@baruch@babka.social
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baruch

@baruch@babka.social

Software developer. Hassidic Jewish thinker. Husband and father. Science fiction lover. Stranger in a strange land. #Jewish #Torah #inspirational #quotes #fedi22 #searchable

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

baruch, to random
@baruch@babka.social avatar

“A few days ago, the mask went from slipping to completely off: Stop Zionist Hate began spreading overt antisemitic content, including invoking the antisemitic trope that Jews killed Jesus.”

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-israel-gaza-war-antisemitism-rcna131327

baruch, to random
@baruch@babka.social avatar

The Shpola Zeideh ("Grandfather from Shpola"), a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch, was a man of intense fervor, far more than any of his colleagues - the Maggid's other disciples. When he visited the Alter Rebbe in Liadi in 5569 or 5570 (1809 or 1810) he related that when he was a child of three he saw the Baal Shem Tov. "He placed his holy hand on my heart and ever since I have felt warm."

— Hayom Yom, 14 Tevet

The Shpola Zeideh was a beloved figure enthusiastically spreading cheer to downtrodden Jews wherever he went. Most people in feudal Russia and Ukraine were serfs, but Jews were mostly forbidden from farming, so they would rent businesses such as inns from the nobles who owned the land. The nobles would put them in the dungeon if they failed to pay the rent, and the Shpola Zeideh made it his life's work to travel around redeeming these captives.

baruch,
@baruch@babka.social avatar

It is interesting to note that one of the early aims of the Chassidic movement was to establish self-sufficient Jewish farming communities to help relieve the abject poverty of the Jews in Eastern Europe under the oppression of feudal lords. It took many years before the Tsar could be convinced to allow this, but eventually he did and the farming colonies became very successful. They grew to provide a large portion of food for Europe and became the model for the establishment of kibbutzim in the Holy Land. They were all seized during the rise of communism.

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

I shouldn't have to condemn Hamas every time I say that the IDF is engaging In ethnic cleansing and genocide. But whatever.

Hamas needs to neutralized and the IDF is committing genocide.

baruch,
@baruch@babka.social avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 I think I can explain your confusion. You have a country that guarantees equal rights to both Jews and Arabs, and has both in all sectors of life including key government leadership positions, defending itself from a fascist aggressor who categorically forbids Jews from being in their government or even in their country, denies the Holocaust, pledged to annihilate the Jews, and who brutally massacred thousands, took many captives, and continues to attack them daily. When you refer to such a defense of life (of everyone including Palestinian Arabs) against psychotic killers as a “genocide” it is reasonable that some might conclude that you are siding with Hamas.

baruch, to random
@baruch@babka.social avatar

We were not placed here to do the possible. Let the heavenly beings bring cause into effect, potential into actual. He did not breathe from His innermost depths into flesh and blood to achieve the facile and the ordinary.

We are here to achieve the impossible. To teach the world tricks it feigns it cannot do. To fill it with light it does not know. To make the blind see, the deaf hear, the bitter sweet, the darkness shine. To make everyday business into mystic union. To rip away the façade of the world and to bring it to confess its secret oneness with the Divine.

When they tell you, “You can’t go on that path, it’s beyond you!”—grab that path as your destiny.

— Likutei Sichot vol. 16, pg. 482

QasimRashid, to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @QasimRashid This is misinformation. It did not happen. We all need to be more careful about our news sources with the amount of malicious misinformation spread on the internet these days.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @ninavizz @QasimRashid First of all, this article is from Qatar's propaganda machine, which is not a reliable source. Second of all, it does not report a bombing. It is an article about the search for and arrest of unnamed criminal suspects.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @ninavizz @QasimRashid I just said propoganda machines are not reliable, so citing another one doesn't make it more reliable. Also, this is not about a bombing either. The bombing didn't happen.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @ninavizz @QasimRashid Misinformation is not news and none of these sources report a bombing.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @ninavizz @QasimRashid Arrests and bombings are very different things. He said that something happened that didn't happen. Facts are important.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @ninavizz I don't know why you think that an article that doesn't talk at all about bombing corroborates the false claim that there was a bombing. I don't know why it bothers you so much to correct this misinformation. It seems like you aren't really concerned with the facts of the situation because you just keep parroting talking points that support your pre-existing prejudices even though they have no bearing on the misinformation. Please stop harassing me.

    jewishreader, to random
    @jewishreader@sfba.social avatar

    Even if Hamas had been using the hospital as a command center, it would have been incumbent upon the IDF to figure out how to get them out without committing war crimes. 'They're using human shields, therefore it's their fault when we make the active decision to kill the shields' is not, in my opinion, a morally defensible position.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @jewishreader That is explicitly what the law says, though. Are you telling me that everyone is expected to just give up and let themselves be killed if the killer decides to use human shields? Do you think the right of self-defense goes away just because the attacker decides to involve innocent bystanders in the conflict? Doesn’t it make more sense that the one who puts innocent people in harms way is responsible for the harm rather than the one just trying to defend themselves from harm?

