akuperma

If the aliens are animals, they would have to meet the same requirements as regular earthly animals, and we would also need a tradition that they were kosher (this would probably require a navi, so don’t hold your breath). If an alien were sentient, the question (addressed in science fiction) is whether they could become a ger. If a plant, it would probably be kosher – but consider what if the plant were sentient and wanted to convert. The probability is that any alien food source would be toxic for humans, or at least would be inedible due to a different chemical composition.

If a person was in an area controlled by the Third Reich, they qualify as a “Holocaust survivor”. The same would apply to anyone who escaped. It probably doesn’t count if you were in an area controlled by a German ally, but who did not cooperate with the Germans in killing Jews (e.g. Finland and Japan). Whether you should count those who “almost” ended up under Nazi control but escaped because the Germans lost the war (e.g. British Jews – who were one battle away from doom in 1940, but the British won that battle). Then you can ask about Jews who were living in Eretz Yisrael (remember the Germans controlled Lebanon and Syria, and were probably one battle away from taking Egypt) or even America (the Gestapo was already checking for where to put concentration camps, and at one point the US was working on plans for moving the government further away from the coast). Given the global nature of World War II one can argue that we are all descended from “Holocaust survivors”.

Israel has to be concerned that Iran will be helped by their buddies in Russia and China, and their fellow Muslims (who have nukes) in Pakistan. The pro-Trump MAGA faction is making a point of accusing their neo-con opponents within the Republican party of being warmongers. Trump has alienated almost all of America’s allies, so if the US gets into a war over Iran it can expect no half from allies, including access to foreign bases. The Israelis need to weigh the risk of going to war against many new and powerful countries, versus the risk of doing nothing.

To make the seder great again, go back to the original text of the Mah Nishtanah (found in the Mishna), and remember to bring a korban. If you can’t do it correctly, then the seder will most certainly be not great, but merely a shadow of what was and will be again.

Since it is for the judges to say what the law is (as opposed to the Congress which makes law, and the Executive which carries them out), Trump can always appeal the decision to a higher court. These decisions are by District Court judges, and can be appealed to the Courts of Appeal and then the Supreme Court. Trump could also ask the Congress to change the law, though since he didn’t do all that well in the election he would need the support of at least some Democrats. Congress funds agencies, and the president spends the money – if Trump doesn’t like that he can ask the Congress to cancel the appropriation. Being accused of a crime is not grounds for deportation. If convicted, it is a routine matter for a court to issue a deportation order, which the executive is required to carry out (unless the president chooses to pardon the individual).

Trump could try to stage a putsch, assuming the military would support him (which isn’t likely). The last putsch in America was in the 1780s, over unpaid officers in the Continental Army, which General (at the time) George Washington put down by explaining that in America soldiers obey the civilians. There was a military coup supporting a political faction in England (which are the time included New England, and most of the mid-Atlantic states down to the Carolinas) in the mid-17th century, but that backfired and within a few years the entire government was forced to flee. Given the Trump barely won the last election against one of the worst possible candidates in history, and managed to lose seats in the House, it is unlikely that an attempt by Trump to abolish the Constitution and appoint himself Dictator would be successful.

The judge is “rogue” – he’s a Democrat, and if the Republicans did better in Congressional elections most of them wouldn’t be on the bench, but Trump badly messed in the elections in 2018 onwards by supporting unelectable candidates, which is why Joe Biden could appoint left wing ideologues to the judiciary.

Just open another window in the same browser. Log in to YWN. Then go back to your original YWN window and post away.

Facebook asked if I wanted to repost what I wrote on Jan. 20, 2017. I said then that “Trump has been president for almost an hour and so far, NO apocalypse. I guess those predictions were more examples of fake news from the left-leaning establishment media.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Trump has a minimal majority in the House, and barely one in the Senate., and will probably lose both in 2026. It may a major point in American history, or only a trivia contest question about non-consecutive terms. The only difference from eight years ago is that the Progressive (WOKE) wing of the Democrats is shattered and by 2028 the Democrats may be sane again (bad news for the Republicans), while it isn’t clear if the “RINOs” (basically Reagan/Tea Party Republicans) will stick with Trump. Decisive factors may be some of Trump’s foreign policies relating to allies such as NATO, and East Asian democracies, inflation, and whether to expel employed non-criminal aliens.

Don’t worry. As long as a majority of the politicians, judges and generals are persons of Jewish descent who reject Torah and Mitsvos, and who assert (and even sing about it the national anthem) that the goal of zionism is to free Jews from the yoke of Torah – no one would see the war as being a Milhemes Mitsvah. At some point, based on current demographic trends, Eretz Yisrael might have a government in which most of the leadership (of the government, the legal system and even the military) will be Bnei Torah, and the upper class hilonim will be fleeing since they don’t want to live in Jewish state – then the question will get interesting.

