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After Getting Handicap Allowance For COVID Vaccine Side Effects, Israeli Sues For 1M NIS Compensation
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A 69-year-old Israeli who became handicapped after undergoing three vaccinations against coronavirus submitted a claim for compensation from the state in accordance with the law for vaccination damages. The current law allows compensation of up to a million NIS.
Attorney Moran Avrahami Yomtov, who is representing the injured party, said that even though the benefits of vaccines for the good of the majority of the population mandate their being given, proper compensation must be given to those harmed by receiving the vaccines.
Attorney Yomtov added that the anti-COVID vaccines were authorized for broad use in an unusual and emergency manner. “This procedure significantly decreased the ability to adequately identify the cases which responded poorly to the vaccine,” she added.
“It is clear today that the number of side effects reported in the wake of the coronavirus vaccines increases as time goes on and their severity also increases.” Yomtov said. She added that it will take a long time until the real picture of damages caused by the vaccines becomes clearer.
She also complained that most of the claims for compensation are rejected by the committee of experts dealing with the issue, since the plaintiffs cannot prove a direct causal connection between the vaccines and the handicaps.
In this case, a healthy father of two and business owner was functioning normally until receiving the vaccine. After receiving the first shot, he began to feel pain over his entire body, which subsided after a few days. After the second shot, he felt stronger pains in his body and for two days was not able to get out of bed.
Despite his concerns about taking a third shot, he agreed to take it since the regulations in Israel prevented people from working or moving around if they didn’t take a third shot. After taking the shot, he began feeling shooting pains in his body and described them as similar to muscle spasms. For a few days he was in bed unable to move and even when he moved he suffered from a limp in his leg and from sharp pains.
Even today, three years after receiving the third shot, he suffers from severe physical restrictions and has not found any palliative for his pains. He is now undergoing biological treatment and the National Insurance Institute established his level of handicap at 58%, granting him a disability allowance.
One of the experts involved in the case dismissed the man’s claiming stating that he was suffering from Long COVID which had not been diagnosed properly, and that such symptoms are typical in post-corona syndrome. Attorney Yomtov submitted a different opinion from a clinical immunologist who said that the juxtaposition of the vaccine and the symptoms shows a clear causal connection between them.
Parts of Brooklyn saw more than 7.25 inches (18.41 centimeters), with at least one spot recording 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) in a single hour, turning some streets into knee-deep canals and stranding drivers on highways.
Record rainfall — more than 8.65 inches (21.97 centimeters) — fell at John F. Kennedy International Airport, surpassing the record for any September day set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.
SCREENSHOTS OF OCEAN PARKWAY AND WILLIAMSBURG FLOODING:
The Biblical Prophecy of Overfishing, Drought, and Pollution
In a list of prophecies describing the End of Days, the Talmud quotes a prophecy from the Book of Ezekiel - a prophecy we have seen perfectly fulfilled in our days. This video is a short excerpt from the full-length class available here: https://www.mayimachronim.com/prophecy/For more prophecies that have been fulfilled, please see here: https://www.mayimachronim.com/prophecy/
This week’s Perceptions is dedicated illuy Nishmas Rachel bas Yehudis, z”l,the mother of a dear friend of mine. May the family be comforted among the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim, and may she be a meilitz yoshar for all Klal Yisroel.
IT'S THE LAST parsha of the Torah, and it’s about the brochos that Moshe Rabbeinu bestowed upon the 12 Tribes just prior to his death at the end of the parsha. And just like the brochos that Ya’akov Avinu gave to his 12 sons at the end of Parashas Vayechi, they make no sense to us. Thank G–D for Rashi.
Even if we say that these brochos are different, more like prophecy, they’re still amazingly obscure. One can almost imagine the Jewish people listening to Moshe Rabbeinu saying them and scratching their heads saying, “Doesn’t anyone understand what any of this means?” Someone might have answered, “Don’t worry, in about 2,000 years, Rashi will be born and explain all of it!”
Why couldn’t Moshe have just given simpler and easier to understand blessings? I know that when we give blessings these days, we bless the person to get what they want…or need. Isn’t that what blessings are all about?
Wait a second. If that is what blessings are all about, then how do we bless G–D? There is nothing He needs or wants that He doesn’t already have, or could give Himself if He didn’t. And if He couldn’t give it to Himself, which is not possible, then how could we given it to Him since everything we have comes from Him?
The Nefesh HaChaim deals with this question in Sha’ar 2. He explains that the idea of a brochah, like the word breichah—stream—is a flow, a breichah being stream a flow of water in a breichah and a brochah being a channel for a flow of Divine light. When we bless G–D, we’re really saying that He should increase His flow of light into the world and thereby increase the revelation of His Reality.
