|
June 30, 2016 at 4:00 am
Baltimore, MD Daily Dvar Halacha - June 30, 2016 / 24 Sivan 5776 - Mechitza At A Mourner's House?
|
June 29, 2016 at 10:29 pm
Washington - U.S.-led coalition aircraft waged a series of deadly strikes against Islamic State around the city of Falluja on Wednesday, U.S. officials told Reuters, with one citing a preliminary estimate of at least 250 suspected fighters killed and at least 40 vehicles destroyed.
If the figures are confirmed, the strikes would be among the most deadly ever against the jihadist group. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the operation and noted preliminary estimates can change.
The strikes, which the officials said took place south of the city, where civilians have also been displaced, are just the latest battlefield setback suffered by Islamic State in its self-proclaimed “caliphate” of Iraq and Syria.
The group’s territorial losses are...
|
June 29, 2016 at 9:50 pm
ותשא כל העדה ויתנו את קולם ויבכו העם בלילה ההוא (במדבר יד א), The entire assembly raised up and issued their voice; the people wept that night.
This fateful reaction to the negative report of the spies took place on the eve of the ninth of Av. Rabbi Yochanan reveals that when G-d observed this expression of emotion he exclaimed, “You have wept without cause, therefore I will set [this day] aside for a weeping throughout the generations to come.” (תענית כט.)
As a result of this unjustified 'בכיה של חנם', baseless crying, the Temple was destroyed, we were exiled from our land and we are destined to endure and cry over the countless difficulties we must face in our long and difficult galus.
Although we acce...
|
June 29, 2016 at 9:17 pm
Tzur Goldin says Israeli gov't abandoned his brother in deal with Turkey; appeals to world Jewry: 'Help prevent the next kidnapping.'
Speaking at a protest tent outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, Tzur Goldin - brother of slain IDF soldier Hadar Goldin - called on Jews around the world to help bring his brother's body home, and told Arutz Sheva the government needed to "change the equation" in dealing with kidnappings.
IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul were both killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and their bodies are still held by the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. Together with the family of Avera Mengistu - a mentally-handicapped Israeli civilian being held captive by Hamas - the soldiers' families and su...
|
June 29, 2016 at 9:10 pm
Mark ‘Oz’ Geist sounds off on ‘The Kelly File.’
|
June 29, 2016 at 8:36 pm
Parshas Shelach includes the mitzvah of wearing techeiles on our tzitzis. Rashi, in the beginning of Parshas Korach, mentions that the followers of Korach donned garments that were completely techeiles. Therefore, whether we are in a place that reads Shelach this week or one that reads Korach, it is appropriate to read about.
When we are commanded about wearing tzitzis, the Torah includes two mitzvohs. In addition to the mitzvah of wearing tzitzis threads on the corners of the garment, there is an additional mitzvah that some of the tzitzis threads should be dyed with a special dye called techeiles. (It is a dispute among the Rishonim how many threads are to be dyed techeiles. That topic we will leave for a different time.) This dye must be made from a species called chilazon (Tosefta Men...
|
June 29, 2016 at 7:49 pm
The Calcalist magazine reports that a man who leased land to a Petach Tikvah chevrah kaddisha was shocked to discover that it had been used for the internment of two hundred bodies. He is suing to have his land returned “in the condition it [the chevrah kaddisha] received it for its use.”
The man’s attorney, Tal Gerstein, wrote to the court, “The honored arbitrator is hereby requested to obligate the defendant to remove its jurisdiction from the claimant’s land and to leave the claimant’s land empty and free of any object or person.”
There is little chance this will happen, for in Eretz Yisroel, even the evacuation of centuries old kevorim leads to huge public outcries
|
June 29, 2016 at 7:38 pm
IBM’s supercomputer Watson, known for its “Jeopardy” prowess, is teaming up with the Department of Veterans Affairs in a bid to revolutionize cancer care for veterans.
