Obliviousness

Urbana is basically the country club and the ghetto, and neither group has any idea that the other group exists.

– Beth Macy, Paper Girl,
on returning to the Ohio town where she grew up

This week’s featured post is “Beth Macy Goes Home Again“.

Ongoing stories

  • Trump’s assault on American democracy. Post his election disaster, the shutdown, and the growing threat of the Epstein files, Trump’s coalition is showing some cracks.
  • Climate change. The COP30 international conference is happening in Brazil, without the US. Everyone is frustrated by the world’s slow progress in addressing climate change.
  • Gaza. The UN is voting today on a US-sponsored resolution to establish an international Gaza stabilization force.
  • Ukraine. As the weather gets colder, the drone war moves to center stage. Russia blew up an oil tanker in Odessa; Ukraine hit an oil refinery.

This week’s developments

This week everybody was talking about the shutdown aftermath

No one is happy with how the shutdown came out. It lasted a record 43 days, during which a lot of people worked without pay, saw their government services delayed, or perhaps even went hungry. But in the end it turned out to be an almost entirely symbolic fight, as Democrats got no concessions on their central issue: keeping ObamaCare premiums from skyrocketing in 2026.

The question is whether a better deal could have emerged later. Fundamentally, the Democrats’ problem is that you can’t play chicken with somebody who’s not afraid to wreck their car. As much as Americans were suffering, and as much as they were blaming that suffering on Trump, it’s not clear that Trump cared.

As Politico notes: SNAP benefits will start again soon, if they haven’t already. But meanwhile, millions of Americans will lose their benefits, due to “work requirements” that seemed designed to trap people into disqualifying themselves.

and whether Trump was involved in Epstein’s crimes

Last night, Trump flipped on releasing the Epstein files. After unsuccessfully trying to badger Republicans like Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert into removing their names from the discharge petition to bring the Epstein Transparency Act to a vote in the House, and facing an overwhelming defeat when it finally will be voted on later this week, Trump reversed course, announcing that “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files” because “we have nothing to hide”.

Probably this means that he is confident the Senate will block the bill, but we’ll see.

I have to confess that when the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal got sucked into Q-Anon’s crazy theory of a world-ruling pedophile cabal, I lost what little interest I had. Surely this was just another conspiracy theory, blown way out of proportion by a cult of lunatics. (After all, if Democrats were synthesizing some eternal-youth elixir out of the blood of children, why did Joe Biden and Bill Clinton look so old? This was just one of the many bits of cognitive dissonance even a cursory glance at the theory raised.)

But lo and behold, there’s a kernel of truth at the center of all that nonsense. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell either induced or forced hundreds of under-age (or barely above the age of consent) girls into offering sexual services to their friends, who appear to have been some very powerful people. Rather than just internet rumors, there are real victims speaking out publicly, providing evidence strong enough to strip Prince Andrew of his title, send Maxwell to prison for sex trafficking, and get Epstein arrested and held in federal prison, where (the government says) he hung himself before a trial could happen.

In addition to trying to block release of what the Justice Department knows, various other facts make Trump look guilty of something:

There’s certainly a lot of smoke there, but whether Trump himself is in the fire has not yet been proved. This week we got even more smoke, as the House Oversight Committee released 20,000 emails it obtained from the Epstein estate. Trump was mentioned thousands of times in the emails — more than anyone else — and the emails strongly imply that Trump knew what Epstein was doing but stayed quiet about it. In one, Trump is described as a “dog that hasn’t barked”.


Epstein victims made a one-minute video pushing to have all the Justice Department’s files released.


OK, just for a moment assume the worst: Trump is shown to be an Epstein client; he’s abused underage girls. Does it make a difference?

Tim Whitaker argues that for Trump’s Evangelical supporters, it won’t. His argument has two main points: First, none of Trump’s previous sexual scandals (which Whitaker lists) have dented the MAGA/Evangelical alliance.

Despite these realities White Evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for him in 2016, 2020 and 2024 choosing instead to ignore or explain away what is an obvious reality: Trump already IS a sexual abuser. He doesn’t need to be on a client list for that to be demonstrated. His words, actions and court cases prove that he is.

Second, Evangelical churches have tolerated vast amounts of sexual misconduct in their leaders. Even if a big-time preacher loses his position in scandal, before long he’s been rehabilitated and is leading somewhere else.


Megan Kelly is already lining up how she’ll defend Trump if he turns out to be a participant in Epstein’s crimes: Epstein wasn’t really that bad.

Kelly went on to allege that she knew “somebody very, very close” to the Epstein case “who is in a position to know virtually everything.” She claimed the unidentified individual “told me, from the start years and years ago, that Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile.”

“He was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls. And I realize this is disgusting. I’m definitely not trying to make an excuse for this,” she continued. “I’m just giving you facts, that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds. But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passerby.”

OK, let’s start here: A 15-year-old isn’t “barely legal” in most states. At best she’s barely illegal. Here in Massachusetts, the age of consent is 16 — and the only reason it’s that low is to avoid criminalizing 16-year-old boys. If somebody wanted to raise the age-of-consenting-to-men-over-25 to 18 or higher, I’d be for it.

Additionally (as I’ve observed before about Israel and genocide), when you start listing technical distinctions in the definition of a word like “pedophile”, you’ve already gone far astray.

meanwhile, Trump’s coalition begins to crack

In the most plausible American-democracy-survives-Trump scenario, a Democratic sweep of the 2025 elections is followed by elected Republicans claiming independence from their president. It’s too soon to say that’s definitely happening, but there are signs.

One of the biggest factors enabling Trump’s rising autocracy in the nation as a whole has been that he had already achieved autocracy in the Republican Party. Combined with narrow Republican control of both houses of Congress, his complete domination of elected Republicans has allowed him to usurp congressional powers and avoid investigations of the most blatant corruption.

Recently, though, cracks have been forming. Trump’s cover-up of the Epstein scandal and the Big Beautiful Bill’s deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP have allowed Marjorie Taylor Greene to get between Trump and his base. This week that dissension erupted into outright schism, as Trump withdrew his support of MTG, called her “Wacky” and “a ranting Lunatic”, and dangled an endorsement to tempt some Trump-loyal Republican to challenge her in a primary.

Tucker Carlson has also been increasingly critical of the regime lately, most recently claiming that the FBI is hiding something about Thomas Crooks, the gunman who tried to assassinate Trump during the 2024 campaign. Previously, he had denounced the post-Kirk-murder crackdown on free speech as well as the Epstein cover-up and the attack on Iran. (Isolationism is another issue where a Republican can out-MAGA Trump. Look for resistance to Trump’s escalating threats to Venezuela.)

When Trump demanded that Senate Republicans end the shutdown by scrapping the filibuster, Majority Leader John Thune calmly said no. Indiana just refused to accede to Trump’s redistricting demand. And former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels published an op-ed that appears to be even-handed, but contains some veiled criticism of Trump. He offers this hope for the future:

At some point, the public could tire of playground insults and asinine nicknames, and start asking for a little more substance from those elected to serve them. Interminable stalemate, especially when the country enters a stretch of serious economic or national security difficulty, could trigger a collective demand to “Grow up.”

It’s not a revolt yet, but Trump’s levers of power are becoming unreliable. A would-be autocrat’s most important asset is the belief that his power cannot be resisted, that everyone must either give in or be run over. That’s slipping.


Jack Hopkins is always more cynical and speculative than I am. Now he’s assessing signs that the powers behind Trump are already choosing their new champion.

and you also might be interested in …

Following up on last week’s featured post: The Washington Post spells out how the Trump administration is allowing junk insurance back into the market.


CBS hasn’t been completely MAGAfied yet. Last night 60 Minutes focused on one of Trump’s corrupt pardons:

Last month, President Trump granted a pardon to a billionaire felon, after the felon’s company enriched a Trump family business. The pardon went to Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese-born businessman, who was accused by the Justice Department of causing, quote, “…significant harm to U.S. national security…” The president says he does not know Zhao. Our reporting shows that Zhao’s company supported a Trump family firm at critical moments leading up to the president’s pardon.


Trump’s feds seem to be pulling out of Chicago. The next American city for them to invade is Charlotte. This is the first swing state Trump has invaded, and I suspect he’ll regret it in 2026.


The reason global air temperatures don’t go up every year is that some years the oceans soak up more of the extra heat. But that energy doesn’t go away. An article in Grist explores what happens when oceans start expelling heat rather than absorbing it.


United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly for a statement critical of Trump’s immigration policies.

We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials.