Calendars usually choose an arbitrary date. The Romans often used the date of the mythological founding of Rome. For a while the French used the date of their revolution, and America uses the data of independence (on official texts of laws). Many countries until recently used the date of the current monarch coming to the throne. For a while, we often used the date that Alexander is believed to have conquered Eretz Yisrael. The year used in most western countries is a mythological date, and using BCE/CE is a way to make it less insulting for non-Christians. The Talmud clearly allows using non-Jewish dates on documents, so at least they shouldn’t insult us by trying to make every date into a religious statement.

Almost all children are vaccinated, and once anyone gets polio in a community, all the unvaccinated get vaccinated. Vaccines work for life, and the effects of having polio are very visible and obvious. It won’t become a major problem.

There is a problem since some of the mistruths or half-truths the government public health officials spread during Covid (e.g. that Covid was a major threat to children so that schools needed to close, and those who got the Covid vaccine would have no side effects and wouldn’t have to worry about testing positive for Covid ever again) made people question the well established (and safe) vaccines such as the polio one which has been around for 70 years. I would suggest the blame falls more on the civil service (“deep state”) people in the health departments rather than President Biden, since no one ever took Biden seriously to begin with.

The Syrians of today are largely Arabs with a big mixture of Greeks and Romans. They aren’t the ones referred to in Taanach, and more than American Jews are American Indians.

The alternative to a two state solution is for Israel to cease being a democratic state (either by killing the Palestinians or not allowing a large part of them to vote). Either would alienate public opinion in the United States. validate the WOKE anti-Semitism, and probably lead to US-supported sanctions against the zionists. Also note that in a single state solution, only complete unity of Jewish voters (i.e. a coalition of everything from the Haredi parties through what’s left of MAPAM and MAKI, including the openly anti-religious parties) would allow for Jewish control of Eretz Yisrael.

The difference between parties as most of the Democrats oppose the idea of a Jewish state, and are willing to support groups such as Hamas knowing their plan is also a “single state solution” (to be implemented “from the river to the sea” by killing all the Jews in Eretz Yisrael).

Due those rules apply to all the officers, or is it similar to European colonial units or the American “colored” units in which the group deemed inferior are the “grunts” commanded by their better.

The further back you go, the more gedolim appear to us as Charedim. The same holds true for most Baal ha-Battim. To a certain extent 21st century Hareidim often act like reinactors (i.e. they are really much modern than they seem, but act old fashioned as an ideological statement – note use of modern medicine, modern engineered fabrics, modern transportation, modern printing). Contrast this with some goyim who for example, refuse modern drugs, only wear natural fabrics (made from plants or animals rather than from petroleum, don’t use automobiles, insist on using scrolls, etc.).

No one was “modern” before “modern” times, almost by definition (e.g. Rashi never had a smartphone, Moshe Rabeinu never browsed the internet, the Maccabees never used rifles, no one before the mid-20th century used antibiotics or frozen foods, etc.). To a 21st century person, all the Gedolim prior to modern times appear to be Hareidi.

It was perfectly legal to trick the Democrats into replacing Biden with Harris, knowing that as WOKE Progressive Harris would never break with the ridiculous policies that were destroying the Democrats (something that Biden, an experienced if slightly senile politician might have done). Only a fool would run for office on a platform that including putting men on women’s teams and in women’s shower rooms, admitting unemployable wannabee immigrants and cutting benefits to citizens to subsidize them, allowing open anti-Semites who advocate genocide of Jews to have any role in the Democratic Party, trying to ban people’s preferred automobiles and kitchen appliances, handing out jobs on the basis of gender and ethnicity rather than ability to do the job, etc.). The Democrats needed a “Sister Solija” moment to dumb this baggage, the Trump supporters made sure they wouldn’t pull it off. Brilliant politicking by the MAGA faction.

A mentally ill politician with no respect for rule of law – we are only stuck with him until Jan. 20.

Then we get a sane populist celebrity non-politician, also with minimal respect for rule of law. Perhaps disrespect for rule of law is infectious.

While I would have preferred a fiscally responsible, law abiding conservative – it is a bit arrogant to ignore the fact that bulk of the people in the country are not elite well educated members of the bourgeoisie, and since America is a democracy, it is possible, as just happened, for the proletariat to a candidate who reflects their values and world view.

Define “Jewish” and “vote”? Do you consider assimilated Jews (e.g. people such as Doug Emhoff, and those like him) to be Jews? If so, most will probably vote for Ms. Harris. Polls that rely on self-identification usually count such people as Jews (the Israelis for immigration purposes, not to mention the Nazis for knowing who to murder, also did so), and therefore find most Jews supporting the Democrats.

