RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/hanukkahs-universal-message-don-feder/

Hanukkah is supposed to be a minor Jewish holiday that comes in the early winter  – a way for Jewish kids to feel better about not having Christmas.

In fact, of all Jewish holidays, it may have the most universal appeal and be the most relevant to the war on religion raging in our culture.

According to the Book of Maccabees, when his army occupied the Land of Israel in the 2nd century BCE, the Syrian King Antiochus IV outlawed Judaism in an attempt to force everyone in his empire to adopt Greek culture and religion. Performing Jewish rituals (including Torah study and circumcision) were punishable by death.

Statues of Greek gods were set up in the Holy Temple and swine sacrificed on the altar. An elderly priest named Mattathias started the revolt by killing a Syrian official and a Jewish Hellenizer and fleeing into the Judean wilderness shouting, “Whoever is for God, follow me!”

When Mattathias died, his five sons carried on the revolt, defeating the Syrian army in a guerrilla war. In 165 BCE, they liberated Jerusalem and cleansed and rededicated the Temple. The miracle of Hanukkah, commemorated by the menorah, involved the candelabrum in the Temple burning for 8 days with enough oil for one.

Historical context.  Chanukah, the holiday of light, is narrated in the four Books of the Maccabees, The Scroll of Antiochus and The Wars of the Jews. The Greek Empire was split into Greece-Seleucid/Syria-Ptolemaic/Egypt following the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE), who held Judaism in high esteem. In 175 BCE, the Seleucid/Syrian Emperor Antiochus (IV) Epiphanies claimed the Land of Israel, and suspected that the Jews were allies of his Ptolemaic/Egyptian enemy.  Therefore, he aimed to exterminate Judaism and convert Jews to Hellenism. In 169 BCE he devastated Jerusalem, massacred Jews and prohibited the practice of Judaism.

A 166/7 BCE rebellion was led by members of the Hasmonean (Maccabee) family, which included Mattityahu, the priest, and his five sons, Yochanan, Judah, Shimon, Yonatan and Eleazar, who established Jewish independence until 37 BCE.

The success of the Maccabees on the battlefield was consistent with the reputation of Jews as superb warriors, who were frequently hired as mercenaries by Egypt, Syria, Rome and other global and regional powers.

When ordered by Emperor Antiochus (Book of Maccabees A: 15:33) to end the “occupation” of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza, Gezer and Akron, Shimon the Maccabee responded: “We have not occupied a foreign land…. We have liberated the land of our forefathers from foreign occupation.”

Chanukah according to David Ben Gurion, Israel’s Founding Father and first Prime Minister, a modern-day Maccabee: “The struggle of the Maccabees was one of the most dramatic clashes of civilizations in human history, not merely a political-military struggle against foreign oppression…. Unlike many peoples, the meager Jewish people did not assimilate.  The Jewish people prevailed, won, sustained and enhanced their independence and unique civilization…. It was the spirit of the people, rather than the failed spirit of the establishment, which enabled the Hasmoneans to overcome one of the most magnificent spiritual, political and military challenges in Jewish history….” (Uniqueness and Destiny, pp 20-22, David Ben Gurion, IDF Publishing, 1953).

The words “alleged” and “unfounded” are now rote every time evidence of election tampering is discussed. Really?

Can one honestly surmise that witnesses- hundreds of them who were present at polling sites- who described actual election fraud are liars willing to risk penalty for perjury?

Such credence was given to those who offered hearsay evidence of Trump collusion with Ukraine and Russia but the media and biased judges dismiss all affidavits given by outraged Americans.

Read Roger Kimball’s essay reprinted today.

Appalling….rsk

https://amgreatness.com/2020/11/04/save-our-democracy/

I have said all along that I thought President Trump would win reelection. The question was whether he would win by a big enough margin to insulate himself from the machinations of fraud, on the one hand, and litigation, on the other. 