In some previous week, we saw that Kash Patel was using an FBI plane to go to his girl friend’s concerts. This week we find out that he has given her an FBI security detail.

Something I wonder about: With all the federal agents doing stuff like this, or trying to find dirt on Trump’s enemies, or working on deporting nannies and landscapers, is anybody actually trying to catch criminals any more?


The regime didn’t start blowing up boats it claims were smuggling drugs until September, but apparently Emil Bove, who was acting attorney general at the time and has since become a federal appellate judge, was describing the policy back in February.

So far, 20 strikes have killed about 75 people, and the regime has offered no evidence for its claims that the boats were smuggling drugs.

Ignoring the morality of killing people because you suspect them of a crime, the attacks are also bad strategy. When you capture people, you can flip them to get information. You can also capture their phones and other information devices. When you blow the boat up, you can’t do any of that.

“All this strategy is doing is killing people and the same amount of drugs is getting into the U.S.,” the former senior DOJ official said. “You didn’t save anybody or increase the number of people you’re saving in the U.S. It’s extraordinarily shortsighted and I don’t think it gets you the goal you want.”

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Comments

  • Alpha 1's avatar Alpha 1  On November 17, 2025 at 1:32 pm

    Epstein never made any sense as an independent actor. His whole “career” consisted of him being given wealth and status by others, despite being a moron with no talents other than being a pedophile. This track began when he was inexplicably hired to teach at the prestigious Dalton School by former OSS agent Donald Barr. It culminated in his fraudulent hedge fund, which published no returns and traded with no other financial institutions. Despite being a fraud, Epstein was accepted in the world of high finance, even though all the other hedge fund guys would have known right away that he wasn’t one of them. This means that someone was vouching for him.

    The reason for this is that Jeffrey Epstein “belonged to intelligence.” Everything else he did was a cover for his real job, which was procuring girls for wealthy, powerful men in America, Israel, and Britain. The hedge fund was a way to launder payments from these men. One of those men was Donald Trump. When Epstein was first arrested, Alex Acosta was pressured to let him off with a deal that immunized his co-conspirators to protect this ring. Once Trump became president he rewarded Acosta for this by making him labour secretary. When Epstein was arrested the second time, Trump used his control of the federal prisons to have Epstein killed before he could be implicated. He was assisted in this by Donald Barr’s son, Attorney General William Barr. Now Trump is attempting to stonewall the release of further information that would implicate him in the Epstein ring.

    I don’t think any of this is seriously debatable at this point. Epstein is not a conspiracy theory, it’s just a conspiracy. The Epstein case is not just the story of a single rich predator, it’s the story of how the ruling class of the Rules-Based International Order ensures its impunity for the most horrifying crimes. It’s also why neither party will ever release information that gives the world the full picture of what was going on with Epstein. Too many powerful people and institutions are implicated, so there will always be some excuse for why the truth can’t be told. This case is going to be like a black hole: We can see the effects and learn from them, but what lies beyond the event horizon will remain a mystery we can only speculate about.

    • Alpha 1's avatar Alpha 1  On November 17, 2025 at 4:46 pm

      FYI, if you were unaware of how Epstein’s hedge fund was a front, here’s a good rundown. To make a long story short, everyone actually involved in high finance noticed that it simply didn’t function like a real hedge fund, so it must have been cover for something else. Learning this back in 2019 is what made me realize that he wasn’t just a wealthy predator working alone, and put me on track to developing full Epstein Brain.

      • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On November 19, 2025 at 9:54 am

        I can tell from the combination of tankie politics and Epstein Brain exactly which podcast this commenter listens to.

  • mosckerr's avatar mosckerr  On November 17, 2025 at 5:41 pm

    Justice Justice Pursue

    The concept of Ancient Consciousness Engineering involves understanding how ancient cultures perceived and interacted with the divine, particularly through the art of building and construction. This perspective often highlights the spiritual and symbolic dimensions of architecture, emphasizing how structures reflect the consciousness and beliefs of the societies that created them.

    Buildings often incorporated symbols that represented gods, myths, or cosmological theories. For instance, Egyptian temples were aligned with celestial bodies, reflecting the connection between the divine and the cosmic order. Structures like temples or pyramids were often seen as physical manifestations of divine plans, mirroring cosmic structures. The layout of cities and monuments was frequently designed to reflect mythological tales or the lives of deities.

    The scale, orientation, and materials used in construction often reflected social hierarchies and religious beliefs. Larger, grander structures typically represented higher spiritual significance or authority. Temples like the Parthenon were dedicated to specific deities and were built to embody their attributes and myths, serving as a focal point for worship and community.

    Shlomo’s reign occurred during a time of extensive interaction with neighboring cultures (the Goyim), whose worship practices involved building grand temples dedicated to their gods. This context shaped Solomon’s approach to architecture and spirituality. Shlomo deluged with foreign wives, starting with the daughter of Par’o. Many ancient cultures valued grand temple architecture as a reflection of their gods’ majesty. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Mesopotamians built magnificent structures to honor their deities.

    His construction of the Temple was a pivotal ירידות הדורות moment for Judaism. The בית שני Talmud response to king Shlomo’s avoda zara which so dominated later generations, beginning with Ezra’s rebuilding of a 2nd Temple avoda zara abomination. The Talmud Bavli prioritized the בית המקדש not as a building of wood and stone. It interpreted the Torah construction of the Mishkan as only a משל.

    The anointing of the house of David as Moshiach likewise a משל through which the prophet Shmuel interpreted its נמשל response to the rebellion of Israel against the Torah, the anointing first Shaul and later David as Moshiach! Based upon the prophetic mussar of the prophet Natan תוחקה mussar rebuke which he instructed both David and Shlomo. Natan saved Shlomo and his mother in the opening Book of Kings. רחבעם ignored the advise given by the elder advisors of Shlomo just as Shlomo did the exact same with the תוחקה mussar rebuke wherewith the prophet Natan commanded Shlomo not to build the בית המקדש but rather prioritize building the establishment of a Federal Sanhedrin common law court system; based upon the p’suk: צדק צדק תרדוף.

    The Talmud comments on the consequences of avoda zara associated with Shlomo and later generations, emphasizing the need for prioritizing Courtroom common law justice over Pie in the Sky theological beliefs in Gods, associated with Shlomo and all later ירידות הדורות generations. Prophets like Natan admonished Shlomo regarding his actions, instructing him to focus on establishing a system of justice (Federal Sanhedrin) rather than solely on temple construction.

    The anointing of David and later Shlomo as Moshiach reflects a broader narrative regarding leadership and adherence to Torah centered upon the pursuit of judicial justice based upon the memory of judicial injustice before the Court of Par’o and the מוסר תוחקה which Yitro rebuked Moshe immediately after Israel gained our National freedom from Par’o and Egypt. Israel came out of Egypt in accordance with the oath brit sworn to the Avot concerning the eternal inheritance of this land. HaShem brought Israel out of Egypt with the k’vanna that Israel would rule the land with righteous judicial justice – fair restitution of damages inflicted.

    Xtianity and Islam, their av tuma avoda zarah prioritizes belief in God – just as does assimilated Rambam’s 13 essential beliefs! In point of fact, the Torah commands no belief in God or Gods. Its this distinction which separates the revelation of the Torah at Sinai from belief in av tuma avoda zara Gods – based upon Creeds, theologies or Angelic revelations! Therefore Prophets like Natan and all other prophets thereafter admonished Shlomo and all the kings of Yechuda and Israel – regarding their failure to prioritize judicial justice through common law courtrooms. The mussar תוחקה of all NaCH prophets therefore instructs both Shlomo and all generations of our Cohen people thereafter, to focus upon ruling the oath sworn lands of the chosen Cohen people with justice – Federal Sanhedrin – common law justice.

    The prophetic mussar rebuke of Cain & Abel serves as the יסוד upon which stands the Torah revelation of the Mishkan with its required korbanot dedications. The central Torah theme: Who merits as the Chosen Cohen, initiated through the murder of Abel by his older brother following the korban dedications made by both sons of Adam HaReshon. Cain offered as his korban – a barbeque unto Heaven. Abel dedicated his korban to אל מלך נאמן – God the faithful King … Faith understood as meaning fair judicial justice. Hence the prophet Shmuel interpreted the נמשל mitzva of Moshiach based upon the משל mussar taught through the commandment of the Mishkan together with korbanot.