Under the IBM-VA partnership, Watson technology will be provided free for two years to the VA’s precision-oncology program. The artificial intelligence system will analyze genomic information, pinpoint cancer-causing mutations and help identify potential treatments for as many as 10,000 patients.
The IBM-VA partnership is one of dozens of initiatives being announced Wednesday as part of Vice President Joe Biden’s all-day cancer summit at Howard University in Washington. Other efforts aim to sharply increase the number of patients in clinical trials, harness the government’s com...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:56 pm
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has always been low key with any criticism of Donald Trump, ducking questions or issuing prepared statements about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
But in the past week, McConnell, in his typically understated way, has tried to gently shove the businessman forward into running a more traditional campaign. On Tuesday, McConnell gave his sharpest critique yet in an interview with Time Warner cable news, suggesting that recent speeches delivered with a teleprompter were a step in the right direction but more needs to be done.
“Trump clearly needs to change, in my opinion, to win the general election,” McConnell said in the interview, part of the long book tour for his memoir, “The Long Game.”
&...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:43 pm
The United States has extended a $2.7-billion credit facility to Iraq for the purchase of military equipment amid the ongoing fight against the Islamic State group.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said Wednesday that the deal gives Iraq a one-year grace period and eight and a half years total to pay for its purchases of ammunition and maintenance of its F-16s and M1A1 tanks.
Like other oil-reliant countries, Iraq’s economy has been severely hit by plummeting crude prices since 2014, plunging the nation into an acute financial crisis. The OPEC member is struggling to feed a cash-strapped economy amid an expensive fight against IS militants, who still control key areas in the country’s north and west.
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:42 pm
Donald Trump has had a few rocky weeks on the campaign trail, and it shows in the latest Fox News Poll. Just over half of Republicans would rather have someone besides Trump as their nominee, and his support in the presidential ballot test has dropped seven points since May.
Democrat Hillary Clinton is up 44-38 percent over Trump in a head-to-head matchup. Earlier this month, Clinton had a three-point edge (42-39 percent). In May, Trump was up by three (45-42 percent). Clinton’s current lead is just inside the poll’s margin of sampling error.
The national poll, released Wednesday, finds she has a similar advantage when voters are asked about confidence in the candidates to make the “right” decisions for the country if they were presid...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:37 pm
Washington - Federal health officials want to know whether hand sanitizers used by millions of Americans work as well as manufacturers claim — and whether there are any health risks to their growing use.
The Food and Drug Administration is asking for new studies on how the antiseptic gels and rubs fight germs and get absorbed into the body, with a particular focus on children and pregnant women. The proposal unveiled Wednesday is part of an ongoing government effort to review decades-old chemicals that have never had a comprehensive federal review.
Agency officials stressed that the review “does not mean the FDA believes these products are ineffective or unsafe.”
Hand sanitizers have become nearly ubiquitous over the last 20 years, offered in workplaces, school...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:33 pm
San Francisco - As the U.S. presidential campaign heats up, Facebook Inc is going out of its way to show its neutrality - an increasingly urgent matter for the social network as evidence of its power continues to emerge.
Recent studies have shown the site has extraordinary influence. According to research scheduled to be published in August in the Journal of Communication, when people tagged their friends on Facebook in voting reminders, turnout increased by 15 to 24 percent.
During U.S. presidential primary elections this year, a Facebook reminder that informed people when their state’s voter registration deadline was approaching and provided a link helped produce a surge of nearly 650,000 new voter registrations in California alone, according to Secretary of State Alex ...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:29 pm
Ottawa - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has previously likened U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, said on Wednesday he only drew the comparison as a reminder of the devastation wreaked in the past.
Speaking at a press conference alongside U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, who have gathered in Ottawa for the “Three Amigos” summit, Pena Nieto warned of the dangers of populism in a globalized world.
“Hitler, Mussolini, we all know the result,” he said when asked to explain the comparison. “It was only a call for reflection and for recognition, so that we bear in mind what we have achieved and the great deal still to achieve.”