I believe that Donald Trump did win the election last night. By my count he had chalked up well over the requisite 270 electoral votes necessary to win reelection. That was a little past midnight. I repaired to the arms of Morpheus confident that November 4 would ratify what was essentially a fait d’accompli on the evening of November 3. 

No such luck. No sooner had my head hit the pillow than the Democrats in the urban centers of states where Trump was leading—in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Milwaukee—stopped counting the votes. Why would they do this? Because they wanted to stanch the flow of votes going to Trump and buy themselves time to determine how many votes they would need to win. Finding the votes later on is never a problem. That’s what we pay corrupt party apparatchiks to do. It seemed novel in 1960 when Richard Daley went to Cook Country to secure the election for JFK.  When I went to bed last night, President Trump was comfortably ahead in Wisconsin. Close your eyes: poof: 100,000 ballots suddenly appear in Wisconsin with Joe Biden’s name on them. Stand by for similar feats of magic.

Although common, this outrageous practice is a direct assault on our democracy. Trump presumably will fight it in court. But I think he should take a page from his own playbook and hold rallies in those and maybe other hot spots (Phoenix comes to mind) over the next couple of days. Bring the fight to the people and, just as important, bring the people to the fight. 

The Democrats are not sitting idly by, they are busy “harvesting” votes. Donald Trump needs to mobilize the public with a series of high-profile “Save Our Democracy” rallies. He was performing at 3, 4, or 5 rallies a day for the last couple weeks of the campaign. He should take the show back on the road one last time. If the Democrats complain that the campaign is over he can rebaptize the events as “peaceful protests.” That’s what Antifa and BLM do when they take to the streets. The contrast with the threatened scenes of mayhem, arson, and looting by the Left will afford a useful visual. As many people have observed, Trump’s followers wave American flags. Democratic supporters prefer to burn them. 

I suspect that such Save Our Democracy rallies would attract tens of thousands of people, just as Trump’s campaign rallies did these past weeks. There is no way that Sleepy Joe Biden could compete with them. Not only would they dramatize the extent and enthusiasm of Trump’s support, they would also serve as a salutary reminder that Trump, unlike so many Republican politicians, is willing to fight to assure a free, open, and fair election. They would have the additional attraction of driving the Left even more beyond the pale than than they already are. It’s not nice to take pleasure in the sufferings of others, but I am willing to make an exception in the case of the anguish such rallies would cause among the people who have spent the last four years trying to destroy the president and anyone who came into his orbit. 

Save Our Democracy! It has a ring to it. I hope team Trump will consider organizing a bunch of them now, today.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2020/10/20/the-toobin-zoom-is-even-worse-than-we-thought-heres-what-they-were-talking-about-n1071724

Jeffry Toobin, a CNN contributor and writer at The New Yorker, got caught tickling his pickle on a work Zoom call. This wasn’t a situation where he thought he had hung up but hadn’t. Oh no. Toobin was purposefully masturbating during a work call.

He claims he thought he had “muted the video” but left it on “accidentally.” But that’s not believable, because when turning the camera off on Zoom, there is an avatar where the video used to be. How does he expect us to believe he did not check this before deciding to whip out wee Willie? And worse, why is that a good excuse for flogging the dolphin during a work call? Do we need congressional intervention to tell us that being an Army of One on a Zoom call is the wrong thing to do? Do we need a new criminal code for 2020 specifying that hoisting your own petard while attending a conference call is offensive to others? It’s sad that humans can’t just self-police.

Toobin is rabidly anti-Trump as any famous journalist must be. He’s also already well-known for running afoul of the #MeToo crowd when Patty Hearst blasted him for sensationalizing her rape in his book American Heiress in 2018. Fox canceled plans for a movie based on the book after Hearst got through with Toobin.

https://babylonbee.com/news/portland-erects-statue-in-honor-of-antifa-rioters-who-tore-down-all-the-statues

PORTLAND, OR—In a powerful and stunning move, the city of Portland has decided to memorialize its bravest heroes and their courageous acts of toppling racist statues. The city has now erected a statue of these statue-toppling Antifa rioters to forever commemorate them for their efforts.

