The Sages were eloquent on the subject of
lashon hara, evil speech, the sin they took to be the cause of
tzaraâat. But there is a meta-halachic principle: âFrom the negative you can infer the positiveâ So, for example, from the seriousness of the prohibition against
chillul Hashem, desecrating G-dâs name, one can infer the importance of the opposite,
kiddush Hashem, sanctifying G-dâs name.
It therefore follows that alongside the grave sin of
lashon hara, there must in principle be a concept of
lashon hatov, good speech, and it must be more than a mere negation of its opposite. The way to avoid
⚔️
️ Foiled: Jordanian officialsarrested nearly two dozen people over the weekend in connection to a plot to overthrow King Abdullah II. Former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the king’s half brother, led the efforts and is now reportedly under house arrest.
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He’s Running: Imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti registered to run in the Palestinian Authority election at the last minute, shaking up the first scheduled vote in the territories in 15 years.
⚕️ First Aid: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 85, is reportedly on his way to Germany to seek medical treatment. Looking Up: The New York Times’s Isabel Kershner explores life with a “green passport” in Israel’s “brave new post-pandemic future.”
Rolland Kidder
I am a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran, though not entirely by choice. One reason I joined the Navy is because I didn’t want to get drafted into the Army.
From just before World War II until 1973, after the Vietnam War, every American male reaching the age of 18 was subject to the draft. That was the way we provided the manpower for our military. Had there had been no draft, I may never have chosen to enlist in the Navy.
What the draft did was to throw together Americans from all regions and walks-of-life into the same basket. I had been raised here, in a relatively sheltered rural, small-town community in Upstate New York. I had never really gotten to know people from El Paso, Texas; Brooklyn, N.Y. or Tulsa, Okla., before serving in the military. I had never really gotten to know someone who was Jewish or Japanese; really poor or really rich; minimally-educated or better-educated–until I went into the Navy. The Navy was the mixing-pot that became my way of
Rolland Kidder
I am a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran, though not entirely by choice. One reason I joined the Navy is because I didn’t want to get drafted into the Army.
From just before World War II until 1973, after the Vietnam War, every American male reaching the age of 18 was subject to the draft. That was the way we provided the manpower for our military. Had there had been no draft, I may never have chosen to enlist in the Navy.
What the draft did was to throw together Americans from all regions and walks-of-life into the same basket. I had been raised here, in a relatively sheltered rural, small-town community in Upstate New York. I had never really gotten to know people from El Paso, Texas; Brooklyn, N.Y. or Tulsa, Okla., before serving in the military. I had never really gotten to know someone who was Jewish or Japanese; really poor or really rich; minimally-educated or better-educated–until I went into the Navy. The Navy was the mixing-pot that became my way of
Rabbi Shais Rishon speaks at a rally in New York City, January 2020. (Gili Getz via JTA)
JTA In the first chapter of Rabbi Shais Rishon’s new Torah commentary, the voices of ancient rabbis mingle with contemporary poets and, at one point, with “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson.
It’s all part of Rishon’s attempt at writing a text “that is firmly traditional/Orthodox, but with a modern and non-myopic lens on race and gender,” as he put it in the description of a Kickstarter campaign that recently raised $11,500, more than twice his goal.
The commentary, titled “In Black Fire,” represents an extension of Rishon’s ongoing efforts to speak up against racism in the Orthodox world. The 39-year-old rabbi frequently tweets on the topic to his more than 12,000 followers, and writes and talks about it in Jewish publications. He is the author of a semiautobiographical novel about a Black Orthodox rabbi that sheds light on the constant questioning faced by many