    Moshe, the greatest of all Torah prophets commands prophetic mussar. Hence all other NaCH prophets – they too command mussar rebukes. Mussar defines all prophetic revelations recorded in the literature of the T’NaCH. Witchcraft and/or Goyim prophets like Bil’aam – their av tuma avoda zara predicts the future. The NT framers, they depicted their imaginary false messiah JeZeus as a person/God who fulfilled the words of the prophets. Hence the NT framers redefined T’NaCH prophets including Moshe Rabbeinu as witches because witches foretell the future.

    • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On November 17, 2025 at 6:31 pm

      Very interesting but what does that have to do with Doug’s article?

      • mosckerr's avatar mosckerr  On November 18, 2025 at 1:00 am

        Did not write a commentary on the political content of the Obliviousness article. Rather my commentary transposes the structure of Obliviousness into a Torah-based, oath brit, judicial reading. The relationship works on the level of intent, not topic. As an Israeli my world completely different than an American perspective. The American society ruled by Power rather than justice. The Courts – utterly and totally corrupt. The contrast of Trump out of power and Trump as President – Night and Day different. The two assassination attempts and the political assassination of Charlie Kirk define the deep fractures of American political insanity.

        Obliviousness — Society is falling apart because institutions have abandoned accountability.
        Power replaces justice. Systems that should deliver fairness instead deliver corruption, secrecy, and self-serving elites. The public is deceived by structures that look like order (government, churches, media) but conceal rot. The consequences are systemic: shutdown, corruption, violence, failed leadership, manipulation of justice, tribalism. America exists as a nation on the verge of anarchy and collapse because justice – an utter joke. Obama Clinton and the Intelligence Agency heads have yet to stand trial for treason. Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, Waters likewise have never stood trial for the charge of treason.

        The Israeli Torah perspective: ancient kings abandoning צדק צדק תרדוף and falling into avoda zara. Oblivious shows what happens when a society replaces justice with spectacle, belief systems, and personality cults. While Justice Pursue argues that this likewise occurred under king Shlomo and Yeridas HaDorot of g’lut rabbinic Judaism which assimilated to Roman statute law and abandoned Torah as judicial common law. The Temple becomes a theological object (avoda zara) rather than a metaphor for judicial structures. Belief replaces courtroom justice. Theology replaces the oath alliance expressed through judicial common law. Power (kingship) replaces federal Sanhedrin.

        My comment reads Oblivious as a modern example of the ancient pattern of civilizational decline caused by abandoning common-law justice. Elite corruption & hidden crimes (Epstein / Obama, Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, Waters, CIA, FBI, NSA Heads). Shlomo’s foreign alliances, wives, temple grandeur → political rot → prophetic rebuke; Justice Pursue interprets this modern collapse as the same pattern the prophets condemned.

        Citizens suffer because leaders reject accountability — Prophetic critique: kings of Yehuda rejected תוחקה and צדק. Just as Oblivious describes democratic institutions failing their people; Justice Pursue argues that ancient Israel fell for the same reason. Party loyalty and personality cults replace honest governance. Avoda zara: divine right of kings replaces common-law rank-and-file judicial authority – the foundation upon which the American Republic stands. Oblivious sees American politics becoming a cult of personality. Justice Pursue says: this is literally the biblical definition of avoda zara.

        Collapse of public trust; no one believes institutions anymore. Natan the Prophet’s warnings: society cannot survive without justice. All NaCH prophets’ focus prioritized not theology/Democracy, but legal structure. The article Obliviousness – The same spiritual mistake that the Torah warns about. A society becomes idolatrous when it substitutes belief, symbols, or buildings for courtroom justice. America today Washington has replaced Justice. Oblivious replaces justice with conspiracy narratives, personality cults, theocratic rhetoric, media mythologies, spectacle politics.

        Ancient Israel did the same when it replaced the federal Sanhedrin, mussar rebuke, case law with statute law, Temple fixations, kings, theological dogmas, Greek-style creed systems (Par’o, later Rambam’s 13 ikarim). There is no civilization without צדק צדק תרדוף. Therefore my commentary functions as the נמשל to Oblivious as the משל. All civilizations collapse when they abandon common-law justice for belief systems (avoda zara). Justice Pursue reveals the ancient consciousness engineering behind the pattern of national decline.

        Everything you observe in modern America – the Oblivious Article – the same pattern that destroyed ancient Israel and every empire thereafter. It is the structural sin of replacing justice with belief, power, and symbols. Torah and prophecy diagnose the disease at its root.

      • mosckerr's avatar mosckerr  On November 18, 2025 at 2:57 am

        Justice Justice Pursue
        The concept of Ancient Consciousness Engineering involves understanding how ancient cultures perceived and interacted with the divine, particularly through the art of building and construction. This perspective often highlights the spiritual and symbolic dimensions of architecture, emphasizing how structures reflect the consciousness and beliefs of the societies that created them.

        Buildings often incorporated symbols that represented gods, myths, or cosmological theories. For instance, Egyptian temples were aligned with celestial bodies, reflecting the connection between the divine and the cosmic order. Structures like temples or pyramids were often seen as physical manifestations of divine plans, mirroring cosmic structures. The layout of cities and monuments was frequently designed to reflect mythological tales or the lives of deities.

        The scale, orientation, and materials used in construction often reflected social hierarchies and religious beliefs. Larger, grander structures typically represented higher spiritual significance or authority. Temples like the Parthenon were dedicated to specific deities and were built to embody their attributes and myths, serving as a focal point for worship and community.

        Shlomo’s reign occurred during a time of extensive interaction with neighboring cultures (the Goyim), whose worship practices involved building grand temples dedicated to their gods. This context shaped Solomon’s approach to architecture and spirituality. Shlomo deluged with foreign wives, starting with the daughter of Par’o. Many ancient cultures valued grand temple architecture as a reflection of their gods’ majesty. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Mesopotamians built magnificent structures to honor their deities.

        His construction of the Temple was a pivotal ירידות הדורות moment for Judaism. The בית שני Talmud response to king Shlomo’s avoda zara which so dominated later generations, beginning with Ezra’s rebuilding of a 2nd Temple avoda zara abomination. The Talmud Bavli prioritized the בית המקדש not as a building of wood and stone. It interpreted the Torah construction of the Mishkan as only a משל.

        The anointing of the house of David as Moshiach likewise a משל through which the prophet Shmuel interpreted its נמשל response to the rebellion of Israel against the Torah, the anointing first Shaul and later David as Moshiach! Based upon the prophetic mussar of the prophet Natan תוחקה mussar rebuke which he instructed both David and Shlomo. Natan saved Shlomo and his mother in the opening Book of Kings. רחבעם ignored the advise given by the elder advisors of Shlomo just as Shlomo did the exact same with the תוחקה mussar rebuke wherewith the prophet Natan commanded Shlomo not to build the בית המקדש but rather prioritize building the establishment of a Federal Sanhedrin common law court system; based upon the p’suk: צדק צדק תרדוף.

        The Talmud comments on the consequences of avoda zara associated with Shlomo and later generations, emphasizing the need for prioritizing Courtroom common law justice over Pie in the Sky theological beliefs in Gods, associated with Shlomo and all later ירידות הדורות generations. Prophets like Natan admonished Shlomo regarding his actions, instructing him to focus on establishing a system of justice (Federal Sanhedrin) rather than solely on temple construction.

        The anointing of David and later Shlomo as Moshiach reflects a broader narrative regarding leadership and adherence to Torah centered upon the pursuit of judicial justice based upon the memory of judicial injustice before the Court of Par’o and the מוסר תוחקה which Yitro rebuked Moshe immediately after Israel gained our National freedom from Par’o and Egypt. Israel came out of Egypt in accordance with the oath brit sworn to the Avot concerning the eternal inheritance of this land. HaShem brought Israel out of Egypt with the k’vanna that Israel would rule the land with righteous judicial justice – fair restitution of damages inflicted.

        Xtianity and Islam, their av tuma avoda zarah prioritizes belief in God – just as does assimilated Rambam’s 13 essential beliefs! In point of fact, the Torah commands no belief in God or Gods. Its this distinction which separates the revelation of the Torah at Sinai from belief in av tuma avoda zara Gods – based upon Creeds, theologies or Angelic revelations! Therefore Prophets like Natan and all other prophets thereafter admonished Shlomo and all the kings of Yechuda and Israel – regarding their failure to prioritize judicial justice through common law courtrooms. The mussar תוחקה of all NaCH prophets therefore instructs both Shlomo and all generations of our Cohen people thereafter, to focus upon ruling the oath sworn lands of the chosen Cohen people with justice – Federal Sanhedrin – common law justice.

