolim viewed the oaths as halacha.

Rabbi J. David Bleich, a Rosh Yeshiva and prominent scholar at Yeshiva University, writes, 


“Elsewhere in Contemporary Halakhic Problems, Vol. I, I have presented a fairly comprehensive list of the various views concerning the nature of the oath, ‘shelo ya’alu be-chomah.’ The view that ‘the oath was simply aggadic and never binding’ is but one view among many and is distinctly a minority view.”  

Rabbi J. David Bleich, “Withdrawal from Liberated Territories as a Viable Halakhic Option,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, Vol. XVIII, Succot 5750, Fall 1989, p. 107.




Rabbi Hershel Schachter, another prominent figure in the Religious Zionist world, writes, 


“In expounding the verse ‘I have made you swear, O daughter of Jerusalem,’ the Gemara relates that the Almighty administered three oaths on the Jewish people. The time and nature of these oaths are not clear, but one of them entailed a commitment on the part of the Jews not to return and conquer Israel by force. Many Gedolim in Europe took this to forbid any attempt at reestablishing the State of Israel before Messianic times.” 

(Rabbi Hershel Schachter, “The Mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, Number VIII, p. 27.)




Rabbis Bleich and Schachter are arguably the most prominent scholars associated with YU and the Modern Orthodox world. 




Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Rabbi Yaakov Forchheimer shlita

Watch

Rabbi Yaakov Forchheimer, posek at the Lakewood Yeshiva, is a Yekke who was raised in Washington Heights.


Thursday, June 18, 2020

Did Vaccines Eradicate Diseases in the 20th Century?

By
Speed The Shift

Look at this chart. Makes it seem as if a vaccine eradicated measles.


But let's look at the longer history. Measles was on a rapid decline before the vaccine.


"The vaccine.gov article also states that the measles vaccine was licensed in 1962 and that’s when measles started to decline. What the article fails to mention is that the 1963 version of the measles vaccine was a failure which actually produced a deadlier form of the measles known as atypical measles. It wasn’t until 1968 that a second version of the vaccine was introduced, and by that time, measles mortality rates had dropped by 98%, making it a benign childhood disease."



Monday, June 15, 2020

as if he worshipped idols

"The answer to this is quite simple, but first we must remember the words of the Rif (Rabbi Yoshiahu Pinto, quoted above in Siman 1), in his commentary on Ein Yaakov, that the Sages only said "whoever lives outside of Eretz Yisroel is as if he worshipped idols" when the person leaves Eretz Yisroel of his own volition." (v'Yoel Moshe, Simon 4)

"...in Shmuel I 26 Rashi says, "One who goes out from Eretz Yisroel in Temple times is as if he worshipped idols." So he says explicitly that this was only true in Temple times. Although in some printings the words "in Temple times" do not appear, still we see that Rashi there quotes the Targum Yonasan: "David went among the nations who worship idols," so we see that the reason why someone who goes out of Eretz Yisroel is as if he worshipped idols is because he goes among the nations who worship idols." (v'Yoel Moshe, Simon 5)


Sunday, June 14, 2020

Book Recommendation

The Dynamics of Dispute: The Makings of Machlokess in Talmudic Times

by Zvi Lampel


Why do sages disagree if we all have one tradition? How could laws be forgotten? This book address that question and many others concerning the dynamics and history of the Talmud. It's a challenging book, lamdish. It can be a tremendous aid in Talmud study.

Monday, June 8, 2020

Parshas Vayechi - Linked davar Torah from Torah.org

Managing Jewish Pride1
Into their councils my will may never enter; with their gatherings my honor may not be identified…Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath for it is harsh. I will separate them within Yaakov, and I will disperse them in Yisrael.
Yaakov’s blessing of his sons amounts to the first major testament to the future Jewish nation. We should expect some surprises.
Ruvain was passed over for leadership because he displayed too little self-confidence and assertiveness. Shimon and Levi, in turn, forfeit the mantle of leadership for showing too much.
Yaakov curses their anger. Yet, at the same time he hits that their anger is not in and of itself a curse but a blessing.

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Before and After


The Western World before the 1960s:

"That is why the Jew rejoices whenever and wherever culture elevates people to a perception of true values and to nurture goodness."  Hirsch on Genesis 3:24

The Western World after the 1960s:

"But of course where culture and civilisation are used in the service of sensuality the degeneration only gets all the greater."  Hirsch on Genesis 3:24

Monday, June 1, 2020

转驻讬诇讛

谞讗 诇讛专讘讜转 讘转驻讬诇讛 注讘讜专
讛专讘 讘谞讬诪讬谉 砖诇诪讛 讘谉 讞讜讛 讘转讜砖讞"讬

Vaxopedia: The CDC and Patents

https://vaxopedia.org/2018/05/19/does-the-cdc-own-any-patents-on-vaccines/






Does the CDC Own Any Patents on Vaccines?


Have you heard the CDC owns patents on vaccines?
“The CDC is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry. The agency owns more than 20 vaccine patents and purchases and sells $4.1 billion in vaccines annually. Congressman Dave Weldon has pointed out that the primary metric for success across the CDC is how many vaccines the agency sells and how successfully the agency expands its vaccine program—regardless of any negative effects on human health.”
Robert F Kennedy, Jr
Wait, the CDC sells vaccines?
To who?

Myths About the CDC Selling Vaccines

The CDC doesn’t sell vaccines. That’s not their mission.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety, and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities to do the same.”
CDC Mission, Role and Pledge
They do buy vaccines. A lot of vaccines.
In 2017, the CDC immunization program spent just over $4.8 billion dollars, including $4.1 billion on the Vaccines for Children program.
“…from March through December 2016, over 13,000 doses of meningococcal conjugate vaccine, purchased using CDC funding, were used to respond to a deadly outbreak of meningitis in Southern California.”
Department Of Health And Human Services Fiscal Year 2018
Did they sell all of those vaccines?
If they did, then they wouldn’t have to request money from Congress each year to buy more vaccines, now would they?
“CDC buys vaccines at a discount and distributes them to grantees—i.e., state health departments and certain local and territorial public health agencies—which in turn distribute them at no charge to those private physicians’ offices and public health clinics registered as VFC providers.”
The VFC Program: At a Glance
Instead, the vaccines that the CDC buys, at big discounts, since they are buying so many, are offered free to those kids who can’t afford vaccines in the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program and through Section 317 grants.

What About the CDC Vaccine Patents?

Is Kennedy right about the CDC vaccine patents?