This is why the word brochah begins with a Bais, which equals two. Two may not be much, but it symbolizes a lot, literally. One is, well, only one. But two is already more than one, on the way to become a lot more than, like three, four, etc. The concept of a brochah is the idea of praying that the recipient of the brochah, or G–D, receive more of something.
And not just of any something, but of something good. As the expression goes, “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.” What does that mean? If a person didn’t want something, why would they wish for it? Because, as life so often has shown us, what we think we want is not always what we really want, in the long run. Sometimes dreams can become nightmares and blessings, curses.
This is why some people, when asking for something, stipulate, “…but only if it is good for me.” This is also why people run to tzaddikim for brochos. They figure that a tzaddik has G–D’s ear, and that nothing bad can come through them. This way they will hopefully get what they want, and only if it is good for them.
SO WHAT CAN G–D have more of if He is missing nothing? Revelation. When we bless G–D, we’re really saying, “It should be that Your Reality should be increased in Creation,” meaning that people should become more aware of it. Clearly that can always stand to be increased.
But if everything that exists is a function of G–D’s will, then He is always here if only vis-a-vis everything He has created. Rather, it’s only man’s ability to see this, relate to it, and be real with it that has to be increased. So what we’re really saying is that it should be that man should wake up to His existence and running of history. But if so, then that blessing should be given to mankind, not G–D.
Yes, and no. Yes, because it is really up to man to make the world a better place so that G–D will be willing to reveal Himself more. But no, because after almost six millennia of history, man seems no closer to increasing G–D’s Presence in Creation and, if anything, seems only too willing to push Him further out of the picture. So we’re really asking G–D, when we bless Him, for help with the kind of Divine Providence that makes it happen, i.e., miracles.
But even miracles aren’t enough proof. When G–D split the sea, every last Jew knew it was Him and was in awe. Pharaoh and the Egyptian army however thought it was their G–D laying a trap for the Jewish people and ran right into the dry sea after them. Only after being tsunamied out of existence could they realize their fatal error.
And that was already witnessing the destruction of Egypt through 10 plagues. Pharaoh had already admitted that the plagues were from G–D, and that’s why he allowed the Jewish people to leave Egypt to serve Him. Why would he all of a sudden have a change of mind and heart and think that it was his G–D splitting the sea, and not the same G–D who did the plagues for the Jewish people?
The Torah hints to the answer here:
Speak to the Children of Israel, and let them turn back and encamp in front of Pi HaChiros, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Ba’al Tzephon… (Shemos 14:2)
And let them turn back: To their rear. They approached nearer to Egypt during the entire third day in order to mislead Pharaoh, so that he would say, “They are astray on the road,” as it says: “And Pharaoh will say about the Children of Israel…” (Shemos 14:3). In front of Ba’al Tzephon: This was left from all the Egyptian G–Ds in order to mislead them, so they would say that their G–D is powerful. Concerning this [tactic] Iyov said: “He misleads nations and destroys them” (Iyov 12:23). (Rashi)
In other words, it’s hard to believe that G–D is working on behalf of the Jewish people, or at all, if the Jewish people look weak and confused. It’s like watching the child of a rich person struggle financially. We just assume that there is no real relationship between the two of them, or the parent would help their child out. We don’t realize there might be other circumstances involved.
THIS BRINGS US back to Moshe’s blessings in this week’s parsha. He wasn’t just saying goodbye and wishing them good lives. He was telling that each tribe was an integral piece of a historic puzzle that had to find its proper place so that the world could function and reach its ultimate goal. When he blessed them, he gave them prophetic insight in how to achieve this, and a flow of light to help them hit their spiritual mark.
It didn’t even really matter if they understood what he said, though it helped. Saying the words was like pressing numbers on a lock. Certain numbers in a certain sequence unlock the safe, regardless of understanding how or why. The lock was pre-programmed to respond to both.
By fulfilling the purpose of each tribe, the purpose of the Jewish people would be completed as well. This would transform the spiritual environment and makes it easier for the entire world to see G–D in it and running it. We would become the completed keli, the vessel and channel for Divine light to flow into the world to fulfill the words, “G–D will be King over the entire world. On that day, G–D will be One and His Name, One” (Zechariah 14:9).
Every Jewish person living today descends from either the tribe of Yehudah, Binyomin, or Levi. The ten tribes that were exiled before the destruction of the Temple remain missing, whatever that means. But it doesn’t mean that the mission no longer applies, or that we should not be trying to figure out how we can personally help the Jewish people as whole fulfill their ultimate destiny.