        The prophetic mussar rebuke of Cain & Abel serves as the יסוד upon which stands the Torah revelation of the Mishkan with its required korbanot dedications. The central Torah theme: Who merits as the Chosen Cohen, initiated through the murder of Abel by his older brother following the korban dedications made by both sons of Adam HaReshon. Cain offered as his korban – a barbeque unto Heaven. Abel dedicated his korban to אל מלך נאמן – God the faithful King … Faith understood as meaning fair judicial justice. Hence the prophet Shmuel interpreted the נמשל mitzva of Moshiach based upon the משל mussar taught through the commandment of the Mishkan together with korbanot.

        Moshe, the greatest of all Torah prophets commands prophetic mussar. Hence all other NaCH prophets – they too command mussar rebukes. Mussar defines all prophetic revelations recorded in the literature of the T’NaCH. Witchcraft and/or Goyim prophets like Bil’aam – their av tuma avoda zara predicts the future. The NT framers, they depicted their imaginary false messiah JeZeus as a person/God who fulfilled the words of the prophets. Hence the NT framers redefined T’NaCH prophets including Moshe Rabbeinu as witches because witches foretell the future.

        C. S. Lewis, the moral coward, never denounced the church guilt for the Shoah. Lucy Maud Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for her classic novel Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. L.M. Montgomery passed away on April 24, 1942. Church’s silence during the Holocaust (Shoah), coupled with the Catholic Rat Lines that assisted Nazi War criminals to flee justice by hiding in S. American countries and the post WWII Polish pogroms! This has led to discussions about the responsibilities of faith leaders and the impact of moral cowardice in the face of atrocity. Lewis and Tolstoy both failed to address the war crimes committed by their people in their life times. Tolstoy failed to condemn the Czarist Pogroms of the 1880s and the secret police forgery: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

        L.M. Montgomery, while primarily focused on themes of childhood and community in her novels, lived during a time that contained its own set of moral struggles, including the events of World War II. She never publicly condemned the 1938 pogrom: Night of Shattered Glass. The failure of figures like Lewis and Tolstoy to address grave injustices raises questions about moral courage and the obligations of public intellectuals. The Church’s silence and the concealment of war criminals spotlight the responsibilities of faith leaders in the face of atrocities.

        C.S. Lewis labeled a “moral coward” for his silence regarding the Church’s role during the Holocaust. The lack of denunciation of institutional wrongs at a time when moral clarity was crucial exposed the truth of his moral spinelessness. Similarly, Leo Tolstoy’s inaction regarding the Czarist pogroms and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion reflects a pattern of moral evasion. L.M. Montgomery’s literary focus on childhood and personal growth didn’t typically address societal issues.

        The silence of various Christian denominations during the Holocaust, specifically the Lutheran support for Hitler’s Nazism, coupled with actions like the Catholic Rat Lines, raises critical questions. The failure to confront and condemn atrocities reflects a broader moral cowardice among faith leaders. The concealment of Nazi war criminals illustrates a deep conflict between moral teachings and institutional actions. Pope Pius XII permitted the Nazis to murder the Jews of Rome. What is the responsibility of public intellectuals in speaking out against injustice? Should their focus include social or political obligations? How should churches and faith institutions hold themselves accountable for past inactions?

        Authors and intellectuals are often perceived not just as commentators but as moral agents who can influence public opinion and action. Navigating the balance between personal beliefs and public responsibility poses complex ethical questions, particularly during times of upheaval. Religious and social institutions need to confront their past in order to guide future actions and regain credibility. Institutions must not only teach values of justice and ethics but also demonstrate commitment through action, particularly in contexts of societal injustice. These reflections challenge both individuals and organizations to consider the implications of their actions (or inactions) in the face of moral crises.

        Did not write a commentary on the political content of the Obliviousness article. Rather my commentary transposes the structure of Obliviousness into a Torah-based, oath brit, judicial reading. The relationship works on the level of intent, not topic. As an Israeli my world completely different than an American perspective. The American society ruled by Power rather than justice. The Courts – utterly and totally corrupt. The contrast of Trump out of power and Trump as President – Night and Day different. The two assassination attempts and the political assassination of Charlie Kirk define the deep fractures of American political insanity.

        Obliviousness — Society is falling apart because institutions have abandoned accountability.
        Power replaces justice. Systems that should deliver fairness instead deliver corruption, secrecy, and self-serving elites. The public is deceived by structures that look like order (government, churches, media) but conceal rot. The consequences are systemic: shutdown, corruption, violence, failed leadership, manipulation of justice, tribalism. America exists as a nation on the verge of anarchy and collapse because justice – an utter joke. Obama Clinton and the Intelligence Agency heads have yet to stand trial for treason. Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, Waters likewise have never stood trial for the charge of treason.

        The Israeli Torah perspective: ancient kings abandoning צדק צדק תרדוף and falling into avoda zara. Oblivious shows what happens when a society replaces justice with spectacle, belief systems, and personality cults. While Justice Pursue argues that this likewise occurred under king Shlomo and Yeridas HaDorot of g’lut rabbinic Judaism which assimilated to Roman statute law and abandoned Torah as judicial common law. The Temple becomes a theological object (avoda zara) rather than a metaphor for judicial structures. Belief replaces courtroom justice. Theology replaces the oath alliance expressed through judicial common law. Power (kingship) replaces federal Sanhedrin.

        My comment reads Oblivious as a modern example of the ancient pattern of civilizational decline caused by abandoning common-law justice. Elite corruption & hidden crimes (Epstein / Obama, Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, Waters, CIA, FBI, NSA Heads). Shlomo’s foreign alliances, wives, temple grandeur → political rot → prophetic rebuke; Justice Pursue interprets this modern collapse as the same pattern the prophets condemned.

        Citizens suffer because leaders reject accountability — Prophetic critique: kings of Yehuda rejected תוחקה and צדק. Just as Oblivious describes democratic institutions failing their people; Justice Pursue argues that ancient Israel fell for the same reason. Party loyalty and personality cults replace honest governance. Avoda zara: divine right of kings replaces common-law rank-and-file judicial authority – the foundation upon which the American Republic stands. Oblivious sees American politics becoming a cult of personality. Justice Pursue says: this is literally the biblical definition of avoda zara.

        Collapse of public trust; no one believes institutions anymore. Natan the Prophet’s warnings: society cannot survive without justice. All NaCH prophets’ focus prioritized not theology/Democracy, but legal structure. The article Obliviousness – The same spiritual mistake that the Torah warns about. A society becomes idolatrous when it substitutes belief, symbols, or buildings for courtroom justice. America today Washington has replaced Justice. Oblivious replaces justice with conspiracy narratives, personality cults, theocratic rhetoric, media mythologies, spectacle politics.

        Ancient Israel did the same when it replaced the federal Sanhedrin, mussar rebuke, case law with statute law, Temple fixations, kings, theological dogmas, Greek-style creed systems (Par’o, later Rambam’s 13 ikarim). There is no civilization without צדק צדק תרדוף. Therefore my commentary functions as the נמשל to Oblivious as the משל. All civilizations collapse when they abandon common-law justice for belief systems (avoda zara). Justice Pursue reveals the ancient consciousness engineering behind the pattern of national decline.

        Everything you observe in modern America – the Oblivious Article – the same pattern that destroyed ancient Israel and every empire thereafter. It is the structural sin of replacing justice with belief, power, and symbols. Torah and prophecy diagnose the disease at its root.

      • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On November 18, 2025 at 2:47 pm

        You had to ask, didn’t you.

      • mosckerr's avatar mosckerr  On November 19, 2025 at 12:08 am

        Genocide, a profane taboo word, commonly raped pillaged and burned among people who abhor the Israeli response to the Oct 7th 2023 massacre. Genocide in this context, amounts to Holocaust denial. A word meant to prevent another Shoah has been weaponized to accuse Jews of committing the very crime inflicted upon them.

        Genocide — a word forged in the ashes of the Shoah — has become a profane taboo, violated, cheapened, and weaponized by those who abhor Israel’s response to the Oct. 7th 2023 massacre. In this context, the accusation is not merely false; it amounts to Holocaust denial. A term meant to prevent another genocide is now hurled against the Jewish state in a grotesque inversion of history: the victims accused of the crime that nearly annihilated them.

        This version of the Xtian Church infamous blood libel. Manufactured and disseminated by the UN, EU bureaucrats, Moscow, Beijing, and the media conglomerates that sell “genocide headlines” the way pornography sells clicks. Genocide sells. Justice does not. And so, the word violently and brutally raped and pillaged for political theatre rather than applied with legal integrity. Genocide occurs when those in power worship power itself, not justice. But no one dares question the motives of the institutions promoting this Blood Libel slander. Why? Because the same leaders, together with their institutions, have grown dependent on the “Jewish problem” narrative to justify their own existence.

