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Joshua Cypess Profile picture
@JoshuaCypess
Nov 7, 2020 • 83 tweets • 29 min read • Read on X
17.01/ Did I miss anything over Shabbas? OHHH!

I knew it! I knew it would be announced on Shabbat! I'm late for all the celebrations, but OH MAN

#BidenWins! It will take time to process, but this is an incredible day for America
17.02a/ OMG Barukh Dayan ha-Emet, two giants of Torah passed away over Shabbat. Oh no!

Rav Dovid Feinstein z'l, son of Rav Moshe Feinstein z'l
vosizneias.com/2020/11/07/__t…
17.02b/ And Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks z'l!

It's a great day for America and democracy but we need to share it with the great sorrow of the deaths of two giants of Torah.
vosizneias.com/2020/11/07/rab…
17.02c/ I met Rav Sacks z'l first when I was 18 yrs old and he visited my yeshiva before he became Chief Rabbi of the UK. I've eagerly read his parsha sheets every week, his books & academic style theology has been inspirational.
17.02d/ Rav Feinstein z'l was the mesader kiddushin at my brother's wedding, as he's a cousin of my sister-in-law. To say I was awe-struck in his presence is an understatement

When gedolim of Torah fall, all Jews are as family. Here, for us, its even more so. Barukh Dayan haEmet
17.03/ @Yair_Rosenberg has been saying this for a year or so. And the Biden campaign just made it explicit: they ignored Twitter

17.04a/ I know liberals/leftists (whatever it's called these days) are so worried that Biden's "unity" rhetoric means that he's going to go squish on fascists (aka the GOP). I think you have to read his words deeply.

17.04b/ When he says "Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America" that means he knows that the other side, the GOP, were against Democracy. And that his win is thus a repudiation of anti-Democracy, what we would recognize as fascism.
17.04c/ I see so many people not understand political rhetoric, or at least take things literally & not understand the art and nuance of this kind of speech.

That's what "this is not what we are" means - a recognition that his opponent was a threat to America.
17.04d/ Follow-up after the awesome speeches. When he calls for everyone not to see each other as enemies & for D&R to work together, he's not talking to his supporters. He's setting the bar: it's to warn the GOP against obstruction
17.05/ Works for me.

We even blew up a Death Star this time (deep cut for wonks re: the gimbus Parscale)
17.06/ This makes sense to me. I've long compared the fight against the RedHats as a war, and Biden-Harris' win felt like the Liberation of Paris
17.07a/ When he 'won' 4 years ago to the day, it was one fo the worst days of my life. The utter dread I felt for everything that would - and has - happened over these long long years was compressed into that night

17.07b/ It's not over, there's still time for some of my worst fears to happen in the next few weeks, and his group of domestic terrorists (any group with "militia" or "posse" in the name) to pull some atrocity. But I felt all of the rotten violence in a crashing blow that night.
17.07c/ And it all came true. The Muslim Ban, the border camps, the transgender ban, the court packing, then the economic war of raised taxes for blue states & mindless tariffs

Charlottesville, The Tree of Life Synagogue - I feared & knew it all
17.08/ I showed my family this with the physical paper. The NYT shunting his rabid, flailing yawp into the lower left corner.

Five years too late, but baby steps. The spell is breaking
17.09/ Purim 1991, the first Gulf War ended overnight for us in Israel. One day we were carrying gas masks with us, and atropine in case we were hit with a nerve agent, living in terror for the next siren. The next day the war was over.

17.09b/ We had the radios on the 'silent station' over Shabbat so we could hear the reports of the missiles landing and could learn of the all-clear, but would also hear about which cities had been hit. Haifa & Tel-Aviv mainly. In a war we technically weren't in.
17.09c/ We listened to the news constantly - even more than normal for Israel where bus passengers would go quiet when a news bulletin came over the radio.

This is what the past 4 years were like. A war by the President, his political party & his Legion of Goon
17.10/ Bibi congratulating Biden is a fun coda to this relationship. Bibi is a king of transaction politics (see: 3 corruption charges) and he played Trump (ym'sh) like a kinor

17.11/ Nature is starting to heal
17.12/ We paid attention to all of the people who donned the RedHat, who cheered the cruelty, who took of their masks and showed us they were happy with autocracy & fascism.

We won't be shaving heads of collaborators, but we SAW YOU. We won't forget.

17.13/ Trumpentaschen recipe suggestions for you bakers out there?

Maybe a fragile tart slathered with pareve yellow frosting (how fake can you get?) and filled with orange marmalade.

17.14/ I will try to write about this later, but this may have been really singular because most incumbent defeats required a 3rd party: Taft, Carter, Bush. Or after 3+ terms of the same party: Taft, Hoover, Bush.