A person can take the first step of asking G–D for help. He made us, and for a very specific purpose, even if we have yet to become aware of it. You can pray for a bigger house, or a raise in salary, etc. But you’re more likely to get answered if you realize the biggest blessing you can ever get is the one to be who you were created to be, and to accomplish what you were born to accomplish.
Ain Od Milvado, Part 67 (Simchas Torah)
UNTIL NOW WE have basically focused on seeing G–D as the only one responsible for all that exists or happens. However, the fact that this parsha always comes out on Simchas Torah gives us an opportunity to discuss the role of Torah in all of this.
When you love someone, you love what they love too. Automatically what is dear to them becomes dear to you. Granted, when it comes to human beings this rule can break down because it is possible to love them, but not everything about them. Even close spouses can have some different interests that do not appeal to the other spouse.
But this is not true when it comes to G–D, and certainly not true when it comes His Torah. Torah is not just a User’s Manual G–D had printed for man so he could make the most out of life. It is a collection of all the ideas that G–D holds dearest, albeit in a much watered down version for us. Kabbalah even goes so far as to say that G–D and His Torah are one.
That’s why when we celebrate Torah being in our midst on Simchas Torah, we’re not just celebrating Torah. We’re celebrating G–D being in our midst, and to the extent that a person does is the extent to which they can feel the truth of this. By the look on the faces of some people who really get into the simchah of Torah, they feel exactly what this means.
This makes our love of Torah a part of ain od Milvado. Just like G–D is everything, Torah is everything, meaning that nothing else matters but the learning and performing of Torah. As the Nefesh HaChaim explains, this means that even when you have to be involved in mundane matters, it has to be with a Torah perspective and outlook. It’s how a person can turn such mundane matters into mitzvos and part of Torah.
My brochah to you (and myself) is that you should be able to achieve this on Simchas Torah, and the rest of the days of your life, b”H.
Chag Samayach,
Pinchas Winston
Thirtysix.org Online Bookstore Link: https://thirtysix.org/shop/. To order directly from Amazon just search for books by Pinchas Winston.
World's largest sukkah is built on an area of 800 sqm and accommodates 650 people at a time; it has Biblical verses written on walls, combined with pictures of the city.
The Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Heritage Department, led by Deputy Mayor Aryeh King, put up this year the largest Sukkah in the world in the municipality’s Safra Square.
The sukkah is built on an area of 800 square meters and can accommodate 650 people at a time. The sukkah is also offering a variety of activities for the general public during the weekdays of the holiday, including workshops, plays and performances for all ages and sectors in the city, and all are free of charge.
Work on the sukkah began many weeks before the holiday, with a team of engineers and designers, under the direction of Deputy Mayor King, working on the planning and design of the sukkah, formulating safety measures and choosing decorations.
Verses from the Bible about Jerusalem were written on the walls of the sukkah and combined with spectacular photos of the city. King invited the entire Israeli public to the sukkah, to enjoy the many activities in it, along with cultural and artistic events for the whole family that will take place during the Sukkot holiday: the Saharena celebrations, the 11th Derech Beit Lehem Festival, the traditional Priestly Blessing ceremony at the Western Wall, and the Ein Kerem festival. Kleizmer musicians will be playing at the Jaffa Gate and in the Jewish Quarter throughout the week.
Also, the 68th International Jerusalem March will take place on Wednesday passing near the Jerusalem Mayor's sukkah. Tens of thousands of people will participate in the colorful and largest popular march event in Israel.
Miracle in Asa'el: Woman's headscarf stops terrorist's bullet
After terrorists shot at the village in the southern Hebron Hills, a woman found a bullet hole in her head covering.
A hole was found in the headscarf belonging to a resident of Asa'el in the southern Hebron Hills this morning (Monday) as a result of a bullet that was shot into the village last night.
The shots were fired by terrorists at the Jewish community. No one was injured, but several buildings were damaged. IDF forces were called to the scene and began searching for the shooters.
After the hole in the headscarf was discovered, Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strock, who visited the scene, wrote: "The greatness of miracle in Asa'el can be seen in the headscarf. Two terrorist bullet holes, not only in the wall of the workroom but also in the headscarf of the homeowner, a mother of five children.”
Strock quoted the verse from Psalms, "You have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling," and wrote: "Thank you, Hashem, for this great miracle! The residents of Asa'el deserve that we work a whole lot more for them, and that's what we'll do with G-d's help.”
She added: "Yesterday, I sat with the village secretariat, the security coordinator, and the regional council security officer. After years of discrimination and neglect, I, for the first time, am budgeting, planning, and executing the installation of security systems for the young settlements. We began installing many security systems this year in these communities, some of which for the first time since their establishment, and we will work hard to complete the project.”
