BC POLITICS
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

1/ OK a few more #Exodus thoughts (because I'm going through a mountain of parsha stuff amidst all my other writing) connected to the #DvarTorah here about the nameless collective-compassionate action of the multitude being the engine of the salvation.

 2/ It struck me to link to another conundrum (kinda like the large plague frog in the room): how Pharaoh has his free will removed

So, the nameless action could be a purposeful contrast to the singular powerful individual who normally is history's focus.
https://t.co/PYOeJ29P1A
3/ IMO God manipulates Pharaoh in order to prevent one person making too much of a difference!

This ties into another larger point I often make about the culpability of the Egyptians & how actually they, not Pharaoh, are the focus of the plagues.
4/ My point contrasts how the Egyptians - who were responsible for being enslavers, for dehumanizing & stealing the labor of Israelites up to the point of joining in the Pharaoh command of infanticide (see 2:22)
https://t.co/k2pvbSiVgu
5/ These individuals needed to make their choices without coercion from the autocrat, hence Pharaoh lost 'free will' in his capacity as someone who can move the engines of political power.

He lost free will in order to preserve the free will & action of his subjects
6/ The same subjects who enjoyed free/stolen labor. The same who joined in killing children b/c it served their xenophobic goals (see 1:10, the numerous Israelites will replace them?) These people needed to learn their own lesson or else face punishment
https://t.co/nZNogJc0RM
7/ This is the crucial point of Ex. 9:20-21:

Those among Pharaoh’s courtiers who feared the LORD’s word brought their slaves & livestock indoors to safety; but those who paid no regard to the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the open

https://t.co/DPT4OYUaJw
8/ This is also why I praise the Mixed Multitude, the Eruv Rav, b/c in my mind they were the point of the plagues. I see them as righteous gentiles who became Jews by Choice, and while good in itself, by contrast they damn those who refused God's warnings
https://t.co/jdAhRp9Jzd
9/ I've written elsewhere that the Righteous Gentiles of the Shoah are an overlooked part of the 'lessons' we're to learn: that it was possible to resist.

[Although, see this thread for a very sharp critique of the universalizing of the Shoah] https://t.co/B3d5Oe6z0h
10/ BTW, the Eruv-Rav needed to convert for technical reasons (it's how anyone could survive plague #10, also how some Israelites may not have survived, if they didn't bring a korban-Pesach, no distinguishing doorpost).

Otherwise, righteous gentiles are a world l'chatchila.
11/ My kids know how to press one of my shiny buttons, which are the bigoted divrei Torah about the Eruv-Rav being responsible for every sin in the desert.

I won't get into it now but that idea is so crazy wrong I can't stand it.
https://t.co/SkrUsJkPLL
12/ In sum: the free-will problem of Pharaoh is linked to the need for nameless, collective action of the nations: Israelites to keep faith in God's covenant with Avraham, which ipso facto means being compassionate, in contrast to the super-Sedom, Egypt https://t.co/Wa05zGYKZs
13/ Avraham's people needed to practice nameless compassion while the Egyptians - who acted as unhospitable, cruel, and greedy as Sedom - needed to either repent & follow God, or be punished with plagues

This required removing from history the single powerful man like Pharaoh
14/ This ties together the earlier dvar Torah (see 1st post) of nameless collective action with the question of Pharaoh's lost free will along with the moral question of how the plagues could've been an unjust collective punishment
https://t.co/mtT4VrDwci
15/ The plagues are justified when we see that Pharaoh's commands could have been resisted (like we see with Bat-Paro and Shifra & Puah, who I insist were Egyptian) and this highlights the culpability of the society that maintained slavery and murder.
16/ OK, maybe I can turn my attention to my other work now. Whew. #DvarTorah #Parsha #Vaera #Exodus

@threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader_app please compile.

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1/ This thread is an attempt to capture some of the week's discussions about Q*non and how to handle the cult followers and the danger they embody

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1/ A thread of comments & observations about the death of the cackling vampire Rush Limbaugh.

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1/ Many people remark that we wouldn't have survived 4 more years of Trump (ym'sh) - and I agree - but this was a 40 year project of destroying the democratic form of US gov., starting with Reagan, and accelerated from Gingrich.

DJT was to almost the final hammer blow.

2/ Both Roosevelts changed the function of the government from preserving the entrenched power to an instrument to help people survive & thrive

TR was a Progressive, tore down the monopolies, established public health etc. When he left the party, the GOP became what it is today

3/ Wilson took up TR's platform (TR helped by splitting the 1912 vote) and when the GOP won in 1920, they actively tried to undermine the entire new project of what America would do for its

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But FDR, thank God, was able to pull us from the brink

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1/ Another observation the #Literalist fallacy I see about how much Trump (ym'sh) has planned all of the chaos & violence. My overarching point will be that society is structured & that means there's an inherent pattern to effects no matter the 'intelligence' behind the causes

2/ The virus should teach us this. #Literalists claim it was made in a lab because they see a killing-machine that carves its way through society and they must apply individual force & cause to the effectiveness of the biological organism

3/ #Literalists see only the tree, not the forest, so they think every effect stands alone, and thus has individual cause. This is the root fallacy of 'intelligent design'

its what led my ancestors to presume every disease is caused by a demon. Nature becomes personified.

4/ [Note, I'm not a deist, I believe in an active, caring God - the God of the Exodus, not just Genesis - but, ironically, in our hidden-faced age I can only see God's presence in the anomalies of nature (miracles), when it skips a pattern, and not from it's surface efficiency.]

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1/ I'm just reflecting about how many leaders from the Modern Orthodox community passed away in 2020. The list is an overwhelming pantheon of pivotal, unique, and creative rabbis. I'm stunned by the enormity of the loss.

2/ Right at the end of the year, the 9th of Tevet, we lost Rav Henkin z'l, probably the most prominent & compassionate Dati-Leumi posek we had! It's rare to have a highly superior halakhist with unimpeachable standards who is also wise &

3/ Another Dec. loss: Rav Schwartz z'l of Chicago, another towering posek who took brave & indominable positions that understood modern society while having complete, airtight respect for tradition.

In my work in medical halakha, he was a crucial

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The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
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सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

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हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


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Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed
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Bahcesehir Uni, BAU has an official website https://t.co/ztzX6uj34V which links to their social media, leading to their Twitter account @Bahcesehir

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... other sources who have been trying to shine on light on this grifter (as I have tried to do, time and again:


Example #1: "Still not seeing Sweden signal versus Denmark really"... There it was (Images attached).
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Tweet: https://t.co/36FnYnsRT9


Example #2 - "Yes, I'm comparing the Noridcs / No, you cannot compare the Nordics."

I wonder why...

Tweets: https://t.co/XLfoX4rpck / https://t.co/vjE1ctLU5x


Example #3 - "I'm only looking at what makes the data fit in my favour" a.k.a moving the goalposts.

Tweets: https://t.co/vcDpTu3qyj / https://t.co/CA3N6hC2Lq
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Sathyabhama was sure that she have enough wealth to balance Krishna.

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Mueller's officially end his investigation all on his own and he's gonna say he found no evidence of Trump campaign/Russian collusion during the 2016 election.

Democrats & DNC Media are going to LITERALLY have nothing coherent to say in response to that.

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They looked high.

They looked low.

They looked underneath every rock, behind every tree, into every bush.

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THERE WEREN'T ANY.

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