17.15/ Link to the live funeral for Rav Dovid Feinstein z'l
livestream.com/accounts/20969…
17.16/ This is a crucial point. Empathy & compassion is a default, automatic, state. And it often comes with another automatic feeling, a need for justice for victims of the RedHat cruelty.
17.17/ An important set of maps to understand. And to see, truly, who saved us in 2020

17.18/ Here's when Rudy finds out that he needs to book a flight to Ankara pretty quickly and change his name, maybe some plastic surgery. A fitting end to this cousin-marrying, police-state lusting racist.

17.19a/ So many things will be repaired, automatically, because we will have restored a government that operates under the rule of law.

That's why the anti-GOP coalition was so huge; this wasn't partisanship, it was democracy vs fascism

17.19b/ I said to my wife on Shabbat after a friend told us that PA had been called and Biden-Harris' win was official: Now we have a future.

Under Trump (ym'sh) we had no future. For what this means, see @TimothyDSnyder & the politics of eternity.
17.20a/ Few of my favorite reactions

1 Russell Wilson:

2 Trump (ym'sh) is more the Wizard than the witch, but I'll allow it


3 Senior Chief Nance (note: the pro-national security coalition will be crucial)
17.20b/ 4 Both the message from George Clinton & Katz' quip


(Just to say, I was playing Clinton over and over last week, especially this song: . That's how old I am.)
17.20c/
5 King James - who did SO MUCH


6 Schooley has been such a great read over the years, and this as a good example as any


7 The Four Seasons saga is so sweet
17.20d/ 8 The police problem is part of the next set of battles, but this is sweet:

9 Sasha Baron Cohen telling us his priorities. I am SO GLAD he's on the right side, and that he'll go after Zuckerberg next
17.21/ Last week's thread was so long that I had a difficult time printing it out. I'm wondering, during this interregnum period, when we finally have a future (see 17.19b), whether I should actually break this up mid-week

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1322897…
threader.app/thread/1322897…
17.22/ The NYT is so credulous it's painful.

They report "In reality, the mistake was not in the booking, but in a garbled game of telephone" as if the RedHat's excuses are credible (they NEVER tell the truth) or they won't change the story

nytimes.com/live/2020/11/0…
17.23a/ Representation matters; we did get a 4-fer with Harris because she's a woman, Black, South-Asian, married to a nice Jewish fella.

That both POTUS & VP are in blended families has significance too. Biden having a stutter, so #CripTheVote too
17.23b/ Re: the Jewish identity: I was proud when Lieberman was chosen because it showed "we made it" (& probably helped Gore win Florida). There's the old canard that Clinton was the first Black president but, ya know, not really. Obama was a huge step forward.
17.23c/ In the same vein, I quipped that Obama was the first Jewish president because he was the subject of insane conspiracy theories, constantly dehumanized, and subject to crippling delegitimization. But again, not really.

Note, I'm not aching for a Jewish president.
17.23d/ America has been very good to the Jews; historically good. And there's been Jews in high power for decades. Before a Black SCOTUS judge, we had a few. The ratio of Jews in the Senate, House, Governorships etc. vs African-Americans has been lopsided.

IMO, dayyeniu for now
17.24/ I'm still waiting for the final tallies, but Enten is correct (and it's one reason he was my go-to during the whole election period). The quants can pat their backs all they want, the poll data was ridiculously useless in 2020.

17.25/ Obama needed to use a lot of executive orders b/c #MoscowMitch obstructed everything he did as part of his racist & fascist lust to destroy American government.

Trump (ym'sh) used EO b/c he's an incompetent negotiator who couldn't use a trifecta to get more than a tax cut
17.26/ Thread about the stress release of the election being called for Biden-Harris. There's way more work to do, but I like our chances.

17.27/ 2020, even when we're trying to celebrate, keeps trying to be the WORST. BD"E #AlexTrebek
nytimes.com/2020/11/08/art…
17.27/ My brother @acypess just recognized, Trebek a'h outlived the real Sean Connery but just a bit. #AlexTrebek #SeanConnery
17.27b/ Trebek's death, not a day after I learn of the passing of two Gedolei Torah - Rav Feinstein z'l & Rav Sacks z'l - underscores how much this year feels like a war. So many losses. I don't want to forget them, or get overshadowed by the hellscape.