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is hosting a public holiday festival today.
The event features a long list of popular Hassidic singers. Admission is free.
Visitors today and tomorrow will be able to visit the Isaac Hall, which will be open to Jews.
Tomorrow at 06:00 there will be a dawn prayer near Cave of the Patriarchs with Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu accompanied by musical instruments. Throughout the holiday, tours of the sites of the Jewish settlement in Hebron will be guided by the Hebron Synagogue free of charge, departing from the information center near the Cave of the Patriarchs.
On Monday at 13:00-15:30, there will be a tour of the Otniel Ben Kenaz cave. On Tuesday at 13:00-15:30, there will be tours through the alleys of the old city, known as the 'Casbah'.
The visitor center "Touch Eternity" in Beit Hadassah is open Sunday through Thursday from 11:00-18:00 with an entrance fee of 15 NIS for an adult, 10 NIS for a child, 75 NIS for a family. Food and drinks as well as a sukkah are available, and all refreshments are strictly kosher. For details, the public can call 072-2213660.
The Ancient Hebron archaeological site is open Sunday through Friday from 10:00 to 15:00, with free guidance by the Nature and Parks Authority. Shuttles to the site leave from Beit Rachel and Leah, near the Cave of the Patriarchs complex.
Samaria governor Yossi Dagan joined the Samaria march together with the Minister of Settlements Orit Strook. The march went towards the altar of the biblical Joshua in response to attempts to destroy the site by the Palestinian Authority.
The participants called to protect the historical sites in Judea and Samaria and protested the Palestinian Authority's attempts to appropriate the Jewish historical sites including the Cave of the Patriarchs, Ancient Jericho, the Temple Mount, the Joshua's altar in ancient Samaria, which they are trying to appropriate "for Palestinian heritage" with the assistance of the European Union. The march included performances by singers Shuli Rand and Aharon Razel, and speeches by public figures.
Minister Strook said that "One of the most serious events of destruction of the Palestinian Authority's heritage is taking place on Mount Ebal. I am here to make it clear: the Israeli government will not stand by. Last Sunday I discussed the issue at the cabinet meeting, and soon another discussion will be held and decisions will be made."
It should be clear: wherever the Palestinian Authority acts contrary to its commitment according to the Oslo Accords - in any such place the State of Israel must take responsibility and act on its own, and this principle certainly also includes situations of destruction of heritage."
Governor Dagan said: "The people of Israel are voting with their feet. How exciting it is to see the thousands who are coming here, from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat, from the USA and from all over Samaria. We come here lifting our heads and connecting to our deepest roots at the altar of Joshua, where we became a people. In the face of the Palestinian Authority's barbaric attempts to destroy the altar site, to erase the heritage of the people of Israel, we come here and say that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel."
We are happy that Minister Strook and the Israeli government understand this challenge, and have stopped the damage on Mount Ebal. We will work with the government to establish a heritage site here to preserve it. We are here to win. A person who remembers his past will have a real future in his country."
the Sephardi chief rabbi’s blunt insults are refreshing
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hazon Ovadia, and author Yalkut Yosef on Jewish law on Saturday night succeeded, not for the first time, in insulting multitudes of non-kosher and kosher Israeli when he stated during a class that secular Jews are miserable because their lives lack satisfaction and clarified that “A person who eats non-kosher, his brain becomes dull, it’s difficult for him to grasp things, he doesn’t get it.”
The chief rabbi has a low opinion of secular Israelis. He said that he sees “everything that happens in the secular public, they are miserable. They have no satisfaction in life. It’s all about lust… It’s unbelievable… You see the promiscuity in the secular public, all the problems it causes.”
“They envy us, you know, it’s all jealousy,” he continued. “You see the Haredi public, they have holidays, they have children, they go out with them on holidays… Everything stems from jealousy and this jealousy develops into hatred.”
The chief rabbi said nothing that isn’t stressed by Jewish tradition about the fact that sin leads to spiritual and mental dullness. The Talmud in tractate Yuma 39a teaches: “Sin stupefies the heart of a person who commits it, as it is stated: ‘And do not impurify yourselves with them so that you should not be thereby impurified (ve’nitmatem, you become tameh, unpure)’ (Leviticus 11:43) Don’t read the term as: ‘impurified’ (ve’nitmatem) but ‘stupefied’ (ve’nitamtem).
And Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto’s Mesillat Yesharim teaches (c.11): “And the forbidden foods exceed all the prohibitions because they enter the human body and become part of his flesh.”