        Never once has anyone questioned the agenda of an organization that promotes this “Blood Libel Slander” made against Israel. Israel did not sign the Rome Agreement which established the International Court of the Hague. In point of fact, NEVER AGAIN, as PM Begin expressly communicated to Jimmy Carter at Camp David, means that Israelis post the European “Final Solution” will ever again permit, specifically European Goyim States, to dictate their “SOLUTION” to “THE JEWISH PROPLEM”. Israel rejects the idea that: (1) Jews exist again a ward of Europe. (2) Jewish sovereignty pre-conditional to UN approval. (3) Jewish self-defense is subject to foreign veto. Thus, the ICC’s attempted jurisdiction is a political fiction—an extension of the pre-1948 mindset that Jews do not have independent standing among nations. The ICC’s claim of jurisdiction over Israel: a fiction built on an older fiction. This accusation of “genocide” guilt imposed by Press decree upon Israel, simply the old paternalism in a new legal wrapper of classic South African Apartheid racism.

        The accusation of “genocide” against Israel after Oct. 7, a form of modernized Holocaust denial — a mutation of the classic European blood libel — and the UN’s usage of the term reveals a long-standing imperial contempt for Jewish sovereignty. The UN never had moral universality. It functioned from birth as a colonial power-balancing instrument, and its treatment of Israel, merely the most concentrated exposure of its original design flaws. Where medieval Xtendom accused Jews of murdering Xtian children, the modern UN-Leftist coalition accuses Jews of murdering Palestinian children.

        The replacement theology converts the UN as the new Ersatz-Xtianity. The idea of a secularized form of Xtianity that rejects the theological trappings of the Gospel narrative, but retains dogmatic moral and ethical frameworks associated with Papal Rome. This concept often manifests in political contexts, where political ideologies adopt seemingly Xtian ethical principles, like for an example: a just war, without engaging theological ‘Good News’ yet promoting the new religion of democracy.

        The UN originally set up to prevent another Shoah. Clearly the UN has failed its mandate and MUST disband. What does the UN have to do with the Xtian “Genocide” in Nigeria? Or Pol Pot, or Idi[ot] Amin? The UN promotes platitudes rather than pursues justice. The UN today totally not recognizable to the UN of 1948. Pursuit of power and political coalitions of State international alliances has completely uprooted the founding Charter. The UN systematically ignores or minimizes actual genocide, mass slaughter, and mass enslavement when politically inconvenient. The UN protects authoritarian regimes with bloc voting. The Human Rights Council institutionalizes political scapegoating. UN Bloc voting by authoritarian states has turned this pie in the sky replacement of Wilson’s post WWI League of Nations into a political marketplace where justice get bought and sold on the illegal white women, and child-slave trade-markets.

        Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. President; championed the idea of a global peace organization. Eleanor Roosevelt, Chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights; pivotal in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Winston Churchill – British Prime Minister; advocated for collective security and cooperation. Joseph Stalin – Soviet Dictator primarily responsible for the Allied victory over the Nazis; boycotted the UN Chapter VII dictate to North Korea. Charles de Gaulle – not included at the Yalta Conference, French Resistance leader; crucial in representing defeated France’s interests post-WWII wherein France sat as a Permanent Member in the UN Security Council. De Gaulle as a statesman, succeeded in asserting France’s interests in the aftermath of World War II. Harry S. Truman, U.S. President after FDR; supported the formation and principles of the UN which negated the Constitutional Right of Congress to Declare War.

        The Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, was a pivotal meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin to discuss the post-war reorganization of Europe and the establishment of international cooperation through the United Nations. Their responses varied significantly, reflecting their distinct national interests and ideologies. Stalin showed a positive attitude towards Roosevelt’s proposal for a new international organization aimed at maintaining peace. He recognized the need for a framework to manage post-war tensions and prevent conflicts. These men who built the UN, represent colonial empires, racial hierarchies, colonial interests, and military blocs.

        Stalin insisted that the new organization must include mechanisms that recognized the Soviet Union’s status as a major power. He wanted assurances that Soviet interests and security concerns, particularly in Eastern Europe, would be addressed. While agreeing to the formation of the United Nations, Stalin was adamant about establishing Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, emphasizing a security buffer to protect the Soviet Union from future aggression. Clearly the Democratic Party leadership attempt to increase the NATO alliance to include these same Eastern European countries into the NATO alliance, specifically the Ukraine, no UN Resolution has ever condemned.

        Churchill was more cautious regarding Stalin’s intentions. He was supportive of the idea of a United Nations but harbored concerns about Soviet expansionism and the balance of power in Europe. Churchill advocated for a United Nations that emphasized democratic principles and human rights. He urged for a system that would prevent the imposition of totalitarian regimes, especially in nations liberated from Nazi occupation. Yet the UN promotes Arab dictatorships, specifically Palestinian Arab dictatorships, precisely following the Oct 7th 2023 massacre of Israelis. Churchill wrote the first White Paper, this man focused his interests over British domination upon any new balance of power political arrangement.

        Stalin’s enthusiasm for the concept of the United Nations demonstrated a strategic acknowledgment of the necessity for international governance. This was essential for managing tensions after the war. His insistence on recognizing the Soviet Union’s status as a major power was non-negotiable. The establishment of a security buffer in Eastern Europe was paramount for him, as it aligned with the Soviet doctrine of protecting its borders from perceived threats. Stalin’s strategy foreshadowed the post-war division of Europe. His desire for influence in Eastern Europe laid the groundwork for future Cold War dynamics, where conflicting ideologies and interests between the USSR and Western nations would lead to tension.

        Mali announced the expulsion of French troops, effectively ending an French economic or military domination. In similar fashion the governments of Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Senegal, & Côte d’Ivoire. The UN never once condemned French neocolonialism. The rise of alternative global partnerships, particularly with nations like China and Russia, has provided Sahelian countries with options to diversify their diplomatic and economic relationships. The UN never condemned Western neocolonial economic structured dominance which favored French interests over African development. Independent Sahelian countries, no thanks to the UN, have started to forge new alliances that prioritize their interests rather than continuing to rely on traditional colonial ties. African sovereignty and control over national resources the UN never recognized.

        Jan Christian Smuts, a prominent South African statesman and military leader, had a contentious and complex relationship with Mahatma Gandhi. While they both played influential roles in early 20th-century India and South Africa, their interactions were often marked by significant ideological differences and personal animosity. Smuts held a more conservative viewpoint, often prioritizing colonial interests and the maintenance of order within the British Empire.

        One major point of contention was the implementation of discriminatory pass laws targeting Indians in South Africa. Gandhi actively opposed these laws through protests, while Smuts supported the laws as a means of maintaining control. During discussions about Indian representation in South African politics, Smuts was seen as obstructive, further fueling Gandhi’s disdain for him.

        Reports suggest that Smuts had a personal dislike for Gandhi, viewing him as a radical undermining British authority in South Africa. This animosity was reflected in their public exchanges and political opposition. Despite their differences, Gandhi’s struggle for Indian rights in South Africa remains a significant historical contribution, overshadowing Smuts’ position at that time. Today, Smuts is often critiqued for his stances, which contributed to systemic discrimination, while Gandhi is celebrated for his non-violent approach to achieving social justice. The relationship between Jan Christian Smuts and Mahatma Gandhi exemplifies the broader tensions of colonial politics, with personal ideologies and ambitions clashing in a critical period of history. Their interactions serve as a lens through which the complexities of resistance against colonial rule can be understood.

        Jawaharlal Nehru, as India’s first Prime Minister played a significant role in the establishment of the United Nations (UN). Nehru was a strong proponent of internationalism and believed in the necessity of a global organization to foster peace and cooperation among nations. His vision was largely influenced by the horrors of World War II and the need to prevent future conflicts. Nehru actively participated in key discussions that shaped the UN’s formation. He was part of the Indian delegation at the San Francisco Conference in 1945, where the UN Charter was drafted.

        His contributions emphasized the importance of decolonization and civil rights. Nehru advocated for the inclusion of human rights in the UN framework. As a leader from a newly independent nation, he championed the cause of oppressed peoples, aiming for a UN that would not only prevent wars but also promote social justice. Nehru’s commitment to the UN and its principles laid a foundation for India’s active participation in UN affairs, which has continued to influence its foreign policy. His advocacy for peace, cooperation, and justice remains a part of India’s global identity today.

