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In Igros Moshe Even HaEzer 4:113 Rav Moshe Feinstein responded to a question that concerned a husband who, unbeknownst to his wife at the time they married, turned out to be engulfed in homosexual behavior. Could the marriage be annulled due to mekach ta'us (a purchase made under false pretenses), or would the wife require a get (writ of divorce) as is standard? After a Talmudic analysis, Rav Moshe writes as follows (see here for original Hebrew): “Regarding the matter at hand, since we find that a great blemish is in essence a mekach ta'us even regarding a woman [who...

My tablet won't copy this page, which I've seen happen once before, but I wanted to post this. I read once that Israel would reach 50% Orthodox Jews in population by 2040. Looks likely.

Polticians from outgoing coalition say Likud chief's agreement to put Avi Maoz in charge of Israel's Jewish identity is a 'slap in the face,' could 'plunge Israel into the abyss' The prospect of a hardline, ultra-conservative, anti-pluralistic, homophobic nationalist being appointed as the next government's head of "Jewish identity" was met with staunch rebuke from politicians from the outgoing coalition on Sunday, with lawmakers slamming the move by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu as "insanity," "racist" and "unreal". Avi Moaz, the single lawmaker of the fringe Noam party, is one of the Knesset's most far-right politicians, holding non-pluralist Jewish views and...

'Every faith-based university in the country has the right to work with its students, including its LGBTQ students, to establish the clubs, places and spaces that fit within its faith tradition.'NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) – A Jewish university in New York is temporarily suspending all undergraduate student club activities pending final resolution of a dispute over whether it will be forced to recognize an LGBT student group, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a lower-court ruling ordering it to recognize the club. Yeshiva University declares on its website that “our five core Torah values comprise our moral...

The practices that distinguish the faithful from the religiously disengaged are both surprising and logical Across America, young men and women are abandoning religious faith in droves — and Judaism is no exception. More Jewish adults than ever classify themselves as religious “nones.” In fact, according to the latest Pew survey on American Jews, fully 40% of Jews under the age of 40 describe “themselves as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular’ rather than as Jewish.” This pattern is most pronounced among younger Jews. These young adults rarely or never darken the door of a synagogue or mark Shabbat, according...

An Orthodox Jewish university has suspended all student club activities following the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of a temporary order sparing the institution from having to approve the establishment of an on-campus LGBT organization while its case is adjudicated. Yeshiva University told students in an email Friday that it would "hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the U.S. Supreme Court to protect YU's religious freedom." A spokesperson for Yeshiva University told The Christian Post in a Monday statement that the institution filed briefs on Friday, as instructed by...

New York is poised to strengthen its oversight of private and religious schools following years of complaints that thousands of children are graduating from ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools lacking basic academic skills, including the ability to read English. A Board of Regents committee unanimously approved guidelines Monday to make sure instruction at the state’s private and religious schools is equivalent to that of its public schools. The rules would apply to all of New York’s 1,800 nonpublic schools but would have the greatest impact on the ultra-Orthodox schools, called yeshivas, some of which provide rigorous religious instruction but little or no...

The US Supreme Court delivered a temporary victory for a Jewish university under assault by the alphabet people.Yeshiva University in Manhattan is the oldest Jewish university in America. Like Catholic and other religious-based universities, It accepts students from all denominations and awards degrees in a variety of disciplines.While inclusive, Yeshiva University expects all students to uphold certain orthodox Jewish practices on campus, such as observing rules concerning dietary restrictions and Shabbat.As former RedState Erick Ericksson is fond of saying, “you will be made to care.” In 2020, a small number of Yeshiva students and alumni banded together to pummel the...

After being forced to host an LGBT club and violate tenets of Orthodox Judaism, Yeshiva University is fighting to preserve religious freedom.Must religious institutions abandon certain core tenets to operate in the public square? That question is at the heart of yet another lawsuit arising from the tensions between religious liberty and anti-discrimination laws.This week, New York’s Yeshiva University — an Orthodox Jewish university — filed an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court after a state supreme court judge ordered the school to recognize an LGBT student group in violation of its religious beliefs regarding sexual morality. Yeshiva has...

