Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | | Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement. Now also a Blogger on the Times of Israel. Look for my column Love Yehuda Lave | | The sky is on fire in the SouthEast United States There is a Saharan dust plume that has hit the US This enormous dust cloud has touched down in the Gulf Coast. Expansive dust clouds arise from the sun-baked Sahara each year, making the 5,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the southern United States. While these dust plumes tend to stay intact while traveling across the ocean, they typically diffuse by the time they hit the Caribbean. But this year, things are different. This month's dust cloud is more resilient than usual—its dust is so opaque and thick that it can be clearly seen from the International Space Station, while its predecessors have been ghostly and faint from space. Astronaut Doug Hurley photographed the cloud from the ISS on June 21, "We flew over this Saharan dust plume today in the west central Atlantic. Amazing how large an area it covers!" These dust plumes, called the Saharan Air Layer (or SAL) are born when severe wind storms strike the Sahara. Entering the Atlantic Ocean at the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, the plumes catch on to the trade winds, which run east-west along the equator. The dust is already covering Caribbean skies, and Gulf Coast states like Texas and Louisiana should expect to confront this vast cloud. As the cloud enters the US here's what you should know about the plumes. The dust will aggravate pre-existing asthma, respiratory illnesses, and allergies Puerto Rico's Department of Health issued a warning for residents with respiratory issues, noting that the dust will bring hot, dry air—the recipe for triggering asthma. During the COVID-19 pandemic, experts warn those in the path of this dust plume should wear masks and practice caution when breathing outdoor air, since the conditions could also exacerbate respiratory issues caused by the virus. The plume suppresses hurricanes and tropical storms in their tracks The dry layer of hot air currently covering the Atlantic will act as a muffler for potential hurricanes and tropical storms, since it prevents the gathering of warm moisture needed to precipitate these summer vortexes, according to the National Weather Service. Once the dust drops out of the atmosphere, we'll again be at the mercy of an active upcoming hurricane seaseon. Particles from the plume make the skies more colorful Across various Caribbean islands, people have been documenting dazzling, colorful sunrises and sunsets. Though you can get hazy, yellow-brown skies from thicker coverage, thin dust clouds create spectacular red hues. This phenomenon fertilizes the Amazon Rain-forest Hundreds of millions of tons of Saharan dust blow across the Atlantic each year, and a lot of it ends up in the Amazon. In a 2006 study, scientists revealed that almost half of the nutrients that fuel the Amazon come from a single Saharan valley called the Bodélé Depression, which is about the third of the size of Florida. The area's twin mountain chains funnel winds along the surface, kicking up 0.7 million tons of dust every day. This dust cloud transformed the Bahamas into the glorious ecosystem it is today Geologists have long puzzled over the thriving ecosystem in the Bahamas, which is surrounded by an expanse of nutrient-poor ocean. Based on a 2014 study, scientists claim that dust blown from the Sahara desert provides the carbon and mineral-rich foundation needed to support the Bahamas' stunningly diverse marine life and coral reefs. On the flip side, severe Saharan dust storms can also endanger coral reefs by depositing an overwhelming amount of nutrients, which promote poisonous algal blooms, and by bringing along toxic agricultural contaminants mixed in with the dust. | | Ideas, that help explain how the world works The people I admire most have an unconditional love - for life. It doesn't matter how much pain they are in, how many losses they have endured or whether or not they have experienced the love of a parent or spouse. They appreciate life as it is and are grateful for being alive.It is a goal to strive for - to love for the sake of loving. | | Shaving during the three weeks because of masks and the virus From Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody: Shaving during the 3 weeks in the Age of Corona: We need to prioritize making sure that people wear masks (properly), which for some people becomes more difficult if they are growing a beard (because of a good fit or increased perspiration). If you think that this will be difficult for you, especially in anticipation of a fuller beard during the 9 days, then one should shave this erev shabbat. Explanation: In general, there are different minhagim about not shaving during the 3 weeks. The gemara (Ta'anit 26b) speaks of not getting a haircut during the week in which the 9th of Av falls out (שבוע שחל בו). Many Sephardim follow this approach for both haircuts and shaving. Ashkenazim, however, took upon themselves not to get haircuts for all of the 3 weeks (OC 551:4). Some sephardim, particularly from North Africa, are stringent not to get haircuts throughout the entire 9 days, with others also following the Ashkenazic minhag. Do the same rules apply for shaving as well? That's not clear. Many poskim say