        In 1975 the United Nations Human Rights Commission condemned the Augusto Pinochet regime for its widespread human rights violations, including torture and political repression. The resolution called attention to reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearance of political opponents, and the overall lack of civil liberties in Chile under Pinochet’s dictatorship. The Augusto Pinochet regime immediately eclipsed the socialist influence of Hernán Santa Cruz.

        Alger Hiss, a high-ranking official in the U.S. State Department and a key figure in the founding meetings of the United Nations. In 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former communist and journalist, accused Hiss of being a communist spy and of passing classified documents to the Soviet Union. In 1950, Hiss was tried for perjury and was convicted, serving several years in prison. While Hiss was involved in the establishment of the United Nations, serving as a crucial part of the U.S. delegation at the founding conference in 1945, his legacy became overshadowed by the espionage allegations. Historians often debate the extent of his guilt, with some arguing that he was falsely accused.

        The Weaponization of “Genocide”, the UN has perverted into a political cudgel, detached from its historical meaning. Its use against Israel, framed as a form of Holocaust denial and “blood libel.” Israel’s Sovereignty Post-Holocaust — “Never Again” means Israel will not allow external powers—especially European states—to dictate Jewish survival, our international borders or our Capital City. Israel’s refusal to sign the Rome Statute, presented as a rejection of foreign-imposed “solutions” which presume Israel remains a Protectorate Territory of the UN or post WWII European Courts of international law.

        The UN was created to prevent another Shoah, but instead it promotes platitudes and power politics. Examples: ignoring atrocities in Nigeria, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Idi Amin’s Uganda, and French neocolonialism in Africa. A UN which continually remains worse than simply silent about its founding premise: preventing unilateral security expansions that could trigger world conflict. A UN which “claims” to defend human rights, built partly by men who defend racially stratified empires.

        Selective Condemnations, the UN condemned Pinochet’s Chile but ignored French neocolonialism in Africa. UN resolutions often reflect political convenience rather than consistent justice. The Smuts vs. Gandhi conflict illistrates how the UN’s silence on neocolonial structures in Africa echoes the impact of Colonial legacies.

        Alger Hiss’s role in founding the UN is overshadowed by espionage accusations, symbolizing the organization’s compromised legacy, matched only by the grossly perverted number of UN condemnations made against Israel. The UN has always had compromised foundations, and those cracks have widened into fissures today.

        The UN never morally coherent. It stands exposed as a truce between competing empires wrapped in universal language. The same Human Rights Commission built by men like Smuts and Santa Cruz now functions as a propaganda bureau for authoritarian regimes. And the same UN founded with Alger Hiss — now shadowed by espionage accusations — continues to operate with layers of clandestine influence.

        The weaponization of “genocide”, an old psychological warfare guilt trip, on par with “He died for you”. It continues the old European narative: The Jew as the world’s chief problem. Where once Jews were accused of poisoning wells, today we are accused of poisoning Gaza. Where once Jews were accused of blood crimes, today we are accused of genocide. A system built on the ashes of the Holocaust now recycles Holocaust denial under the guise of human rights.

        Why Smuts? Why Gandhi? Why Pinochet? Why the Sahel? Why Nehru? These leaders and countries both tyrants and saints influenced the establishment of the UN, its the failed ‘dream vision’ which ignores the eternal conflict conducted between Power vs. Justice. All the prophets of the T’NaCH pitted justice against avoda zara – the Human worship of power as God.

        Israel never signed the Rome Statute. Therefore the ICC has no jurisdiction unless Israel consents which fundamentally profanes the post Shoah sworn oath “NEVER AGAIN”. The ICC’s maneuver relies on the fiction that “Palestine” is a state with standing. British Palestine, established by the League of Nations based upon the Balfour Declaration of 1917 ceased to exist when David Ben Gurion declared Jewish national independence and named the new country Israel in 1948.

        Only in 1964 did Egyptian born Yasser Arafat embrace the name of Palestine as central to his PLO Charter. That charter did not view Jordan’s West Bank or Egypt’s Gaza as occupied territory. It limited the phrase “Occupied Territory” only to ’48 Israel. UN Resolutions 242, 338, 446, 2334 etc all political blood libel frauds. UN Resolution 3379 – Zionism is Racism – rejects the Balfour Declaration which fathered the Palestine Mandate of 1921.

      • mosckerr's avatar mosckerr  On November 19, 2025 at 11:48 am

        The Reshonim commentaries upon the Talmud reflect how over time later generations can change, invert, modify, mutate the original language of the T’NaCH\Talmud common law system altered unto a Goyim style statute legal system. An example of the UN established to prevent another Shoah but thereafter condemns Israel for genocide. The US Constitution established a Republic of economic autonomous States unto a post Civil War democracy wherein Washington mananged a Central Controlled economy.

        The Articles of Confederation did not mandate an Executive Branch in the Central Government. The Framers envisioned a small Federal Government; their rebellion against the British King made them wary of a strong central authority. The post WWII Big Brother Federal Government serves as an example of what the Founding Fathers rebelled against the British Crown.

        The Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) originally intended to give Congress the power to regulate commerce between the states and foreign nations – inter-state trade. Inter-State trade expanded to include trade and commerce between States of the Union regulated by Washington bureaucrats. Hence the Framers wrote the Commerce Clause with the intent to create a balance that would facilitate trade among states of the Union while preventing any single state monopoly from having undue influence over commerce. Hence the rejection of Central Government established monopolies, starting with a Central (Federal Reserve) Bank.

        Lincoln, often considered the first Radical Republican, adopted measures that increased federal power during the Civil War, despite his initial respect for states’ rights. Lincoln’s Hamiltonian views concerning the establishment of a Federal banking monopoly crystalized in forcing Banks to keep Treasury Notes and the fiat Greenback currency, through which he financed the Civil War.

        The post Civil War Inter-State Commerce Act institutionalized Washington as Big Brother over the States reduced to being “counties” within the Federal Government. Socialist Centralized Planning FDR would later initiate consequent to Wilson’s establishment of a Federal monopoly Federal Reserve. Small wonder that Wilson’s establishment of a Federally established private banking monopoly, a policy which mirrors European economic traditions, that the US almost immediately there after permanently joined the Allied military alliance, due to the huge loans the Federal Reserve gave to England and France, prior to the US joining the Allied Alliance. This fundamentally abrogated Washington’s command not for the US to join into any European alliance.
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        משנה תורה קידושין פרק א סוגיה א

        Having made a review of Boris Badenov, and Natasha Fatale, must now return back to the 2nd to last line of :ב.
        דתנן: (בז’ דרכים), אתרוג שוה לאילן בג’ דרכים. ליתני דברים משום דבעינן מתני סיפא, ולירק דברך אחד. סיפא נמי ניתני דבר התם הא קמשמע לן דדרכיה דאתרוג כירק

        Why do the halachic codifications compare to tits on a boar hog, when a student studies the Talmud? Reshonim and Acharonim scholarship prioritized learning halacha divorced from the Talmud. Hence their codes of halacha fails to learn halacha in context to how it serves as a precedent to interpret the original language of the Mishna. In this particular instance, does the maturity of a child impact the mitzva of קידושין. Our Villains, Badenov and Fatale argue that child rape through ביאה qualifies as kosher קידושין. The Gemara brings the בנין אב של אתרוג as a precedent proving that maturity determines the validity of mitzvot. The halachic statute law codifications have no awareness what so ever of how the Gemara employs halachic issues as precedents to re-interpret the original intent of the language of the Home Mishna. Herein the Reshonim and Acharonim scholarship took down stream generations off the דרך.

        Recall that Natasha Fatale declared money as a rabbinic acquisition, it seems important to bring the RambaN’s commentary to this Gemara.
        חדושי רבינו משה בן נחמן קידושין: בכסף בשטר ובביאה. דוקא נקט סידרא, דכתיב כי יקח היינו כסף והדר כתיב ובעלה, משום הכי אקדמיה לכסף מקמי ביאה. ושטר משום דדמי לכסף. שכן קונין בהן שאר דברים וקנינן מרובה, סמכו ענין לו, ואע”פ שבכתוב כסף וביאה סמוכין. ולמאי דמפקינן נמי כסף מויצאה חנם (לקמן ג,ב), ההיא לומר דקידושי דאה הוו, אבל מ”מ כסף דקני מכי יקח נפקא והדר ובעלה. ולר’ יוחנן (לקמן ט,ב) דמפיק ביאה מבעולת בעל, איכא למימר דכיון דעיקר כל קנין כסף הוא [מדרשא – הגראז] חביבא ליה ואקדמיה, א”נ כיון דכת’ כי יקח והדר ובעלה אקדמיה לכסף – money before intercourse.