The presumptive Re...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:19 pm
New York - PepsiCo is going retro. The company is officially bringing back Crystal Pepsi, a clear cola drink that was hugely popular for a brief period during the early 1990s.
PepsiCo said on Wednesday said it would sell Crystal Pepsi this year for a limited time in the United States and Canada.
Crystal Pepsi will be sold in 20-ounce bottles starting July 11 in Canada and Aug. 8 in the United States.
The soft drink was introduced in 1992. The clear soda caught the imagination and soon hit an iconic status on the back of a slick advertising campaign.
It, however, fell out of favor equally fast and disappeared from shelves in 1994.
This, however, will not be the soda’s first comeback since.
Pepsi had made the drink available for two days in December last year in the United S...
|
June 29, 2016 at 6:08 pm
Washington - Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin said in a legal proceeding that Clinton did not want the State Department emails that she sent and received on her private computer server to be accessible to “anybody,” according to transcripts released Wednesday. Her comments provided new insights into the highly unusual decision by the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate to operate a private email server in her basement to conduct government business as secretary of state.
Abedin also said under oath that she was not aware whether Clinton personally deleted any emails during her tenure as secretary.
Abedin told lawyers for the conservative group Judicial Watch in a deposition Monday that she could not recall whether she or Clinton discussed with any ...
|
June 29, 2016 at 5:32 pm
A George Washington University law professor is filing a complaint against Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby over the investigation and prosecution of six police officers in the death of a black man who was critically injured in the back of a police van. John F. Banzhaf III says his complaint was filed with Maryland's Attorney Grievance Commission. Among other things, Banzhaf says in his 10-page complaint that Mosby appears to have violated Maryland's rules of professional conduct for lawyers, which requires that a prosecutor refrain from prosecuting a charge unless it is supported by probable cause.
Banzhaf told WBAL NewsRadio 1090 that Mosby's conduct are grounds for to be disbarred.
The professor sees her conduct as similar to that of...
|
June 29, 2016 at 5:25 pm
Kosher meat production to enjoy constitutional protection from legislative bans.
A constitutional court in Belgium ruled on Wednesday that traditional Jewish shechita is permitted under Belgian law and will be allowed to continue unimpeded.
“Restrictions on kosher shechita”, the judge ruled, “contradict basic human rights laws and religious rights in Belgium.”
In recent months some members of the Flemish parliament have proposed bans on kosher shechita, prohibiting exceptions to a Belgian law requiring animals be stunned before being slaughters. Such a move would effectively outlaw kosher shechita, which cannot be performed while an animal is stunned.
Rabbi Avraham Gigi, Chief Rabbi of Belgium and a member of the Conference of European Rabbis, responded to...
|
June 29, 2016 at 5:22 pm
Rabbis Yosef and Lau say Reform movement must not gain influence in Israel, especially at the Western Wall.
Israel’s chief rabbis, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef and Rabbi David Lau, told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday that under no conditions may the Reform movement be allowed to gain ground, especially at the Western Wall.
Also attending the meeting were Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and the heads of the haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ).
The Shas and UTJ leadership made clear that both parties would oppose any compromise recognizing the Reform stream or otherwise providing them with official backing.
They repeated the decisions made by the councils of sages that guide both parties, and said that haredi Jewry would not allow the Reform or Co...
|
June 29, 2016 at 5:19 pm
Group of nine Israelis who enter Ramallah attacked with firebombs and rocks, escape without injury.
A group of nine Israelis on Wednesday evening had to be rescued from the Palestinian Arab city of Ramallah, after locals attacked one of their vehicles.
The Israelis reportedly willingly entered the city. Locals who noticed them hurled rocks and firebombs at one of their cars, which caught fire.
All nine escaped without injury. Eight of them re-entered Israel through the Qalandiya checkpoint, while the ninth was temporarily questioned by PA security forces before being returned to Israel.
All nine are being questioned by security forces for violating a military order prohibiting entry of Israelis to areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
The IDF said that the circ...