Sex is the most powerful, all-pervasive force in human experience. It may be intensely personal, meaningful, and creative at one moment, and depersonalized, meaningless, and careless the next. Much of its glory is that it can bring us as close as we may get in life to experiencing the mystery of our mortality, and because of this it is sanctified. Yet it can also be a blind, nearly irresistible force seeking wanton release on the biological level, and in this way its sanctity is perverted. Paradoxically, sex—the most chaotic, powerful, and untutored drive—can only be fully experienced when it includes...

The Baal Shem Tov once said that he was capable of rising to heaven in a fiery chariot as did Elijah, but he would rather undergo the transformation of “…and to the earth you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19) Because through the initial dip downward—as far down as you could possibly go—you can reach much higher. So if it seems to you at times that your life has made a sharp turn downward, or that the world around you has taken a great leap backward, Know that this is only a necessary prelude to a great spring forward and upward yet...

Joseph wanted to raise the Egyptians to a higher spiritual and moral plane. So he arranged that they be circumcised. That way, perhaps the exile destined upon his people would be shortened. The plan backfired. Rather than alleviating the Egyptian exile, Joseph empowered the Egyptians to oppress his people yet more viciously. Joseph believed he could shortcut the Egyptian exile. We sometimes delude ourselves that we can hot-wire our own darkness. We imagine we can bring thousands more to Torah, if we just would compromise with electronics on Shabbat. Or that we could achieve so many more mitzvahs, if we...

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This is life, all of it: Sitting like a small child upon the shoulders of the Creator of heaven and earth as He carries us out of slavery in Egypt to eternal life in the Promised Land. Everything along the journey is sweet and good, if we will only embrace it with love. Even the pain is good, a pain that cleanses body and soul as we rise to a place higher than our little minds can conceive. And yes, even those paths we believe we’ve stumbled down by our own fault, He carries us tenderly through those as well,...

For each thing that exists in time and space, says the ancient Book of Formation, there is a place within the human soul. The seven nations that occupied Canaan exist within the human soul. They are the seven raw emotional modalities that every human being must conquer and transform—such as selfishness, anger, impatience and jealousy. But before entering Canaan, the Israelites first had to battle with Midian. Midian is the place in the human soul where there is no room for another. It is not rational, nor can it be reasoned with. The holy Zohar connects Midian to the word...

A reporter for Australia's ABC met two of the men charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Journalist David Lipson suggests that the brothers Michael and William Null were more pretenders than the "real deal"..... A private security guard for a Denver TV station arrested after he shot and killed a conservative protester who sprayed him with mace following a verbal altercation..... Sweeping arrests in Portland late Sautrday night during a protest near a police precinct.... Also in Portland this weekend Patriot Prayer supporters removing a statue erected by anti-police violence protesters...... A federal appeals court...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are using coronavirus restrictions as a "blatant double standard" to discriminate against people of faith, using threats of fines and criminal prosecution, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. “Why is a large worship gathering deemed more dangerous than a mass protest, full of shouting, arm-waving people in close proximity to one another?” Christopher Ferrara, Thomas More Society special counsel, said in a statement to Fox News. “These orders, both the emergency stay-home and reopening plan declarations, clearly discriminate against houses of worship,"...

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly condemns Orthodox Jewish bonfires that have drawn large crowds in Israel tonight..... The lines are being drawn here in Pennsylvania over a regulated re-opening of business in the state... Four south-central Pennsylvania counties with Republican majority commissioners (Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York) setting this Friday as the date for moving to a 'yellow' phase but Wolf warning of consequences including loss of state funding.... Interpol has issues a 'red notice' for the arrest of the wife of a US diplomat accused by British police in the killing of a motorcyclist in 2019..... An...

Another incident involving New York City police moving in on Orthodox Jewish mourners this afternoon. NYPD moving in to disperse a crowd and send away a vehicle carrying a coffin in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood. The situation considered to be in violation of "social distancing" rules in the city leading to the police attempt to disperse the funeral.... Hundreds of protesters at Michigan's State Capitol in Lansing today demanding and end to the state of emergency declared over the coronavirus. Governor Gretchen Whitmer replaced a previous emergency order set to expire today with a new one that ends on May...

When I was around six years old they showed "The Outer Limits" on independent television from Channel 5 in Washington DC, now Fox 5. In those days we had over the air signals and in York, PA if you were high up the antenna brought in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC signals etc. etc. etc. Right now DC 19 controls the horizontal but they are going to "restart the economy" and give us a "new normal" as they control the vertical. We will remain under control and restriction even if business is "reopened". Limits on people in buildings like restaurants...