The Netziv of Volozhin said in his halachic rulings that one must be careful not to allow minors to eat traif food more than watching their Shabbat observance.
Sefer ha-Chinuch suggests that “Impurity is known to the sages as weakening the intellectual prowess and mixing it up and separating it from the universal higher intellect and it remains separate until it is purified.”
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, 71, like his exulted father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Ztz’l, has no problem attacking behaviors and individuals he considers to be a negative influence on Israeli society, and he does it in a blunt and unpretentious style that has made him many enemies. In March 2016, after then-IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot demanded that soldiers not kill a terrorist who has already been subdued, Rabbi Yosef insisted that soldiers must kill anyone attacking them and disregard the military rules of engagement.
That same year, Rabbi Yosef also said that gentiles who do not observe the Noahide Laws must not live in Israel, and if they refuse to obey the Torah’s commandments for gentiles, they should be sent to Saudi Arabia. He also taught that the purpose of gentiles who live in Israel is to serve the Jews.
Some may not like it, but none of the above teachings is without a solid foundation in classical, mainstream Jewish tradition.
As expected, the good rabbi’s colorful teachings were great fodder for attacks on him and the Haredi sector by the usual suspects, most notably opposition leader Yair Lapid and Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman, who have both built their political careers in part on hate for religious Jews. Both of them came up with the same response, almost word for word, namely that the only stupidity of secular Israelis is that they continue to pay the salary of Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
But against the background of relentless, brutal attacks by several hundred very secular Israelis on Jews who pray on Yom Kippur in the public space, and more recently the demolishing of public sukkahs and attacks on Lubavitchers who offer passersby on city streets an opportunity to shake a lulav, the Sephardi chief rabbi’s blunt insults are refreshing.
An important post from Rabbi Daniel Green about Dor Yesharim follows the article.
Fake Meat and Fake Rabbinic Rulings
Rav Moshe Feinstein versus the Erev Rav of today
I wish to preface my lengthy critique of rabbis who are promoting fake meat with the following disclaimer: I'm not qualified to chime in on whether fake meat is technically kosher or not, and I've purposely avoided getting involved with hair-splitting analysis of scholarly material. It's more the process and behind the scenes agenda that concerns me. If people want to eat artificial goo grown from fetuses and they have what to rely on, that's their business (though I would be concerned about bal teshaktzu — defiling one’s soul — even if it is technically kosher).
However, this shouldn't be promoted as saving the planet or sparing animals from harm. That's the pretext for foisting this sludge on us, upon which all scholarly rationalizations hinge. When you cut out the pretext from under them, there is no reason for normal people to want to eat this sludge.
The 20th century saw unprecedented innovation in technology, which presented new questions and challenges for the Torah giants of the time to address. Instead of merely relying on “experts” or deferring to them, Gedolim like Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach performed due diligence. They meticulously studied the matter, in essence becoming experts in their own right, before undertaking the awesome responsibility to issue rulings.
These rulings were documented with a detailed analysis of the various sides of the issue, the relevant Torah sources, and the train of thought that led to one conclusion over another. Torah scholar and layman alike could study these rulings, debate them in the Beis Medrash, correspond with the Rabbonim, and at times even offer an insight that would lead to a revision in the ruling. Everyone who approached the process with sincerity – not an agenda – would come away more educated and enriched. The Torah was alive, and all of Klal Yisrael had a portion.
Notably absent from this unique era were halachic rulings from these Gedolim issued via sound bites in the media or professionally produced videos. Rav Moshe could have saved a tremendous amount of time by simply giving orders this way instead of writing Igros Moshe – they had video cameras then too – yet Rav Moshe and his contemporary Gedolim did it the painstaking, old-fashioned way. This is the way it was always done, even in the most difficult of circumstances, even in the darkest pits of the Holocaust. If the halachic process is to have any integrity, this is the only way.
In recent years the halachic process has been hijacked to a degree unlike any since the time of idolatrous kings, and with it the integrity of the process has gone out the window. Halachic rulings on even the most sensitive issues are now typically issued via hyperbolic proclamations, op-eds, social media posts, and videos that are scripted and funded by people as far removed from halacha and integrity as can be.
Concurrently, society has been dumbed down, misinformed, and downright brainwashed to believe such statements are not only valid, but authoritative and binding on the entire Jewish people. In just a few decades we went from studying brilliant teshuvos that brought all the issues to light to sharing clips of actors in rabbinic garb performing for the camera, and making life and death decisions based strictly on the cast and carefully scripted lines: Rabbis, Robots, and Rodfim.