        In the matter of אתרוג the Torah raise the קום ועשה מצוה של ערלה. Boris Badenov’s statute halacha totally ignored this precedent of אתרוג in the acquisition of קידושין involving a minor child. His code divorced this key precedent and how the Amoraim employed it to interpret the intent of the language of the Mishna.

        Natasha Fatale’s כסף משנה commentary absolutely failed to correct this gross fundamental socialist perversion made by Boris Badenov’s statue law halachic over-simplification, and שב ולא תעשה assimilation unto Greek\Roman statute law.

        אתרוד שוה לאילן בג’ דרכים, לערלה ולרבעי ולשביעית. פירש רש”י ז”ל שערלה ורבעי נוהגין בו באילן [the initial formation of fruit]ולשביעית שהולכים בפירותיו אחר חנטה

        ,כאילן ולא אחר לקיטה כירק. ודקדקו עליו וליתני נמי לפאה ולשכחה דאי דמי לאילן ליתני ה’ אי דמי לירק דלא מחייב ליתני ג’ לירק. וזו אינה קודיא, דאי מחייב לאו דומיא דאילן הוא, דאיכא נמי ירק דמחייב, כל שמכניסו לקיום (פאה פ”ג מ”ד) כגון מלבנות הבצלים וחיטה וכל חמישה מינין דלאו אילן נינהו. ואי לא מחייב, לאו דומיא דירק הוא דליתני לירק, דאיכא אילן דלא מחייב כגון תאנה כדתנן בדוכתא (פאה פ”א מ”ד, פ”ג מ”ד) משום – הכילא תננהו – [fruits are gathered gradually]. This last clause introduces a completely different subject than maturity. The RambaN refers to their pattern of harvesting, not the ripening process whereas our Gemara, it seems to me, brings this precedent to address האשה נקנית as it applies to a daughter whom the father can sell without her consent.

        A minor daughter has two qualities (1) he can sell her as a maid servant without her consent. (2) The person who acquires this “property” cannot acquire title to her Nefesh O’lam Ha’bah through bi’ah, till she has the maturity to possess the discernment of what this bi’ah acquires. Kiddushin through intercourse fundamentally requires da‘at; whereas kiddushin through money relates to the father’s authority. The authority of the father not a rabbinic fence around the Torah “authority”. כסף, שטר וביאה serve as angles of analysis on the mishnaic blueprint — each with different halachic implications tied to maturity, da‘at, and precedent. Bi’ah with a minor cannot sanctify kiddushin.

        Our Gemara now makes a בנין אב גזרה שוו to :ר”ה יד:, וסוכה לט. A כלל in how the Gemara interprets the language of its Home Mishna, all halachic subjects raised by the Gemara function as בניני אבות precedents wherein the Amoraim interpret the k’vanna intent of the Mishnaic language. The Framers of the Talmud never had any intention to organize these precedent halachot into Greek/Roman statute shoe-box egg-crates. Furthermore, the editors of both the Bavli and Yerushalmi organized each and every sugya of Gemara as complete-intact-whole units. In this sense, a sugya of Gemara compares to a static bridge which spans a river. Static engineering far simpler than dynamic engineering; the former depends on linear geometry and algebra, whereas the latter requires Calculus variables and other forms of Higher mathematics.

        A scholar needs to interpret the precedent sugya quickly in his effort to understand how this off the dof sugya serves as a changed perspective which views the shared גזרה שוו common denominator clause from a completely different angle as view from the Gemara of קידושין views this precedent viewed from a completely different perspective.

        This Gemara כלל, how to understand the language of the Gemara across the Sha’s — Boris Badenov & Natasha Fatale triggered a ירידות הדורות domino effect which cursed all downstream generations with their Av tuma avoda zarah. The foreign alien Goyim theology whose substitution theology transposes Power AS God. Regardless of the dogma: Be it the Nicene Creed or the revelation of the Koran dictated by an Angel, both religions of avoda zara orbited the shared central axis of military conquest and Power. Wrapped ever so beautifully in the shiny deception of belief in God. Both religions made it a religious obligation to conquer the World and force all Man Kind to believe in their Universal monotheism Gods.

        Each sugya of בנין אב Gemara has an opening Thesis Statement. A closing re-statement but re-phrased thesis statement. And all halachic issues raised within the body of the sugya exist somewhere along this two-point sugya sh’itta/line. This rigid fixed quality of each and every Gemara sugyot permits a scholar to make a syllogism three-point deductive reasoning to quickly grasp the angle of perspective of this בנין אב סודיה. The simplicity of the Framers design compares to the inherit rigid strength of a triangle.
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        דתנן ר”ה: באחד בשבט ראש השנה לאילן כדברי בית שמאי. בה”א בחמישה עשר בו. גמ. סוגיה אחרונה לפני תנן: בארבע פרקים העולם דידון. דף יד: מ”ט אמר רבי אלעזר א”ר אושעיא הואיל ויצאו רוב גשמי שנה ועדיין רוב תקופה מבחוץ מאי קאמר? ה”ק אע”פ שרוב תקופה מבחוץ הואיל ויצאו רוב דשמי. ת”ר מעשה בר”ע שליקט אתרוג באחד בשבט ונהג בו שני עישורין אחד כדברי ב”ש ואחד כדברי ב”ה וגו’……. אמר רבי יוחנן נהגו העם בחרובין כרבי נחמיה איתיביה ר”ל לרבי יוחנן בנות שוח שביעתי שלהן שניה מפני שעושות לשליש השנים אישתיק ……… דתנן אתרוג שוה לאילן בג’ דרכים לערלה ולרבעי ולשביעית ולירק בדרך אחד שבשעת לקיטתו עישרו דברי ר”ג ר’ אליעזר אומר אתרוג שוה לאילן לכל דבר

        העיקר — מה עושה הסוגיה של האתרוג? The Mishnah’s short formula — “אתרוג שוה לאילן בג’ דרכים — לערלה, לרביעי, ולשביעית; ולירק בדרך אחד” — not a botanical description but a legal index: some mitzvot treat the etrog like a tree (because they look to חנטה / formative moment) and some like a vegetable (because they look to לקיטה / the act of harvest). The Gemara then spins that hinge into a general method: when a mitzva’s norm is tied to formation/appearance we apply one set of rules; when it’s tied to picking/transfer we apply another.

        איך זה מיישם את מישנת ראש-השנה (אחד־בחודש / ט״ו) How does this apply to the Mishnah of Rosh Hashanah (the first of the month / the 15th?

        That dispute is fundamentally about which moment determines halachic belonging: the moment of חנטה / becoming part of the tree, or the moment of לקיטה / becoming gathered. When the Gemara records that people have customs (e.g. to follow בית שמאי או בית הלל or follow actual practices of איסוף), it is doing exactly the same juridical move as the etrog sugya: it asks which legal clock ticks for this mitzva. Thus the Rosh Ha-Shana Mishnah’s language about dates and customs is explained by the same binyan-av: the date that counts depends on which legal parameter the mitzva attaches to (formation vs harvest vs seasonal counting). The Gemara’s stories (e.g. about rabbi Akiva who picked etrog on one date and treated it by two sets of rules) illustrate that there are two different clocks and we must know which one the law attaches to.

        מה זה עושה לגבי קידושין — “האשה נקנית בשלוש דרכים” Now connect the binyan-av: the Mishnah of קידושין lists three kinyanim (כסף, שטר, ביאה) — the Gemara’s job is to determine the kavvanah (legal parameter) each mode presupposes.

        כסף (and שטר) behave like a property transfer — akin to crops harvested and stored. Their legal effect can depend on a property-type standard (the father’s authority, a contractual transfer), not on the woman’s personal subjective state. For many cases the law treats כסף as operating through the father’s guardianship: it can effect kiddushin of a minor under paternal kinyan because it’s a transferal-mechanism in the communal-property sense.

        ביאה is fundamentally different: it is a personal, bodily act whose halachic efficacy attaches to the personhood and daʿat of the woman. The Gemara examines whether biʿah creates kiddushin when the woman lacks requisite daʿat or maturity. Using the etrog binyan-av, the Gemara shows that because ביאה’s “moment of effect” is like לקיטה tied to consent/active completion, it requires the agent’s halachic capability (daʿat). Therefore a sexual act with a child who lacks daʿat does not produce valid kiddushin; it is not a valid kinyan but assault.

