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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.

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The Three Musketeers at the Kotel

Lockdown extended until Sunday at midnight - Gantz and Netanyahu agree

Gamzu: 'Great concern' over level of infection

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN OCTOBER 14, 2020

Israel will remain in a state of lockdown at least until Sunday at midnight, the coronavirus cabinet decided on Tuesday.

"The decision to ease restrictions and allow for a gradual exit from the lockdown will require a constant and certain decrease in morbidity rates, and reaching that will take a few days," the Health Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement following the meeting.

The only changes to the current restrictions are that there will now be exceptions made to allow close relatives to travel more than one kilometer to attend a wedding. In addition, professional athletes will now be able to resume their training.

A debate over the continued lockdown and the exit date broke out at the coronavirus cabinet, which met late into the night on Tuesday to discuss the first stages of Israel's planned exit strategy. Already before the cabinet convened, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that a final decision would be made on Thursday.

At the heart of the debate is the reopening of small businesses and preschools. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Israel Katz sided with Blue and White and called for the reopening of businesses. Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz first called for the restrictions to be lifted no later than Friday while Netanyahu pushed for an extension of the lockdown through Monday at midnight.

"Small businesses are collapsing," Katz said, adding that children needed to go back to their frameworks. "Opening them does not hurt health and adds much to the economy."

Business owners took to the streets Tuesday in protest of the lockdown, with many threatening that if the closure isn't lifted soon, they would open anyway.

Netanyahu said that if the country opens before the infection rate hits the Health Ministry's limit for release, it will appear that there are "loopholes in the closure and our decisions will go down the drain… We didn't reach the goal of 2,000 new cases per day, so we have to wait until Thursday" to decide.

The cabinet meeting, initially scheduled to start in the afternoon, was delayed by several hours after Health Minister Yuli Edelstein stressed that the morbidity rate was still too high to make practical decisions.

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"Prof [Ronni] Gamzu expressed great concern that despite the closure, 3,000 people were infected in a single day," a statement by the ministry and the Prime Minister's Office said.

Later, at the cabinet meeting, Edelstein said that "It is difficult to understand the morbidity trend and to assess what happened during the holidays in the red cities. Only in four weeks will we really know what the level of morbidity really is."

Nonetheless, after pushback from Gantz, Katz and others, the meeting commenced. A statement from the PMO stressed that the meeting was meant solely to discuss the stages of the exit strategy and their approval - not to lift the closure.

On Tuesday, the infection rate continued to decline. The Health Ministry reported 3,112 new cases on Monday, 5% of those screened. 802 patients were in serious condition on Tuesday evening and the Health Ministry reported a total of 2,040 dead.

Meanwhile Tuesday, a report by the Military Intelligence's Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center showed that the average daily infection rate remained higher than what could allow Israel to effectively cut the infection chains.

If the decline in morbidity continues at the current rate, the report warned, within two weeks the number of daily infections will cut in half, to around 1,500.

In a sign of the partial success of the lockdown, Health Ministry Deputy Director-General Itamar Grotto told the Knesset Coronavirus Committee meeting that when the closure began, there were 200 red cities and that today there are only 26.

"The success of the closure has resulted in us having good morbidity indices," Grotto said. "We are not yet at the number that allows us to start the first phase of the opening, but if it continues at the current pace, there is no reason why we should not reach the index we want and to start opening on Sunday."

The first stage of the Health Ministry's exit strategy is expected to include lifting the the 1,000-meter travel restriction, allowing private businesses that do not serve customers face-to-face to operate, opening preschools through age six, allowing family members to visit one another in their homes, allowing takeaway from restaurants, and reopening beaches and nature reserves.

The National Student and Youth Council called on the government to "put students at the top of the list of priorities" and accused it of putting malls before "a million abandoned teenage boys and girls."

The council was backed by data published by the Education Ministry which showed that in 94% of preschools there were no infections; in 54% of primary schools there were no infections; and in close to 45% of middle and high schools there were no infections.

According to the ministry's exit plan, older grades would open sometime in December or January.

"You are abandoning an entire generation from your air-conditioned offices and ruining its future because of the economic interests of pressure groups," the council accused.

Gamzu is expected to present a list of red cities at the cabinet meeting later this week and it is likely that many will be ultra-Orthodox, since the morbidity rate there is higher than the rest of the country. Haredi politicians have said that they will fight any initiative to differentiate between red and green cities.

The full list of cities is not known, but is likely to include Ashdod, Beitar Illit, Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Kiryat Malachi, Netivot, Ofakim, Or Yehudah, and Ramla. During a visit with the Mayor of Jerusalem on Tuesday, Gamzu said that there were only two red neighborhoods in the city: Ramat Shlomo and Neve Yaakov.

Media reports claimed that the government was in agreement about opening Ben-Gurion Airport during any first stage of an exit strategy - first for business travel and then for tourism. At the meeting, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said that the airports could only open when the 1,000m travel restriction was lifted, since otherwise it would be almost impossible to enforce it.

On Tuesday, the cabinet ministers agreed to keep the airport closed until at least October 15. On Wednesday, a special meeting will take place about the airport.