yes. But Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Rabinovitch, amongst others, each for their own reasons, believed that people who regularly shave may shave throughout the 3 weeks (at least until the 9 days). Others, based on the position of R. Akiva Eiger, were lenient when it comes to Erev Shabbat, since the Yerushalmi seems to indicate that even haircuts are permissible on Erev Shabbat. In general, people should following their family minhagim. In this year, however, we need to prioritize Corona precautions. In light of the many positions that always allow shaving, those who worry that an unkempt beard will make wearing masks harder for them should shave, especially before Shabbat. (If this is not a concern for you, then there is no reason to shave). This leniency is also true, if necessary, even for Erev Shabbat Hazon (although one could also shave during the week before Rosh Chodesh this week, if that will be sufficient). Health care professionals and others in areas of greater exposure should shave as needed up until the 9th of Av if this will cause problems for them with wearing their mask properly. | | Father of teen killed in Seattle's CHOP has heartbreaking plea to the public 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson was killed in Seattle's Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone. #FoxNews #Hannity | | Lies, slander, distortions, false narratives - and America's future by Kenneth S. Abramowitz The battle between those who use facts to inform the public and the forces who present lies to undermine public trust and destroy America. In our world of instant and continuous communications, one might think that facts would overwhelm falsehoods. In reality, we are witnessing a battle between those who are using facts to inform the public and strengthen U.S. national security — and the forces who present falsehoods to undermine the public trust, and destroy America. We have identified ten major false narratives that must be confronted by facts to ensure the safety of America and its citizens. The lies: (1) Endless wars must be hastily ended because they can't be won. False! (2) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules over China, is a normal legitimate government, led by people who care about its 1.4 billion people. False! (3) Iran is only a regional threat throughout the Middle East. False! (4) International organizations such as the United Nations (UN) are positive forces for world peace. False! (5) The Palestinian Authority (PA) is a legitimate, duly-elected government, representative of its population, which seeks a two-state solution, and to live side-by-side with Israel, in peace. False! (6) Major U.S. universities are among the very best in the world and we should be very proud of them. False! (7) Our public schools have done a great job preparing our children to function as informed citizens, and for college and/or direct entry into the work force. False! (8) Citizens of other nations who live on American soil either on work/student visas, or because they are applying for U.S. citizenship, are only here because they've passed proper vetting procedures. False! (9) The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 still protects us from enemy penetration from South America. False! (10) The U.S. government knows exactly how to protect us from the "unrestricted warfare" strategies of the Reds (China, Russia) and the Greens (Islamist Iran, ISIS, Turkey, Qatar). False! The facts: (1) Endless wars must be hastily ended because they can't be won. False! Facts: We are now fighting two endless wars simultaneously, which can be managed without killing millions of people, or consuming trillions of dollars: a. The "Greens": The Islamists' (Muslim supremacists') endless war to take over the world — to, in their own words, make all humans submissive to Allah, and to kill or enslave all who refuse — has been ongoing for nearly 1,400 years, since the death of Muhammad in 632 AD. They consist of Iran, ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other violent groups, as well as those who are waging the "cultural jihad," to advance Islamist conquest through non-violent means (most notably, funded and supported by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). b. The "Reds": Communists and socialists (externally, China and Russia, and also, internally, by subversive domestic groups, including ANTIFA, and other far-left organizations). The battle of authoritarian communists and socialists against free enterprise capitalism, has been ongoing for more than 150 years, since Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital, his economic false narrative, in 1867. With proper planning, we could confront our enemies in a cost-effective manner to stop our budget deficit from going out of control. The battle between dictatorships and democracies has been going on for four millennia. Learn more in this previous article. (2) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules over China, is a normal legitimate government, led by people who care about its 1.4 billion people. False! Facts: - The CCP took over China in 1949 after a civil war. Since then there has never been free and fair election.
- The CCP recently violated the international treaty that it signed in 1984 with the U.K., guaranteeing to preserve the independence of neighboring Hong Kong until 2047.
- China now illegally claims Hong Kong as its 19th province.