“Even when they knew they could do whatever they wanted without repercussions, and with the full support of the media, these brave freedom fighters decided to tear down statues anyway!” said Mayor Ted Wheeler holding back tears at the statue’s unveiling. “It is my great privilege to honor these gender non-conforming persons with this taxpayer-funded statue.”

One of the Antifa heroes, who was wearing a black leather jacket replete with anarchist symbols and wielding a crowbar, stopped by to give a comment. “It’s time we rise up against racists like Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt! With every window we break, business we burn, and statue we topple, we stand against fascism and grow one step closer to ending oppression!”

https://www.jns.org/how-the-armenian-azerbaijani-conflict-could-impact-israels-regio

Over the last several weeks, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in an escalating conflict centered around a decades-long dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory but has illegally occupied by Armenia since their first war ended in 1994.

While this conflict seemingly revolves around a dispute between two small Caucasus countries, it has larger regional and even global implications.

While the conflict in the Caucasus does not directly threaten Israel, its long-standing close ties with Azerbaijan and fledgling relations with Armenia—coupled with the larger geopolitical landscape of the region involving heavyweights Turkey, Russia and Iran—put the Jewish state on high alert for developments.

“Israel and Azerbaijan maintain a strategic alliance. It is not just about arms sales or oil, but a very deep strategic cooperation,” Brenda Shaffer, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, told JNS.

“Azerbaijan’s long-term open friendship with Israel has helped other Muslim-majority states establish open cooperation with Israel and even contributed to the current blossoming of ties between Israel and several Muslim-majority states, like the UAE.”

She said that “Azerbaijan, despite bordering Iran, was not afraid to openly cooperate with Israel over the years. This showed other Muslim majority states that they can, without worrying about repercussions from Iran or other states, establish open cooperation with Israel.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-former-catholic-dances-with-the-torah-11602198181?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

“The night of Simchat Torah is usually one of the most raucous of the Jewish year. Jubilant songs are sung, and dancing suffuses the sanctuary as the Torah scroll is passed from Jew to Jew.”

Stephen Dubner, a co-author of “Freakonomics,” is the son of Jewish parents who converted to Catholicism and raised him in their newfound faith. Mr. Dubner’s 1998 memoir, “Turbulent Souls,” recounts his later return to Judaism. His turning point came when his then-girlfriend suggested that he visit a synagogue. Mr. Dubner did so reluctantly, and on arriving instantly regretted the decision, surprised by “how little it felt like Church,” and feeling “like an intruder, perhaps an imposter.”

Then the Torah came out of the ark. Suddenly, Mr. Dubner writes, “The air itself seemed to grow lighter, easier to breathe.” As all in attendance hurried over to kiss the scroll bearing the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, he did likewise. “A resonance, a gratefulness, a relief, blistered its way inside me: It is the book they are venerating here.” Mr. Dubner today has a Jewish family. His son, Solomon, is named for Mr. Dubner’s father, who went by Paul. His rediscovery of his roots began with a synagogue experience: “The way a Jew greeted the Torah, as though it contained everything he would ever need, everything that had ever been known or could ever be known.”

The Torah scroll is the most sacred object of Jewish life and the centerpiece of its Sabbath service. Every week it is escorted from the dark. A portion is read aloud in the synagogue, and the scroll is reverently returned to its place. On the next Sabbath, we pick up the text where we left off; and this weekend, on a holiday known as Simchat Torah, or “The Joy of the Torah,” we achieve the annual completion of the scroll.

What Jews celebrate on this day is not only that the Torah is completed, but that we can begin it again. While Christians often call their reading of scripture “Bible study,” Jewish parlance refers to “learning Torah.” It’s not a review, but a constant search for new insights. “One cannot compare,” the Talmudic rabbis reflected, “one who has learned one-hundred times to one who has done so for the one-hundred and first.” The biblical books contain everything we could ever know.