Knesset Coronavirus Committee Chairwoman MK Yifat Shasha-Biton opened the discussion by asking participants to focus on the plan, but to also take into account the repercussions of the current closure.

"We have to look at the number of unemployed, how many people have gone bankrupt, and domestic violence. We are losing an entire generation of children here - those children who have not been to school regularly for some time," she said. "We know the virus will stay here for at least another year and we will not shut people in their homes for a year."

She said that "society has crashed" and that the country must learn to build a livable routine alongside the virus.

"We hear more and more people, out of great distress, threatening to break the closure. We have lost public trust. To prevent anarchy, we need to talk to the public with logic and transparency."

The Portion of Vezot Habrachah

May He Who Blesses be Blessed

The final portion of the Torah which is read on Simchat Torah relates the blessings which Moses blessed the twelve tribes of Israel prior to his death. It was in this manner that Moses chose to bid farewell to the people whom he had led, from the Exodus from Egypt to the border of the Promised Land. As a result of his decision to bless his people, Moses is himself blessed with offspring of children and grandchildren, just as Abraham was blessed with G-d's promise "And I will bless those who bless you" (Genesis 12;3).

The crowns on the "final chof" in the word "beirach (blessed)" allude to the blessing with which Moses was subsequently blessed.

As we find in the First Book of Chronicles (23;15-17), Rechaviah, the grandson of Moses, raised a large family:

The children of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer
The children of Gershom were Shvuel Harosh.

17.And the children of Eliezer were Rechaviah Harosh, and Eliezer had no other children, but the children of Rechaviah were very many.

The Hebrew spelling of Rechaviah's name ends with the letters "yud" and "heh", which together spells one of the forms of G-d's name, thereby indicating that his large family was the will of

G-d. (Sefer HaRokeaich)

הכנס טקסט

Rap Daddy D - Genesis Rap

Optimistic COVID-19 Test Fraud Will Lead To Expensive Compensation For Damages

International Corporate Trial Lawyer Optimistic COVID-19 Test Fraud Will Lead To Expensive Compensation For Damages

By P Gosselin on 30. August 2020

While today the German mainstream media attempt to shame the tens of thousands of protesters for showing up to PEACEFULLY protest the COVID-19 restrictions and the loss of freedom, independent media have been presenting real substance.

One example is the following YouTube video that shows some of the speakers at the demonstration. Among them was international attorney Dr. Reiner Fuellmich who has 26 years of experience going after corporate fraudsters

According to Fuellmich, the German government, "including all opposition parties", are abusing their power, but there are reasons for optimism. Over the last 6 weeks, Fuellmich and a group of experts have been examining the COVID "scandal" carefully. Among the factors they've examined are the real danger posed by the virus, how reliable the PCR tests are, and the "collateral damage" that the COVID-19 measures used by the government are.

Fuellmich and his group of experts have found that COVID-19 is "no more dangerous than the flu and that there has been no excess mortality".

"However, the anti-Corona measures have led to the most massive health damage – of both psychological and physical nature – and devastating economic damage," he told the audience. All of it based on a faulty test.

PCR test developers "in panic"

Fuellmich said that the PCR test developed by Professor Drosten of Berlin's Charité Hospital "is not only unsuitable but here it is not even approved for diagnostic purposes."

The test, Fuellmich says, has been checked over by other leading experts internationally and has been found to produce meaningless positive results. The test is so false that Fuellmich calls it fraudulent and that persons incurring damages from its use are entitled to compensation for damages according to California and German law.

Billion dollar lawsuits loom

"For this reason, a number of German and international colleagues have sort of banded together in order to compensate for these damages caused by those responsible," said Fuellmich. "These responsible persons are not only, among others, Drosten of Charité and Wieler of the RKI, but also the WHO – who was the first to recommend the German test and so it being marketed in the USA."

This, says Fuellmich, will put the US justice system in motion and cause great panic among those behind the faulty test.

German daily COVID-19 deaths near zero

Overall, the primary claim made by the demonstration organizers is that the COVID-19 "pandemic" was over-hyped and that it is still being misused to spread needless angst among the citizens to get them to surrender their liberties. The latest figures bear that out.

Although the number of new cases has risen over the past few weeks, something the media has been trumpeting loudly, the number of deaths has long since flat-lined.

Crimes against Humanity

Trivialising Nazism

Blind hatred of Trump is sending some American Jews off the moral rails

By Melanie Phillips

There is clearly no limit to the depths of moral perversity that the enemies of President Donald Trump are prepared to plumb, not least within America's Jewish community.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America has released a new campaign ad aimed at Jewish voters in swing states which compares Trump's presidency to the rise of fascism in Germany.

The ad features parallel images of antisemitism and nationalism in Nazi Germany and today's America. There are images of antisemitic graffiti from 1930s Germany, along with similar attacks on a modern American synagogue and Jewish cemetery.

The narration states: "History shows us what happens when leaders use hatred and nationalism to divide their people." The ad ends with a warning: "Hate does not stop itself. It must be stopped. VOTE."

The council's executive director, Halie Soifer, said: "A majority of American Jews feel less safe today than they did four years ago due to the rise of white nationalism and antisemitism under Donald Trump."