17.28/ They're not afraid of Donald any more.
17.29/ Noice!
17.30/ Just a periodic reminder that the entire 'throw sand in the gears of democracy' gambit by the GOP to discredit the election results - by delaying the counting and claiming a fraudulent early victory - rests on #Literalist thinking (& the magic power of TV shaping reality)
17.31/ My wise older brother @acypess described the election results, & the defeat of the fascist GOP, as going "from to Rod Serling to Gene Roddenberry"

Going from the Twilight Zone world of Serling, where we were told "LOL nothing matters" to the optimistic world of Star Trek
17.32/ How it Started. How it's Going. #HowItStartedHowItsGoing 2016 in front of a Clinton-...2020 in front of the Biden-...
17.32b/ A thread with context for why I put up signs in the first place.
17.33/ RedHat's are all self-absorbed selfish egotism. Notice, even when they were smashed in a #BlueWave, they're demanding us to 'reach out' and 'understand them'

Victims very much understand abusers; they need to for survival.

You cannot get compassion until we have justice
17.34/ My son just told me that former NFL CB is now an FBI agent. It happened two years ago, but that just feels very 2020 to me in it's utter weirdness.

"Peanut Tillman... FBI"

espn.com/nfl/story/_/id…
17.35/ Again (again), I'm waiting until all the data is in before coming up with any Hot Take on the election meaning (why am I the minority in this, grrrr) but here's one theory that I'm resting with for now

17.36/ To expand on later: I was told back in the 80s/90s that the first Black president and first woman, would need to be a Republican because of something something. This was absolute conventional wisdom (supported I guess by Sandra Day O'Conner)

Nope.
17.37/ Just found a note I wrote, possibly in 1999, and possibly not from me:

Possible doesn't mean probable
Probable doesn't mean likely
Likely doesn't mean definite
Definite doesn't mean always
17.38/ Thread about my growing frustration at the news media's haste in making pronouncements about the Meaning of The Election despite knowing it's too soon, based both on 2018 & the pandemic/VBM

17.39/ This strikes me as correct. Trump (ym'sh) is about 2 things (1) staying in the limelight/news & (2) destroying the government's effectiveness

I'd add spite/revenge. He likes to kick sleeping puppies.

17.40/ Some #Steelers thoughts so, for you non-NFL people, by all means ignore the thread (which is why I'm separating it off like this)
17.41/ A thread about why I'm not too worried about the latest GOP gambit to discredit the election & seize power. It is still designed to significantly damage our democracy & that is contemptable. But that's a different axis of evil.
17.42/ RedHats are all grievance & violence. They are lucky that Biden-Harris are about justice & not the vengeance & cruelty that the GOP has been doling out.

Anyone who claims to be 'good' must accept justice. It's revealing that they don't.
17.43/ One weird silver lining of the dragging on of ballot-counting was that I was able to get a copy of this paper through my weekend home-delivery of the NYT and NJ Star-Ledger (support local news!)
17.44/ Methinks President-Elect Biden took lessons on how to give shade by his mentor, President Obama. This is a grrrrreat answer to the questions about the GOP refusing to accept reality

17.45/ Here's a great example of what I call the Biden-Harris coalition: ex-GOP campaign maven Steve Schmidt approvingly forwarding a message from Senator Elizabeth Warren. Big tent to defeat fascism, y'all

17.46/ Anti-SLAPP laws should be in a 50 states. These protect people from well-funded/powerful people who want to bully their victims into silence. NY now has one. Kudos.
17.47/ Exhibit eleventy-billion & six of why I enjoy twitter so much (this genre is also called "this website is free!"). Here's Rick Wilson following up on a suggestion by Monica Lewinsky
17.48/ Yay! My teacher Rav Blau:

"Pragmatic political alliances should not replace moral and ethical standards. When a religious community becomes committed to a problematic personality for practical gains, it risks losing its fundamental character"

blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-ethical-co…
17.49a/ We knew Trump (ym'sh) would cling to power by any means & that they would not go quietly. I just didn't think they be SO literal about it, like Homer:
17.49b/ Prof. Snyder's says to believe fascists when they tell you what they'll do & boy howdy did they telegraph this clumsy coup

Again, I'm 3 out of 10 on the worry scale, especially since Biden literally laughed off their antics yesterday.

scholars.org/contribution/t…
17.50/ One of my favorite twitter authors seems to be temporarily in twitmo for some tomfoolery, so she asked her subscribers to send out her latest missive.