- The CCP also uses economic means to bully America's loyal regional allies, including Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
(3) Iran is only a regional threat throughout the Middle East. False! Facts: Nearly 1,400 years after the death of Muhammad, we are still fighting to protect ourselves from Islamist physical warfare (and cultural subversion). For deep background on this multi-faceted threat, see this excellent documentary, "The Third Jihad," hosted by American Muslim reformer, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, and produced by the Clarion Project: If possible, these two fronts should be fought as Cold Wars, not violent wars. We should focus on containing both the Reds and Greens by confronting them culturally, economically, legally and diplomatically. We should use also our superior cyberspace abilities, and only when absolutely necessary, employ our military assets. (4) International organizations such as the United Nations (UN) are positive forces for world peace. False! Facts: (5) The Palestinian Authority (PA) is a legitimate, duly-elected government, representative of its population, which seeks a two-state solution, and to live side-by-side with Israel, in peace. False! Facts: - Since its founding in Egypt in 1964, with support from the then Soviet Union, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO, the predecessor to the PA) and the PA have never accepted the existence of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, as it had been for 3,000 years.
- The PA's efforts to physically fight and legally delegitimize Israel endangers the only real ally of the U.S.in the Middle East, thus indirectly hurting American national security.
- The PA also pays hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries (an estimated 7-10% of its annual budget) to captured terrorists who are sitting in Israeli jails, with higher salaries for those who killed more Israelis. The PA's "leader" (details below) announced recently that not only would he not stop using donor aid to pay these "martyrs" and their families, he received rousing applause at the UN.
- Mahmoud Abbas, the supposed "leader" of the Palestinian Authority, was welcomed into our White House during both the Trump and Obama administrations. In reality, he is a brutal, un-elected dictator who is now in his fifteenth year of a four-year term. His "government" is notorious for physically brutalizing journalists, outlawing and arresting homosexuals, and any Palestinian who dares dissent from his autocratic tyranny. Abbas also reportedly collaborated with the KGB in anti-Israel activities.
(6) Major U.S. universities are among the very best in the world and we should be very proud of them. False! Facts: - In the past 50 years, our major universities have become corrupt to the core by accepting foreign contributions from enemy or "frenemy" countries such as China, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia (all of which should be illegal).
- They also failed to foster their stated goal of diversity, as 80-90% of the humanities departments are dominated by leftist professors, many of whom oppose the U.S. Constitution (especially freedom of speech by any student who disagrees with them), thereby misguiding America's future generations of voters.
- For a deeper analysis of what America's colleges and universities have produced — instead of informed, functional American citizens — see:
(7) Our public schools have done a great job preparing our children to function as informed citizens, and for college and/or direct entry into the work force. False! Facts: - Our public (government-run) schools have been pushing our children through the grades, even though many have not mastered even the basics of reading, writing, math, history or other essential subject matter. STW's consulting editor & videographer, Jon Sutz, produced a detailed report hat documents this fact in great detail: See particularly section 4 in "America At The Precipice," which shows that even most American college students "struggle with basic literacy tasks."
- Our public schools have been discovered to be using books from foreign publishers (which should be illegal) that inadequately, and that often teach falsified versions of our history, civics, and the Constitution. See the details in this previous STW article by Ken: "Education Reform is Crucial: Ken's Thought of the Week".
- In general, our school curriculums and teaching materials do not reflect American values, and instead, deliver falsified versions of history, along with leftist and Islamist false narratives. See detailed evidence of this in Sections 2 & 3 at: section 4 in "America At The Precipice."
- All these acts and omissions imperil the future security of the American republic.
(8) Citizens of other nations who live on American soil either on work/student visas, or because they are applying for U.S. citizenship, are only here because they've passed proper vetting procedures. False! Facts: - We are not vetting immigrants to make sure they believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
- We are not excluding immigrants who believe in communism/socialism or in Sharia law, both of which directly conflict with the laws in our Constitution.
Here is one example of this phenomenon. Minnesota is now the #1 Islamist terrorist recruiting state in the US, according to the FBI and DHS. Click here for a series of person-on-the-street interviews, giving indication of the extent to which certain immigrants reject the U.S. Constitution, and instead say they want to live under shariah law, which dictates that gays and lesbians be murdered, that all must submit to Islam, etc. These findings mirror a 2015 survey by the Center for Security Policy: (9) The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 still protects us from enemy penetration from South America. False! Facts: - We allowed communists, aided by the USSR, to take over Cuba in 1959.