"This, coupled with Trump's assault on our democratic institutions, are [sic] reminiscent of the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. President Trump's use of hatred for political purposes has made America less safe for Jews and we are voting accordingly."

Nor is this the only linkage of Trump with the Nazis. The Democratic presidential contender, Joe Biden, has likened him to the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

All of this is appalling for two reasons.

First, it slanders and smears President Trump. Certainly, he is a divisive character; rather than bring people together, he prefers to pour petrol onto the cultural conflagration. One can legitimately object to failings in his personality and temperament, as well as things he has said or done.

What is unacceptable, however, is to suggest he is a fascist, a Nazi, an attacker of democratic institutions and has made America less safe for Jews. Each of those claims is untrue.

Whatever his flaws, Trump is at base an American patriot. He stands for upholding the constitution, the rule of law and American values against those who would destroy them.

He has tried to enforce immigration law and the concept of citizenship; the Democrats seek to undermine them. He stands against the violent, anti-white and anti-American agenda of Black Lives Matter and Antifa; the Democrats support and endorse it.

Understandably exercised by the carnage wrought by this agenda on numerous American cities over the past few months, Trump clearly dismisses marginal far-right white groups as not even worth thinking about.

As a result, he has allowed his enemies to paint him falsely as a supporter of white nationalism. This happened again in his first presidential debate this week with Joe Biden.

Asked whether he would denounce white nationalism, he said "Sure." Pressed again to do so, he asked whom he was being asked to condemn. When Biden said the far-right extremist group "Proud Boys," Trump replied, "Proud Boys, stand down and stand by." He then repeated that the real problem was Antifa, and someone had to deal with them.

Afterwards, the president said he had no idea who Proud Boys were. It was obvious that he had been preoccupied instead with pointing out the left-wing violence of Antifa.

Trump's unwise dismissal of what he considers unimportant has enabled his enemies once again to distort what happened in order to smear him.

The claim that he encourages the far-right rests on an infamous falsehood, peddled repeatedly by Biden and which features in the imagery of the new campaign ad.

This is that, after the 2017 protest in Charlottesville, Va., over confederate statues that turned violent after attracting neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, Trump praised "some very fine people on both sides."

As his words made clear, "very fine people" referred specifically to the peaceful statue protesters. In the very next breath, he said: "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally." Yet his words have been twisted to claim he was praising neo-Nazis.

To accuse him in addition of causing attacks on Jews is breathtakingly perverse. Trump has done more for the Jewish people than any previous American president.

Not only has he proved himself to be a staunch ally of Israel, but he has also taken unprecedented action to combat antisemitism. At the end of last year, he signed an executive order allowing funding to be withheld from antisemitic college or educational programmes.

Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz called this measure "a game-changer," and said it was "one of the most important events in the 2,000-year battle against antisemitism."

Jews are currently being attacked from the left, from the far-right and from Islamic radicals and their proxies on the streets. But it's the Democrats who support Antifa and Black Lives Matter with their hateful anti-Jewish and anti-Israel agenda.

It's the Democrats who have given rise to "The Squad" of congresswomen who vent anti-Israel or anti-Jewish bigotry. It's the Democrats who happily associate themselves with the immensely influential former Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who calls the Jews "satanic" and blood-suckers," and claims that they have wrapped their "tentacles" around the US government.

If there's one characteristic common to left-wing ideologies, it is hatred. Left-wing ideologues hate and try to destroy anyone who challenges their dogma.

Trump has been the victim of this hatred. It's so strong that he has been subjected to an unprecedented three-year attempt to lever him out of office through an unsubstantiated smear campaign involving an abuse of due process by officials, the Democratic Party and the media.

Shocking as all this is, however, the second factor involved in this attack on Trump is worse. It is the use of Nazism as a casual smear.

It equates what Trump has done with the rise of Nazism. Since Trump is clearly not aiming to wipe out the Jews, nor create a totalitarian dictatorship, nor attempt the invasion and subjugation of the world, the conclusion must be that the Jewish Democratic Council of America is downgrading Nazism in order to make a below-the-belt partisan attack.

The ad speaks of stopping hatred. But as Ruth Wisse observes in her essay in National Interest, Nazism was not defined by hatred but was instead the organisation of politics against the Jews. "The politics of grievance and blame may indeed foment hatred, distrust, envy, rage, fear and violence, but it is primarily a political instrument for gaining, wielding, and extending power," she writes.

So this ad misrepresents and trivialises the true evil of Nazism — in order to promote baseless hatred against an individual, not just to oppose but to destroy him.

Blinded by hatred of Trump, his enemies rush to paint him as a Nazi while evacuating actual Nazism of its meaning and turning it into an empty political smear. This is to betray the memory of all who were murdered in the Holocaust or who gave their lives in the war to stop Hitler.

And not only is Joe Biden guilty of this moral bankruptcy but the Jewish Democratic Council of America — and the wider community of liberal Jews who are silently nodding assent to this disgusting spectacle.

It's not just the victims of the Shoah they are betraying here, but once again the core ethical values of Judaism itself.