No thought process involved. No education. Just sound bites and instructions – the very definition of propaganda. This is how halacha, or what poses as halacha, works today.
In Igros Moshe Yoreh De'ah 4:38 Rav Moshe Feinstein offers critical insights into how halachic rulings are supposed to work. He is responding to a Rav who had asked about a previous letter. Before we even get to the substance of Rav Moshe's response, we must emphasize that Rav Moshe frequently engaged in lengthy back and forth with people who questioned his rulings. Unlike the charlatans of today, Rav Moshe did not consider such questions a nuisance, he did not talk down to the people who sent him letters, and he did not casually dismiss them. On the contrary, Rav Moshe frequently expressed gratitude for their thoughts and humbly thanked them for considering his words worth studying and responding to.
Furthermore, Rav Moshe laboriously wrote letters by hand to Rabbonim and ordinary people alike until he was no longer physically able due to age and poor health, after which he dictated them.
With all the tools of easy communication we have today, you can't get a straight answer out of most rabbis – none of whom are worthy of shining Rav Moshe's shoes – who issue “rulings” from on high. Oftentimes you cannot access them at all unless you know someone who knows someone, or pay a handler for the privilege, and even then they won't give you the time of day.
Back to the teshuva. Rav Moshe had previously written that that he did not want a sefer to be printed with just his halachic conclusions, without the reasoning and sources. He explains as follows:
The reason for this is because I know my low worth, that I don't know all of Shas in the two Talmuds, Bavli and Yerushalmi, and all the words of the poskim, and certainly not the words of our rabbis in their commentaries and chiddushim on Gemara, Rashi, and Tosfos and their responsa, and there are some I have not even seen. However, I relied on the fact that I clarified the halacha to the best of my ability, which is the primary aspect to ruling, as I wrote in my introduction to my book of letters.
I further wrote that, since I wrote my reasons and all that has been clarified, I am merely like a teacher of halacha, so the questioner can delve into it himself and examine it and choose. And I also brought there the words of Rabbi Akiva Eiger [who responded to questioners out of a sense of duty, but counted on the Rav asking the question to study the matter and decide for himself].
And even though I know that some people will not study the matter at all, and they will rely strictly on my ruling at the conclusion of the response, he had it in his hands to study it. And when he doesn't have the free time, he is permitted to rely on it for the moment when he is busy, and to study the matter at a later time. And if it doesn't appear correct to him, he can go back on it…
Rav Moshe goes on to explain that if a sefer were printed with just his “bottom line”, people would rely on that in other cases, when he only has the power to rule on specific cases that are brought before him. “A Torah scholar is permitted to rule against me [even in similar cases] if his reasoning is proper according to his opinion,” writes Rav Moshe.
He continues as follows:
Even if [a Torah scholar] is given explicit permission to issue rulings to the entire world, and also to issue responsa on practical halacha, there is no force to these rulings, except as a matter of learning. Only with a Sanhedrin is this considered a ruling to create a capital offense for an elder who rebels, because the Sanhedrin has the power to issue rulings that one is obligated to listen to even if there is no practical case before them.
If even Rav Moshe and Rabbi Akiva Eiger, by their own admission, had no authority to issue binding rulings on all of Klal Yisrael, the little rabbinic tyrants of today who serve the establishment, who attempt to browbeat and mislead the ignorant masses with bombastic proclamations and clever distortions, are not even worthy of our time and attention. Their words are null and void.
Rav Moshe continues with a Talmudic analysis that is outside the scope of this article, but I encourage those who can to study it. The end of this teshuva is particularly relevant for our times:
We see that the reasoning is the primary aspect of halachic rulings. Therefore, even after the sealing of the Gemara, after which it is no longer within our purview to say reasons that we made up in our hearts, but only to understand the reasons of the Gemara, we nevertheless need to understand in our own minds what the Gemara clarifies, which largely depends on the manner in which it is explained [through the chain of traditional commentaries and poskim that Rav Moshe mentions].
...Being that this is the case, the giants in Torah need to clarify a new question, and not just literally a new question, but whatever halachic ruling has not been publicized regarding a matter is like something new, requiring great study and understanding.
The Torah giant responding should be concerned that the matter might have already been clarified by another giant, or will be clarified in the future, contrary to what he decided is the law. Even though now he is allowed to rule according to his logic, and even if at a later time another giant will disagree with him, at the present time the law is clear to him according to his logic, and he is obligated to rule according to what appears to him to be the law – nevertheless, it's not appropriate for him to write this in a sefer as an absolute law according to what he ruled, in brief, without his reasons and sources.