- We also allowed Venezuela to be infiltrated by Communist Cuba and China, as well as Russia and the Islamists from Iran and Turkey, to the point that today Venezuela presents a grave security threat to our democratic allies in South America. Its trafficking of deadly, illicit drugs, often mixed with Chinese made fentanyl, to the U.S. threatens the lives of tens of thousands Americans each year, especially the young.
(10) The U.S. government knows exactly how to protect us from the "unrestricted warfare" strategies of the Reds (China, Russia) and the Greens (Islamist Iran, ISIS, Turkey, Qatar). False! Facts: Our National Security agencies generally work in their individual silos and are not coordinated by a cultural warfare department/agency/director, that can provide the intellectual knowledge — the "glue", that is required to properly confront our cultural enemies, as we successfully did during World War 2 and the Cold War. These numerous lies, slander, distortions, and false narratives that are infecting our society and threatening our national security.have to be fought. Now! Kenneth S. Abramowitz is the founder of SaveTheWest.com and General Partner and co-founder of worldwide healthcare venture capital fund.NGN Capital. He serves on the boards of Friends of Likud, ZOA, CAMERA, Americans for a Safe Israel, The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), and Bible Lands Museum. | | The Mobs Are Coming for the Progressives By Daniel Greenfield Forget the Confederacy. The Socialist Taliban pulling down statues have gone after Confederate statues, but their real targets have been the civic monuments that symbolized unity and progressive politics. In Madison, Black Lives Matter protesters toppled the Lady Forward statue that allegorically represents the state's progressive politics. With its American flag, feminine iconography, and Lincoln reference, the Lady Forward statue embodies the old progressive ideas that the Marxist thugs are destroying. Toppling Lady Forward, like banishing Theodore Roosevelt's equestrian statue, accompanied by an Indian and a black man to symbolize the former president's friendship for other races, from the American Museum of Natural History, another icon of progressive symbolism, is no accident. Confederate statues aren't very threatening to the leftist cause, but the old progressivism, rooted in the conviction that America was a basically good country that would come to fully embody goodness, is still a competitor for the hearts and minds of the people that BLM and Antifa would like to see join them. It's also why the Emancipation Memorial, depicting Lincoln and a freed slave, is a threatening image. The previous assaults on Lincoln, Grant, Union commanders, and even the 'Glory' memorial to an African-American Civil War regiment, are not the work of ignorant people, but of radicals who are attacking the symbols of the progressive historical narrative that they hate because it undermines their agenda. The Union iconography tells a story of the end of slavery. The Black Lives Matter narrative is that slavery never ended, not only in the South, not with the end of Segregation, and not even in the 21st century. America was born in sin and never stopped being a racist society built on white supremacy. Many critics of the 1619 Project have missed the most important point, which is that the revisionist history not only falsely accuses America of having been built around slavery, but is a component of a larger argument that slavery still exists today and operates using disguised modern institutions. The movement to defund the police, like the rest of the criminal justice reform impetus, derives from the conspiracy theory that the justice system is modern slavery, with the police as the slave catchers. Police officers, prosecutors, and even people who call the police, white or black, are the slave catchers, sellers, and informants in a racist system that cannot be redeemed, but must be entirely destroyed. To radicals who think this way, Lincoln being presented as the man who freed the slaves is a myth that prevents people from seeing the truth. And the entire progressive narrative of history is a racist lie covering up the truth that slavery and Jim Crow did not end and won't end as long as 'whiteness' exists. The significance of the kneeling black man in the Emancipation Memorial, now targeted for destruction, is not subservience to Lincoln. Instead, it reflects the moment when freed slaves in Richmond knelt before President Lincoln, only to be told to, "kneel only to God and thank Him for your freedom". Post-Civil War Republicans attached great significance to this mutual liberation and religious unity, but to the Marxists of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, the religious connotations are meaningless. Much like the biblical verse on the Liberty Bell, the theological convictions that fueled pre-war abolitionism and post-war integration are completely alien to their irreligious radical descendants. The radicals tearing down statues see religion as enslaving, not liberating. That's one possible reason so many churches and synagogues were vandalized during the Black Lives Matter riots across America. Emancipation once meant that slaves were freed from slavery and that the nation was freed from the sin of slavery. That 19th century political theology has long since been discarded to argue that emancipation, for the former slaves or for the nation, is impossible. The conjunction of critical race theory and black nationalism contend that the original sin wasn't really slavery, but whiteness. America will