I've learned an enormous amount from Alexandra's wisdom & can't imagine Twitter without her.

alexandraerin.substack.com/p/where-there-…
17.51/ I've spent the past few days at a (virtual) conference on Gender Safety & Equity. I was supposed to have been working on a yearlong project in this arena, and I explained that the rise of fascism - and near takeover - in America is directly connected to toxic masculinity
17.52/ I had no idea Goofus & Gallant have been around since 1940. Now I won't feel ashamed to use the term goofus, given it's hoary heritage
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofus_an…
17.53/ Tired of the chaos from the fascist gimbus RedHats? See this about the Biden-Harris transition. Our government is starting to look more like America:
17.54/ In 2016, I had prepared to eat a triumphal meal to celebrate Trump's (ym'sh) defeat and that was a terrible addition to the horrible night. But tonight, we feast! Thank you Park Place

Pulled beef sub, sliced steak sub, hot poppers, and chili!
17.55/ Any scholar of Dave Barry (which my whole family are) is familiar with this sobering tale of a whale being (incompletely) blow'd up. It's in his best book ("the green book" as we call it)
17.56/ Brief revisit to my thread last year about the Democratic primaries and the different categories of candidates, Head of State vs. Head of Government types. Biden is a HoS: he ran on vision & the type of America people (overwhelmingly) wanted

17.57/ Massive narcissistic injury will do that, dontcha know. Slip the word that if he resigns in disgust he can always claim victory because who wants to be president anyway?
17.58/ I'm glad to have all sorts of allies, but compassion & justice is the only way to be 'liberal' (see the exchange below for context)

This shows there's likely Blue voter equivalents of the RedHats were the tables turned

17.59/ Lord knows I'm a sloppy writer, but I pledge my sundry readers that I will try to avoid these two phrases:

(1) "I have no words"
(2) "Let that sink in"

#1: I won't write anything until I have words! Seems obvious
#2: This is print; insinking is inherent in the medium
17.60/ Thread with two thoughts about the Biden-Harris victory as it relates to the strength of the US democracy, esp. compared to some other countries in similar crisis (UK, Israel), using the work of Levitsky & Ziblatt

17.61/ My hope for the next 3-4 years is that we'll expose all of the crimes of the GOP & their perfidious alliance with Russia etc. so, when they depict our period 20+ yrs later, this election will be fictionalized as the END of this dark era, like how 1945 is depicted for WW2.
17.62/ Shabbas starts in like 2 hours (yipe!), so might as well wind this thread up. #ShabbatShalom y'all!

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227.01/ Week two-hundred and twenty-seven, November 16-22, 2024, thread begins here.

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Downloadable PDF with working links to Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars. 19 pages. #ChayaSara #ChayeiSarah

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Nov 9
226.01/ Week two-hundred and twenty-six, November 9-15, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 225 below.
226.02/ Yup. Still here on Twitter. Gonna keep the fight and keep the faith. And also... no regrets. #HarrisWalz2024 Picture of 2 items: on the right is the volunteer badge my family wore when canvassing in PA. On the left is the door-knob flier we would put on unresponsive houses.
226.03/ #MotzeiShabbatMovieNight continues. What movie? What else to start a new season, and in such a shockingly bad time? #Casablanca.
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Nov 3
225.01/ Week two-hundred and twenty-five, November 2-8, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 224 below.
225.02/ Finally dropped off our ballots this morning & took a selfie. A fun thing then happened: a young dad carrying a baby arrived after us & he said that it was his first time voting after becoming a citizen! So I insisted on taking a photo of him (with his camera). USA! USA!
225.03/ Yes, I'm the one who waited all Shabbas for the poll, taught my kids how polls work (social science PhD, baby) & what I hoped would happen (GOP leading by only 5). And they got to see my stunned elation in real time when I read the news.
Read 44 tweets
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Oct 27
224.01/ Week two-hundred and twenty-four, October 26-November 1, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 223 below.
224.02/ There's sticker shock and then there's "standing on the bathroom scale after 3 three-day yuntifs and 2 major fasts over 3 weeks" sticker shock.
224.03/ BTW, Trump (ym"sh) abd the MAGA-GOP going completely mask-off with racist nativism was very much on my BINGO card.

Read 29 tweets
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Oct 20
223.01/ Week two-hundred and twenty-three, October 19-23, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 222 below.
223.02/ Downside of "October is the Best Sports Month" - mixed blessing really - is that at 8pm tonight 3 of my teams will be on at the same time. NYMets facing elimination, #LIGHTITUPNYL in the last game of the finals, and the Steelers on SNF.
223.03/ #ChochmatNashim for #Vezot #SimchatTorah #SheminiAtzeret 2023-5784 (LAST YEAR). @ChochmatNashim
Downloadable PDF with working links with Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars on the topics of the week. 23 Pages
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Oct 14
222.01/ Week two-hundred and twenty-two, October 12-16, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 221 below
222.02/ #ChochmatNashim for #Sukkot 5784 2023 (LAST YEAR) @ChochmatNashim.

Downloadable PDF with Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars on the holiday & other weekly topics. 15 pages.
drive.google.com/file/d/154AH4_…
222.03/ Another October sports is awesome moment: Mets playoffs, Yankees playoffs, Monday night football plus the #NYR at home. Pretty much all at the same time.
Read 7 tweets

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