Therefore, even though I wrote this letter over the fact that I don't want just my halachic conclusions in my letters to be printed, I mentioned that in general there is no one at all in our times who can say and print novel halachic rulings that are not explicitly mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch without providing clarification and sources…
With this firmly in mind, consider this 2017 video from Supermeat with the presumptuous title “Clean meat will be kosher.”
That's right, as far as these morally superior saviors of the planet were concerned, it was a foregone conclusion that rabbis would declare their Frankenmeat kosher. It was only a question of when, not if. How did the unlettered creators of this video know which rabbis to approach? This is a question worth pondering.
It begins with Rabbi Dov Lior stating that “there are mitzvahs whose main purpose is to prevent animal suffering”. This segues to “the advancement of science”, which allows people to get the nutritional value of actual meat without “any need to harm animals”.
Of course, one with even slight familiarity with the Torah will know that the laws against cruelty to animals or causing them needless suffering have no relation to presumed theological issues with eating meat. Eating meat is central to our fulfillment of the Torah. Eating the meat of the Pesach offering is one of only two positive commandments that carry the penalty of spiritual extinction if one does not fulfill them. (The other is circumcision, and it is no coincidence that these two commandments are relentlessly attacked by morally bankrupt hypocrites who consider themselves more compassionate than God Himself.)
Furthermore, meat features prominently at nearly all our holy occasions, and is recommended as a source of strength and vitality throughout the year (see Chullin 84Aand the Chafetz Chaim). Slaughtering an animal to partake of its meat (or to write a Sefer Torah) is not “harming” the animal. It is using the animal for that which Hashem intended it, and thereby elevating the animal to a higher spiritual level. The scoffers will scoff, but if we are discussing the Torah's actual position on the matter, what Lior articulates is squarely against it.
Next we see the “leading ethicist” Yuval Cherlow, who magnanimously concedes that, in his opinion, eating meat is allowed. However, considering the appalling condition in which cattle and chickens are raised on an industrial scale (in this he is correct) he views the development of “cultured meat” as “a great redemption.”
He literally speaks of fake meat in Messianic terms – the precise opposite of what we pray for with the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash.
Having established in barely sixty seconds that Frankenmeat is just what the Torah wants, we then see Shlomo Aviner, an establishment tool who sabotaged popular resistance against the Erev Rav destruction of Gush Katif from within. The fact that he is still relevant to many of the very people he betrayed, to the extent that Supermeat would solicit his services as a rabbinic shill, is Stockholm Syndrome at its finest.
Aviner poses a scholarly question: “Do I rule according to the process or do I rule according to the result? If I rule according to the result, it appears just like ordinary meat. But, if we rule according to the process, and the process is nothing like the usual process of how animals are raised and meat is produced, then it could be parve, and one could take cells from a living animal.”
In less than half a minute, sans a single actual Torah source, let alone a competent discussion of the numerous issues related to taking cells from living animals and growing them artificially into something resembling meat, Aviner takes for granted that this is kosher, and the question is merely whether or not one can eat it with dairy.
Compare and contrast with Rav Moshe Feinstein's explanation of how psak works – and how it doesn't. The video then cuts back to Lior responding to the same question. Unlike Aviner, he has no scholarly qualms:
“It's not considered meat and is clearly parve,” he declares from on high with forceful hand gestures. The interviewer then asks a silly question. “And it's kosher?”
“And it's kosher!” Lior exclaims. “That's clear.”
The next cut shows Lior offering a scholarly fabrication of his own.
“Every material in the world, if it changes and becomes something else, in the words of the Halakha it's called 'a new face has come here'. Does it retain its former identity or not? A thing that had changed has lost its former identity, and is called 'a new face’.”
Lior, or whoever edited the video, doesn't bother to flesh out this ruling (pun intended), but the message is clear enough. Since the cells taken from a living animal have changed and become something else, it's parve (and obviously kosher), even though the animal was never slaughtered according to Jewish law. Why? Just so. It's obvious.
Of course, this raises the question of why we need to begin with a kosher animal altogether. Why not Frankenpork? (Indeed, Cherlow already declared this is kosher.) Why not something resembling meat that originated with cells from aborted babies? Why not bugs that have “lost their identity” and become “a new face”?
But the very foundation of Lior's novel ruling is built on dubious ground. The term “a new face” does not appear in the Gemara with reference to unclean food reinventing itself as kosher food. It appears in reference to vessels and objects that became tamei, spiritually impure.
Normally these can be cleansed with immersion in the mikveh or, in more serious cases, with the ashes of the red heifer, but there is another alternative. If such a vessel is broken to the extent that it can no longer be used for its previous purpose, the impurity disappears from what remains of it. If the vessel is then repaired (subject to the details of the laws, which are complicated) it is as if “a new face has appeared” and the former impurity does not settle on the refurbished vessel.