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @jewishreader “If a civilian hospital is used for acts harmful to the enemy, the hospital loses its protected status under international law and is considered a legitimate military target.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/17/can-hospitals-be-military-targets-international-law-israel-gaza-al-shifa

    baruch, to Minnesota
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    The name is derived from the phrase "Mni Sóta Makoc̣e," Dakota for "land where the waters reflect the sky." The new reflects the name when hung vertically, depicting a broad light blue river flowing into a dark blue nighttime sky illuminated by the North Star.

    gavi, to random

    why is vanilla mastodon ios client so bad just wondering

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @gavi It is good for its target audience, which are people who don’t have the patience to learn that Mastodon is not an app, and will give up if they don’t find the app in the App Store. People who who are more invested will pick another client, which promotes a diverse ecosystem.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @Bam @gavi People who understand the concept of a federated timeline are already more advanced than the target audience.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @Bam @gavi The intended audience will probably choose a large, general-purpose server that has plenty of activity on the local feed. The local feed is more akin to the curated feed of other social platforms than the fire hose of the federated feed which often includes posts from niche servers and servers for other languages.

    baruch, to random
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    "Word spread in our town. In its retelling, we were villains. A father texted my wife and accused us of unjustly calling the family of the other boy Nazis. We'd never called them Nazis. He said everyone was afraid to interact with our son because of how we were treating the family of the boy who invited our son to Camp Auschwitz.

    I wish I was surprised by the blame-the-victim responses, but I wasn't. These are all too common with accusations of antisemitism."

    https://www.newsweek.com/my-son-faced-antisemitism-his-school-tried-buy-our-silence-1851579

    baruch, to hebrew
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    Many street signs in Israel are in three languages so that everyone can understand.

    baruch, to hebrew
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    The Hebrew word for life, chaim, is phrased in the plural and literally translates as “lives,” indicating multiple phases and expressions of a single, never-ending life…

    In stark contrast to the culture of “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” when Jews have occasion to drink, they say “l’chaim!” (to life) reminding each other that there is so much more to life than the shallow indulgences of the here and now, and that every meaningful act one does and every mitzvah one performs creates an energetic imprint that outlives our temporary time in a physical body.

    https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5786527/jewish/Life-Chaim.htm

    baruch, to emacstory
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    Happy Chag Habanot (AKA Rosh Chodesh L’banot)! Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah are both holidays related specifically to women, on which it is customary for women to refrain from certain types of work in celebration. In some North African Jewish traditions, there are additional celebrations when the two coincide, commemorating the many women heroes through Jewish history.

    https://www.kveller.com/this-mizrahi-feminist-hanukkah-tradition-is-one-we-should-all-honor/

    baruch, to hebrew
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    The word mazal is sometimes translated as “luck,” something that happens perchance. According to this interpretation, mazal tov would mean good fortune or good luck...

    Interestingly, mazal is an etymological cognate of the word nozal, which means a downward flow.

    This follows the Jewish belief that every person has a reservoir of spiritual energy in the higher realms that can either remain “above” in the ethereal realms as dormant potential, or descend “below” and translate into actual physical blessings in the form of children, health, wealth, or other blessings, depending on our actions and input...

    Our “fate” may be decreed “above,” but our “destiny” is determined by our actions “below.”

    https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5786454/jewish/Luck-Mazal.htm#utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon

    baruch, to hebrew
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    While the English word humility originates from the Latin, humilis, meaning meekness or lowliness, the Hebrew equivalent, anavah (עֲנָוָה) stems from the word anu (ענו), meaning “to respond.”

    In Judaism, humility is rooted in a sense of responsibility and accountability. From this perspective, the awareness of privilege or proficiency does not perversely inflate one’s sense of self-worth and supremacy above others; rather, it fills one with immense gratitude and indebtedness, generating greater dedication to one’s mission...

    In the words of R. Lord Jonathan Sacks: “True humility...does not mean undervaluing yourself. It means valuing other people.”

    https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5785598/jewish/Humility-Anavah.htm

    glynmoody, to Israel
    @glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

    ‘People will die in the streets’: Gaza dreads onset of winter as disease rises - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/10/people-will-die-in-the-streets-gaza-dreads-onset-of-winter-as-disease-rises important: situation in is already catastrophic, but it will get much, much worse once winter sets in. we could see >100,000 deaths unless stops this slaughter

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @glynmoody Yes, those are the figures I am talking about. 61% is based on the inflated casualty numbers provided by Hamas. A comparable example to the war in Gaza to remove Hamas would be the Battle of Mosul in which US coalition forces fought to unseat ISIS. The US has one of the most advanced armies in the world and they had an 83% civilian casualty rate in that battle. 61% is lower than 83% by a wide margin. The numbers show there is nothing more Israel can do to save lives, despite all that we armchair quarterbacks might think. There simply is no nice, surgical war. The way to reduce casualties is to end the war.

    baruch,
    @baruch@babka.social avatar

    @glynmoody The commander of US forces reported killing 2,000 ISIS fighters, so for a civilian death toll between 9,000 and 11,000 that means a civilian casualty rate of between 81% and 85%. Those numbers are much bigger.
    https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/19/570483824/more-civilians-than-isis-fighters-are-believed-killed-in-mosul-battle

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