Thread by @JoshuaCypess

75.01/ Week seventy-five, Dec. 18-24, 2021, thread here.

Week 74 below.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1469831530642092032

75.02/ Over Shabbos I read my family the #JortsTheCat story & much fun was had by all. I uploaded a PDF of the story with OCR text from images I found on twitter. The pure pics are (1) images of the cats & (2) a "I can't believe it's not Jorts" joke.
drive.google.com/file/d/15FziVO…

75.03/ Had one of those theodicy-inducing funerals this morning. My neighbor, Sari Shalmon zt'l, passed away too young. Her life was dedicated to acts of kindness, teaching Torah and teaching science, and selfless giving. Very sad, hard loss. .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה rpry.org/about/people/1…

75.04/ Manchin is a small-souled person who - like many driven to elective office - craves the spotlight more than anything else in life. That's what I've said before and it remains the truth. "Why is he..." because he wants attention. That's it.

https://twitter.com/mikememoli/status/1472579906957676548?s=20

75.05/ This is a really great thread, constantly updated by the indefatigable @tify330, listing the rainbow coalition of Biden/Harris judges. She has made a number of similar lists; worth reading when you feel down.

Start

https://twitter.com/tify330/status/1408174718545432577?s=20

Latest

https://twitter.com/tify330/status/1472553110967095296?s=20

75.05b/ Connected to above, here's some data on the judges put in place by Biden/Harris:

https://twitter.com/WeDemandJustice/status/1472204263027838978?t=EFBc07gZcRucEgJyUQK3TA&s=03

75.06/ My parents just had to cancel a visit to us b/c of the explosion of Omicron. It's disappointing but (a) there's a sense of satisfaction when I can choose safety over comfort... feels like a mitzvah (b) so many around me are maskless & reckless that I have limited options

75.07/ Just saw a commercial for that cruddy cola (Ppsi) that features some guy messily scarfing down nachos with black olives & gulping the cola. Am I alone in detesting hearing loud eating noises? How is this convincing? It's also implausible because, ugh, that drink is gross.

75.08/ The Times of Israel blogs have some great Torah resources and I wish I could figure out how to subscribe to authors. One great page is for the Chochmat Nashim authors. Highly recommended.
chochmatnashim.org
blogs.timesofisrael.com/topic/chen-olp…

75.09/ This is a good breakdown that exposes the rotten core of that viral "gawrsh kids these days are so dumm" story about the syllabus money in the locker:

https://twitter.com/TheTattooedProf/status/1472603185122627584

75.10/ This video below of T.J. Watt being held by two offensive lineman, arms around his waist like a roller-coaster harness is why he needs to win Defensive Player of the Year. #HereWeGo

https://twitter.com/BlitzVideos/status/1472648735549272074

75.11/ This is real. That is actually Canada's PM. #DiehardIsAChristmasMovie

https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1472329156482539522

75.12/ My reply at the time to this:

https://twitter.com/Steelersdepot/status/1472783210912256001?s=20

(All in all it was a decent weekend for the #Steelers)

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1472785900014870531?s=20

75.13/ This was a brilliant response:

https://twitter.com/BCox5503/status/1472916229681733632?s=20

to this news (Mazal Tov @ZBNFL!)

https://twitter.com/ZBNFL/status/1472914747305734148?s=20

75.14/ This is a brilliant piece of Torah! Thank you @TheTonightSho for teaching me @claire_ism's vort

https://twitter.com/TheTonightSho/status/1473039566198218754?s=20

75.15/ I endorse this meme (reposting to ensure alt-text). Via @scottderrickson

75.16/ Sent out earlier in the week. I'm convinced that the far Left is determined to criticize Biden for not being perfect no matter what he does. It's tiresome, especially since the white-supremacist GOP wolves are baying at the door.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1473128001827229696?s=20

75.17/ This is a brilliant observation that I've cited to multiple people since I first read it.

https://twitter.com/agraybee/status/1473639710526480384?s=20

75.18/ As above with COVID, Biden eventually does the right thing.

IMO four years of a coked-up Trump (ym'sh) & his grotesque Klansmen acting at the speed of Twitter has deluded the MSM/Far Left into thinking Biden has to keep the same reckless pace.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1473706456390291465?s=20

75.19/ Is this Baba Yaga's beach house?