This argument is indeed used by some to permit gelatin from non-kosher sources, but even the OU rejects it. So why does it work for fake meat culled from unslaughtered animals?
What does “a new face” have to do with taking cells from a fertilized egg and growing something resembling chicken nuggets in a lab? Absolutely nothing. Unless, of course, Lior can present powerful evidence to support his thesis, which he does not.
This is an excellent example of what Rav Moshe Feinstein referred to as “reasons that we made up in our hearts”, as opposed to our license“only to understand the reasons of the Gemara”.
In a later clip Lior outdoes himself with pseudo-halachic nonsense.
“Here, from the beginning it's not considered meat because it's a microscopic thing…”
What is the minimum amount of meat for something to be considered meat, as opposed to parve? He does not say, or provide a source.
Then comes the coup de grâce(ˌko͞o də ˈɡräs):
“...And you artificially, make it multiply, I don't know how it's done. [Waves the problem away with his hands, then closes his eyes intently.] And even if it was really meat, because it changed its form, so “a new face has arrived here” and it's not considered meat, and it's clearly parve.”
And God spoke and it was so.
Dov Lior admittedly has no idea what they are even doing, and he can't be troubled to look into it, but it's obviously kosher, and it's clearly parve.
It can take years to bring back one person who is estranged from Torah, but rabbis who talk like this can drive them away by the thousands.
In case the viewer is troubled by Lior coming across as a total shmuck, Yuval Cherlow reappears to urge us forward.
“If in it lies part of the solution, I think that one must run with it.”
So spake the ethicist. Don't concern yourself too much with the details of halacha. We have a moral obligation to run with this, just like he would later rule that we have a moral obligation to destroy the lives of anyone who refused to take part in medical genocide.
The video concludes with one final burst of nonsense from Dov Lior:
“Certainly there is interest in research in general, especially in this field that could prevent the killing of animals. Moreover, this coincides with the goals of Judaism in the future, maybe it's already starting in our generation. At the beginning at least we'll do it, until humanity will uplift itself and afterwards they won't eat it (meat), and that's the goal that we will return to the ways of the first man.”
Actually, the prophets and Chazal do not emphasize returning to the ways of the first man. We do not yearn for the day when we abstain from eating meat, we do not yearn for the day when we print out Sifrei Torah instead of writing them on parchment from slaughtered animals, and we do not yearn for the day when we walk around naked like the first man.
One who opens up a book of Tanach or Gemara to a random page is fairly likely to find that the goals of Judaism in the future are to kill lots and lots of animals in the Beis Hamikdash, and outside the Beis Hamikdash, in the performance of numerous mitzvosthat we pray numerous times every single day to be able to fulfill.
Rav Moshe Feinstein and the Torah giants of even a generation ago would never disgrace themselves and the Torah by appearing in a propaganda video. Rav Moshe wouldn't even allow his rulings to be published in absence of the Torah sources and detailed analysis behind them. Our generation has fallen a great deal in a very short time, and our Torah giants have been replaced mostly by Erev Rav and fools.
Let us not go back to the days of the first man, but at least to the days of Rav Moshe Feinstein, who clearly articulated for us how real Torah works — and how it doesn't.
The same people who say "shomer p'saim Hashem" when it comes to taking poison shots take the polar opposite approach when it comes to getting married and having children. The existence of this organization and its ever-expanding criteria guarantees that singles will stay single longer and fewer Jewish children will be born. Might as well be run by Klaus himself. (emphasis mine)
Do you think if I met that special someone I would look for trouble with Dor Yesharim and pass her up if they don't give the green light? That would be insane. Well, it's just as insane for an 18-year old. You never know if the first person you meet is the most suitable match you ever will meet.
We have organizations telling people who they shouldn't date and apps telling them who they should, with shidduch resumes and incompetent shadchanim for good measure. A brave new world. A “shidduch crisis” is the ONLY possible outcome.
my comment on this post: The seque into “scientific creations (inventions to replace real “fleisch")" may lead to the attempted prevention of the Korbonos designated by Hashem (as is now the govt. prevents the Pesach Korban to be brought, even though we are under the ongoing commandment to do so even in our time when there is no Beis) to be brought onto the Third (and final) Beis HaMikdash, if indeed Hashem Wills it.
my comment about Dor Yeshorim: their work involves some serious diseases that can be prevented by “particular” screening for this partiular disease, but not for extraneous other objectives. The above should be taken into consideration, but also the history of families of both potential candidates for marriage.