be as racist and oppressive as it is white. The only way to advance is through destruction. The progressives envisioned a modern America. The three Republican presidents so iconic to progressives, Lincoln, Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt, were the pivotal figures in the making of that modern America with a strong central government and an eye on the next century, until Woodrow Wilson and FDR flipped the script and the Republicans became the conservative political party. The progressive memorials to them are being targeted for removal and demolition to bury that vision. Today, the leftists who call themselves progressives, claim to believe in progress. But where the old progressives believed that America was, at the heart of it, a progressive enterprise, they believe that it was always reactionary. The old progressives claimed that they wanted to rediscover the nation's fundamental progressive values. The new progressives don't believe that there is any such thing though some, like Barack Obama, were expert at echoing the old progressives to win over modern liberals. Destroying the work of the old progressives has more in common with the Taliban than just the demolition of old statues. Like Islamic theocrats, the leftist mobs are destroying symbols of heresy. The heresy embodied by everything from the Emancipation Memorial to the multiracial trio of Theodore Roosevelt and two minority men, is that racial progress is inevitable because of American values. An idea that, until recently, was almost universally held by most Democrats and liberals, is being symbolically destroyed to make way for the new theology of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi. The larger symbolism is that the only way to redeem America is to destroy it as a nation. There was a great deal that was wrong, foolish, and destructive in the old progressives, who burdened us with an endlessly expanding state, a conviction that science and technology can solve everything, and the delusion that the purpose of a nation is to progress to some unspecified social utopia, but they were, above all else, optimists who believed that things would get better if we wanted them to. The new progressives occasionally mime optimism, but they are really savage pessimists. One of the fundamental dividing lines between moderates and extremists is despair. Moderates are optimists, sometimes foolishly and wrongly so, while the extremists believe that the situation is irredeemable unless the most extreme measures are applied to tear apart and remake society. While the media insists that its political allies are moderates, their destructiveness and despair mark them as extremists whose essential message is that we can only be saved by destroying everything. From Jonestown to CHOP, despair is the inevitable outcome of utopian ambitions. The fanatics who are convinced that the world must be saved or damned, that there is no middle ground between racism and social justice, pursue apocalyptic revolutions while seeking to punish the public for the lack of progress. The Emancipation Memorial and the Confederate statues both arose out of a conviction that we must forgive and love each other. The statue vandals are equally convinced that there cannot be forgiveness, only hate. The Americans who tried to knit the nation together after the Civil War believed that only God could judge and forgive the blood that had been shed on both sides. The Marxist mobs believe that there is no god, only the inescapable momentum of history bending its arc inevitably toward justice. And that justice and vengeance is their birthright and their heritage. It's not the Confederacy, long defeated, they are out to kill, but the thing that all radicals hate the most, the moderate ideas on their own side that compete with them for the hearts and minds of their base. The mobs are coming for the old progressives and the declining liberals, for anyone who still believes that unity is more important than division, and that we can find common ground through forgiveness. It's not the Confederacy they're after: it's any alternative to a violent revolution. Liberals had excused the trends in the black community that replaced Martin Luther King with Malcolm X, and civil rights with black nationalism. They had defended the rise of white radicals on campuses, and then watched passively as those radicals took over government offices, academia, and corporations. The chickens, as Malcolm X and Jeremiah Wright liked to say, are coming home to roost. The mobs aren't just here to smash up old Confederate officers. They're out to destroy Lincoln and Grant, to tear down the Columbus statues erected by Italian immigrant groups who wanted to plant a civic flag to show they belonged, and the statues of assorted Union officers put up by other patriotic immigrant groups to show that they too had a place in the nation. And what the mobs are out to destroy, most of all, is that old liberal vision of America. And, by the time they're done, if there are any liberals still left, they will throw them in the same rivers and fires in which they're casting those old symbols of progress, the explorer who defied the skeptics, the men who envisioned a representative republic, the emancipation of the slaves, and a modern America. The mobs are coming for our history and our future. They're coming for America and for progress. Americans used to believe that things will get better. The mobs are here to destroy that hope. | | See you tomorrow bli neder We need Mosiach Now! Love Yehuda Lave | | | |
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