[Image: a ramshackle wooden house built on 4 trees with roots that look like chicken legs]

Paging Hellboy... bring ammo.

https://twitter.com/BizarreBuiIding/status/1473957893258940416

75.20/ Jack Ham could be the most underrated #Steelers player of all time. #HereWeGo

https://twitter.com/Ol_TimeFootball/status/1474008635470581764

75.21/ Excellent point in an excellent thread about the way evil is obscured by immersing it in structures, in this case the bromide blurting GOP presidents that encrust the judiciary with retrograde brutes. It's weaponized #Literalism.

https://twitter.com/LemieuxLGM/status/1472314682673274881?s=20

75.22/ Been davening all week at a Sefardi shiva minyan & while I have years of experience in this liturgy, as an Ashkenazi it still feels similar to watching Rugby as an NFL fan. "Wait, the runner is down, but the play is still going?" becomes "no Ashrei or Aleinu? Oh, woops"

75.23/ My brother @acypess sent this to me from Mar 03, 2020 as an awesome reminder of what a miracle the vaccines are (and why this isn't March 2020). Get boosted, mask-up, but it's a WORLD of difference now and then.
cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…

75.23b/ @acypess added an important point: if the vaccine is a miracle, being anti-vax is assur not only from "shefichat damim" but also "issur kefira" for denying Hashem's miracles. The same people play the lottery to initiate hashgacha pratit yet they deny this clear neis.

75.24/ I taught Chumash #Shemot at Stern College for 3 years and one of my final exam questions was: "Were the Midwives Hebrew or Egyptian? Argue both sides with textual sources." See this essay for a good brief intro. (My pshat? Egyptian, like Batya)
chabad.org/parshah/articl…

75.25/ Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but false equivalence may be the greatest form of insult. Thinking of this when people say "My body/choice" for vaccines while attacking Roe.

(And if you wear a yellow star to be anti-vax? Straight to Gehennom. 12 months.)

75.26/ Zerizin Makdimin L'Minhag Shtuss: I just ordered #ChineseFood for dinner right now to avoid overtaxing my local restaurant before the rush tonight.

(Full disclosure: this is my std. Thu. night order for the past few wks b/c it's 'cooking night')
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Am…

75.27/ Rebbe Yirmiya is a hero to me and many others. He's the patron Tzaddik of those who the Beit Midrash won't accommodate. See the drasha I gave at my daughter's Bat Mitzvah this year, comparing her to him, and both to Ruth.
drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fold…

https://twitter.com/maimonides_nutz/status/1473763014390263819?t=jm1wjRoebTV6iNfAiLotRQ&s=03

75.28/ Harold's point is important about needing to protect ourselves from trolls.

https://twitter.com/haroldfeld/status/1474103460320755716?s=20

My responses:

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1474104427644608521?s=20

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1474107128554078215?s=20

(And I really need to write up the talk to make it easier to access. Sorry.)

75.29/ Dr. Lebovits is correct, I believe, that "Daas Torah" is just toxic bullying that's presumed to be the psak

Also when I've confronted leaders about their followers' bad behavior, often they get all "shev v'al tasei" (Zechairah b. Avkulos syndrome)

https://twitter.com/HannahLebovits/status/1473660320921042947?t=SjCqDufMITll7r6K7BT4-g&s=03

75.30/ #Rutgers Football made a bowl game despite a losing record because they have the highest level of academic achievement. People are praising the coach; yet, IMO, my RU professor wife's colleagues have more to do with it than Greg "5-7" Schiano, no?

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1473841462257364993

75.31/ There are still goobers wearing masks over their mouths only, noses hanging out like plumbers' pants, and I'm recommending we allow people like me to deploy an "extendo boxing glove" to their snoot. Put the fear of "Kabloink" in their lives.
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.…

75.32/ This heretic is revealing our secrets!

https://twitter.com/hering_david/status/1473955407026704386?s=20

75.33/ She's right. The kludge work-around I've invented is, when I block a popular account, to add them to a private Twitter list so I can remind myself if, later, I wonder why I blocked someone who others follow.

https://twitter.com/hullojess/status/1473872817242669056?s=20

75.34/ Heed @Blackamazon's warning people!

Character is context.

Look: I'm long suffering, but when I reach a conclusion that a person is evil, then NOTHING they do escapes that context. And all meaning (text) derives from presupposition (context).

https://twitter.com/Blackamazon/status/1474045020697206794?s=20

75.35/ Thread (rambling, sorry) about the disunified front against the fascists that I am trying to understand.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1474438881177219077

75.36/ My favorite Nittl ever was in 1990 when I was first in yeshiva in Israel and I was on a bus going through Beit Lechem (IYKYK) and I was confused by the crowds and commotion and then realized that it was Dec 25. It was a great feeling to not know or care about Nitl at all.

75.37/ Baruch Hashem! Saying a shehechiyanu, my eldest child just got his #booster shot! It's a miracle that we have these vaccines and we're very fortunate to have access.

75.38/ #NachasAlert: my middle son has the cover Dvar Torah in his high school Torah journal this week. My nachas cup runneth over. Verily.

parshasheets.com/newsletter/bko…

75.39/ Wishing everyone a great, safe (boosted if possible) Shabbos. Merry Xmas if you celebrate, Happy Saturday if not, and #ShabbatShalom

@threadreaderapp please unroll.