If you limit predictions to frum Jews, and especially those who live in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods, they have been supporting Republicans for some time on the national level, and considering that Harris is the most openly anti-Jewish candidate to run in modern times and perhaps ever, one doubts that will change.

Should women be subject to laws passed by men? Should women be subject to taxes?

A good (if undemocratic) argument could be made that uneducated women as well as uneducated men should not be allowed to vote, but that argument fell apart in many countries since they were unwilling to deny voting rights to uneducated (and therefore, usually poor) males. Note that at present, women tend to be better educated than men (a political issue in America, since the Democrats favor affirmative action for women when statistics show that if anything it should favor males).

In dealing with people who support genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and rape – we should follow the Anglo-American precedents that proved highly effective in the 1940s. One technique is best exemplified by the bombings such as those of Hamburg and Tokyo, Dresden and Hiroshima (the latter more than anything else convinced the Japanese they were not racially superior and destined to enslave their neighbors). Another technique used widely in Europe involved “hanging” (not necessarily the humane form the Brits favored), and of course we should remember the “blind eye” that many Allied commanders turned when the soldiers executed those who had been involved in running concentrating camps.

The reality the “liberals” among feel to realize is that you can’t argue with a racist bent on killing you. Debate doesn’t work on such people.

ujm (re: shidduchim), if someone is considering a shiduch and they don’t have a clear idea of their ancestry back to the point when their ancestors were frum, they will probably be considered a safek Jew, and asked to convert. This does cause a minor problem if the person is a male Kohen or a male Levi, and especially if the person is a female marrying a Kohen. Of course if the person is unable to be certain if any of their Jewish ancestors had kosher marriages before being totally OTD, and then a civil divorce, being a safek Jew as well as a safek Mamzer is resolved by conversion (cf: issues raised with remote communities whose marriages were kosher and whose divorces were not). NOTE that if some who is already Shomer Mitsvos, and discovers they may not be Jewish, wishes to convert, it isn’t a big problem since they already have the Jewish education and Torah lifestyle requried.

Whether doing Kiruv, or running a yeshiva aimed at Baalei Tseuvah, one has to be prepared for the possibility that someone raised in a non-frum background is not Jewish, or at least, there is no way of determining if they are Jewish. One should note that in the case of Baalei Tseuvah who are already doing mitsvos, and then discovers they may, or perhaps definitely, are not Jews, conversion is greatly simplified by the fact they are already adopting a Jewish lifestyle. At this point, anyone who is of German descent (i.e. from the 1848 waive of immigration) or Sefardi (from those fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries), whose family has not remained at least nominally Orthodox, probably is a safek goy, and this will soon be the case, if it isn’t already, of the waive of East European Ashkenazim who came in the late 19th and early 20th century.

On the bright side, during the first generation or two of going “off the derekh” people often had arguably valid marriages but rarely bother with a “get” when they got divorced – but if it turns out they are goyim that solves the problem (since it is lot easier to convert that to deal with mamzerus).

There is a view that it is prohibited from trying to convince goyim to convert, but it isn’t clear how that appears to non-Jews of Jewish descent. It needs to be remembered that until recently, it was a capital offense for a goy to become a ger, so any Jews openly encouraging goyim to convert would be executed.

They are both “good” or “bad” for the Jews, but in different ways.

Harris’s close alliance and past association with the Progressive (WOKE) wing of her party is very threatening since they are active anti-Semites.

Trump’s willingness to accept support from far night the anti-Semitic activists is probably less threatening, since the right-wing anti-Semites have minimal support whereas the left-wing anti-Semites are a large movement and probably control the Democratic Party.

MAGA’s isolationism is threatening to Israel (and the world) but is not based on anti-Semitism, whereas the Progressive position is that Israel (and Jews who support Israel, and all non-assimilated Jews are presumed to be zionists) is evil and should be destroyed (and they act on this belief by attacking Jews in America and around the world).

When Biden (a few years younger than me) was growing up, many people still remembered World War I (and World War II was something of a continuation and a rematch). The situation today globally is very similar to that of the early summer of 1914, and Biden wants to keep a lid on the situation including the war in the Middle East, Ukraine and the potential conflicts in East Asia. He needs Israel to win enough so they don’t decide they have had all they can take and start throwing around weapons of mass destruction, and while Israel could wipe out the Palestinians and cripple the Muslim world, the backlash would probably set off the “powderkeg” that is set to explode globally (and unlike 1914, many countries have weapons of mass destruction or can get them quickly).

My suggestion would be to study “Journalism” as it was taught in journalism schools in the pre-WOKE era, involving reporting, fact checking, political neutrality, objectivity, etc. We really don’t need an online version of the Jewish Press, or a Jewish version of the New York Times as it is in the 21st century, but a new source similar to what mainstream newspapers were 50+ years ago would be nice.