36.03/ Mentioned to my brother @acypess this morning that Biden has a superpower to (a) make his positions sound moderate & reasonable no matter what, which then (b) drives his opponents crazy in frustration. E.g. Putin & #MoscowMitch recently, challenging him to duels & whatnot.
36.04/ I promised a 3rd #ReshetKeshet on Beshalach (the other 2 below). So it doesn't get lost: IMO the increasing 'segula' madness in the Haredi community comes from their kollel-pyramid scheme collapsing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segula_(K…
36.06/ According to Wikipedia, pizza may have been/was invented by Italian Jews as a modification of #Passover food!
I'll accept this dubious fact because of (1) triumphalism & apologetics, (2) #Passover is hard and I want to grab as many wins as I can en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o…
36.07/ This is a pretty extraordinary effort that fits right in the middle of the Venn diagram of my artistic sensibilities: a subjunctive trailer for the 1967 Casino Royale film with audio from the 2006 film. Even matches the character voices to image.
It's not just you: #ShabbasErevPesach is difficult & annoying. Acc. to below, the next one is 2025 but then we don't get another for 20 years, in 2045.
See this screenshot for more trivia about this weird year
36.09/ Two good threads about the racist history of the filibuster.
BTW, last year before all this I was speaking to Rabbi Gordon Tucker & we discussed my notion that minority rule (almost) always leads to injustice & corruption
36.10/ Good thread about what 'canceling' really looks like. As expected, the conservatives decry 'Kancel Kulture' only because they want to detain their monopoly on power
36.11/ Every year I try to make new signs to put on my cabinets, pink paper for chametz & blue for Kosher for #Passover . Here are the 2021 signs. The monkey image comes from the linked IG video instagram.com/reel/CMOup0moa…
36.12/ Would like to nominate this interchange as "Peak Internet Culture" - where some ravenous amoral numbskull gets snippy at an author after asking her how best to steal her book online.
36.13/ I need to invent words for two certain types of scurrilous cheater: (1) those who fake a handicap to take advantage of relaxed rules (the Disneyworld thing) & (2) those who jump and follow emergency vehicles after other drivers cleared the road for them.
36.14/ Just going through the magazine now & so many of my friends have articles in it, like Dr. Shana Strauch Schick (first woman to get a PhD in Talmud from YU/BRGS), Laurie Novick (one of the very first Yoatzot Halacha). And many of my teachers.
36.15/ I understand the crisis of no #BidenPressConference has been dealt with. Our long national nightmare etc.
Any substantive answer to "why is this night different from all other nights?" because it keeps coming up.
36.16/ I will say that the utter slavishness of the major news networks & newspapers to pushing bad-faith GOP propaganda has never been more obvious. The border stuff?! We have a pandemic & racist violence & vote-suppression & gun crises. The border is a xenophobe stalking horse!
36.17/ This was a wrinkle I didn't know about before. If no stable government is made in Israel, then Benny Ganz is still slated to become prime minister in November.
36.18/ The issue isn't that gun nuts & their fellow travelers don't know about people arming themselves like video game characters to go to the grocery store, it appears this is a feature not a bug. They *want* the freedom to terrorize & even kill at will.
36.19/ My wife just got me a nice #Passover gift: shallots and cilantro! It's the special foods that make Pesach special (like eating pure chocolate for a snack, and way too many potato chips)
36.20/ Also, for those in the know, don't forget this at the first #Seder, Saturday night.
36.26/ This is the weirdest possible three-day-yuntif which also expands #Passover to NINE days, and I'm now worried about the wind knocking out our power. So #ShabbatShalom & #ChagSameach everyone!
209.02/ Following the assassination attempt on TFG yesterday - an act I condemn; ballots not bullets - the reaction by news agencies has been unhinged. But I'm singling out The Daily Beast and Politico who are lionizing TFG using very disturbing rhetoric. I've had to unfollow.
209.03/ I'm furious that so many in Congress are playing this dangerous game but I'm reminding myself that (1) the MSM has been fabricating stories & amplifying mythological pro-GOP nonsense for a while now & (2) I trust Biden's abilities to handle this like he did NATO.
208.02/ Demographically, I should be part of the "elite" but the past two weeks showed me that I'm a solid true-blue member of the Democratic "base" because I'm standing by Biden-Harris & have a white-hot rage against the media (& the cowards in my party) trying to take us down.
208.03/ People ask "Why haven't the media learned their lesson from 'But Her Emails?' in 2016"?! But the answer is QED - they did learn their lesson: that with relentless bad-faith attacks they can knock out the Democrat & elect a cash-cow tabloid buffoon. They know & want this.
207.02/ I didn't see the debate because I can't stand listening to Trump (ym'sh). The bizarre meltdown by the MSM calling for Biden to drop out is not only disgusting but reignited the normie-Democrats' blazing anger at the MSM goofs that brought us "But Her Emails" in 2016.
207.03/ Ironically, the drumbeat from the MSM about Biden's age for months - probably starting right after the withdrawal from Afghanistan which ruined their gravy train - prepared the public for how he sounded at the debate. The MSM hit-job backfired.
205.02/ It's important to know: every pawn can become a queen.
205.03/ #ChochmatNashim for #Behaalotecha 5783 (last year) @ChochmatNashim
Downloadable PDF with working links of Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars on the parsha and other topics of the week. drive.google.com/file/d/14uXvSR…
204.02/ What incredible news! Barukh Hashem, 4 hostages rescued from those monsters.
'Operation Arnon’: How 4 hostages were freed from Hamas captivity in central Gaza
204.03/ #ChochmatNashim for #Naso 5783 (last year) @ChochmatNashim.
Downloadable PDF with working links to Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars on the parsha and other topics of the week. (I'm not sure I can update this well enough for 5784 today) drive.google.com/file/d/1b46N_z…