        איך האתרוג מהווה הוכחה-מודל (precedent) How the etrog serves as a proof-model (precedent). The etrog case is concrete precedent: for some mitzvot the decisive moment is חנטה (formation) — these are like sheviʿit/ערלה — and for others the decisive moment is לקיטה (harvest) — these are like maʿaser/קנין. The Amoraim import that distinction into family law: is kiddushin decided by a formation-type standard (family/paternal authority, like property) or by a person-centered standard (consent/daʿat)? The etrog sugya proves that the Talmud repeatedly uses agricultural categories as legal prototypes for other areas: if the halachic system chooses the formation-model, the rules follow that template; if it chooses the picking-model, the rules follow the other template.

        התחביר ההלכתי של הכוונה The halakhic syntax of intention. Therefore the kavvanah of the Mishnah’s language in both places is institutional—specifying which legal template applies. In ר״ה the Mishnah’s dates and customs are shorthand telling us which temporal-template the law uses for that fruit/mitzva (formation vs harvest). In קידושין the Mishnah’s list of kinyanim is shorthand telling us which type of legal transaction we are dealing with — property-transfer vs person-centered transfer — and the Gemara uses etrog-style binyan-av to decide borderline cases (minors, absent daʿat, father’s sale).

        דוגמה קצרה להמחשה A short example for illustration. Fig tree (תאנה): fruit is gathered gradually → no peah → behaves atypically for a “tree” → shows that botanical category ≠ legal category. Onions/wheat stored: vegetable-type plants that are obligated in peah → shows the opposite. Apply to kiddushin: a “formative” connection (father sells daughter) can create a legal effect with respect to כסף, even if the person lacks autonomous daʿat for ביאה.

        מסקנה מעשית ומחשבתית A practical and intellectual conclusion. The Gemara’s sugya is not pedantic taxonomy — it gives the reader the legal hermeneutic: always ask “which legal clock / template does the mitzva/grant attach to?” Once you know the template, everything else follows. That is the kavvanah both of the ר״ה Mishnah (which temporal template applies?) and of the קידושין Mishnah (which acquisition-template applies?), and the etrog precedent is the canonical model the Amoraim employ to transfer that method from agriculture into family law.

  • ccyager's avatar ccyager  On November 23, 2025 at 6:45 pm

    Doug, I’m not usually in favor of censorship, but in this case, I think it would be helpful to block Mosckerr from commenting if possible. Their comments have nothing to do with your posts and often make little sense. They are just trying to garner attention.

    • mosckerr's avatar mosckerr  On November 24, 2025 at 2:05 am

      Not enough to cast the grave of Rambam upon the dung heaps of history. According to Heinrich Graetz, “History of the Jews” a long curse engraved upon the tomb of the Rambam. But other Jews have rubbed away that curse and only the word ארור visible today.

      The Avot—Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov—represent different paradigms of connection with God and expressions of faith. Not like Avraham who called it [the Beis Hamikdash] “mountain,” and not like Yitzchak who called it “field,” but rather like Yaakov who called it “house. . .” (Pesachim 88a)… What an utterly pathetic mistranslation!

      The story of Avraham Yitzak and Yaacov centered upon the wells they dug for their sheep. But only idiots assume that the Avot lived their lives as simple shepherds of sheep and goats! The Beis Hamikdash not some glorified slaughter house! It housed both the Great Sanhedrin and a Small Sanhedrin Federal Courtroom of Common Law!

      The story of the korbanot dedicated by Kayin neged Hevel centers upon the choice of who merits to live as the chosen Cohen son! Kayin, like Yishmael, & Esav born as the first born son! A major Torah theme played throughout the Sin of the Golden Calf and the replacement of the first born son with the Tribe of Levi!

      The prophetic mussar of the rejection of the korban dedicated by Kayin, HaShem does not recognize korbanot as a barbeque to heaven, a תולדות קום ועשה מצוה!!!! A korban requires that a person swears a Torah oath – through the altar like unto standing before a Sefer Torah – מלכות dedicates as specific tohor middah – like a toldoth “blessing” of oaths requires שם ומלכות – committing to the eternal pursuit of justice/צדק צדק תרידוף. Just that simple.

      The Torah does not compare to Av tuma avoda zarah which prioritizes “Great theological themes” concerning belief in different Gods — the Lord vs Allah — any more that the Book of ויקרא commands offering korbanot as a ritual commandment like the קום ועשה תולדות הלכות of the Shulkan Aruch do not require k’vanna! Simple קום ועשה ושב ולא תעשה מצוות, do not require k’vanna. This definition makes them secondary commandments to time-oriented commandments!

      The Talmud has a warp/weft Halacha\Aggada loom like structure which weaves the garments, comparable to the Book of שמות garments made for the House of Aaron! Its not the literal garments of the House of Aaron משל but rather the customs and culture of the House of the Chosen Cohen people נמשל. The נמשל defines the כוונה of the משל; as such time-oriented commandments Av commandments.

      The Torah not some glorified Book of Jewish religion similar to the Books of the New Testament and Koran Av tuma avoda zarah! The Torah serves as the Constitution of the Republic of 12 Tribes; it serves the same exact function as the Constitution of the United States – basic Law! Based upon the 1st Sinai Commandment. אני ה’ אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים. This the greatest of all Torah commandments – Jews who live in G’lut cannot accept the Torah as the Constitution of our Republic לשמה. G’lut Jewry cursed like Kayin, forced to worship av tuma avoda zarah as a religious belief system theology rather than as the substance of leaving Egypt to conquer Canaan.

      Off the דרך Orthodox Judaism declared their av tuma declaration of faith – in the early Twentieth Century – when they declared Zionism as both secondary and foreign to the Torah faith. Absolutely a direct repetition of the Wilderness Generation which condemned the First Born Generation to accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai as not having a portion to the World to Come.

      The Avot: falsely perceived as but a simple משל “mountain”, or “field”, or “house”, in equal like manner the משל בית המקדש. The lives of the Avot introduce the נמשל dedication – pursuit of justice within the oath sworn lands of Canaan. G’lut Jews who remain in exile cannot accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai – the first commandment – לשמה, because they live their lives permanently in g’lut with no real or honest intention to make aliya. No different than the Shoah Wilderness Generation which has no portion in the World to Come.

      The Book of בראשית introduces אב טהור זימן גרמא מצוות, like the Aggada of the Sha’s makes a דרוש\פשט to the prophetic mussar taught through the Books of the T’NaCH! Wisdom requires “shepherds” to weave the wool and linen threads of Halacha and Aggadah unto “garments” that the House of Aaron can wear in the “Beit HaMikdosh”. Obviously mixing wool & linen requires k’vaana as a time-oriented mitzva!

      Only Jews who live in the oath sworn lands, who dedicate their Zionism as the eternal pursuit of self-determination to rule these lands with Sanhedrin lateral common law courts of Federal justice; as the basis of law of the Republic over the secondary Government rule of law by statute government Knesset decrees. Herein defines the meaning of Zionism post ’48 and ’67 Independence Wars victories! Common law judicial law the נמשל priority over Statute Law Knesset משל תולדות law. Do the Toldoth follow the Avot Yes or No? The defining question asked by Mesechtot Shabbat and Baba Kama.

      The pursuit of judicial justice shares no common ground with personal belief systems/Creeds of faith about Gods in Heaven. Torah justice in this Earth, not in the Heaven skies above. Theological belief systems Av tuma avoda zarah. G’lut Jews cannot, by definition of the first Sinai commandment, possess genuine intention or moral integrity to accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, they remain in g’lut. Only within the borders of the oath sworn lands of alliance can Jews establish self determination of ruling the lands of Canaan with righteous Judicial common law justice. Sanhedrin common Law, UNLIKE the Rambam, Tur, Beit Yosef & Shulkan Aruch statute religious codes of ritual halacha,, centers upon judicial rulings which achieve fair restitution of damages inflicted by Jews upon other Jews.

      Ritual religious observances do not weave the woolen & linen garments as time-oriented commandments. Av tohor time-oriented commandments they weave the culture and customs practiced by the Chosen Cohen Nation within the borders of the Jewish State of Israel.

      G’lut Jews their Beit Din – a joke. The three Justices of their Torts court, do not divide their duties as Prosecuting כנגד Defense justices – who argue their opposing cases before one another through bringing halachic precedents, like as the Gemara does to each and every Mishna which it comments upon!

      Religious ritual observances share no common ground with righteous common law courts of law; any more than do the Yad, Tur, Aruch assist students to study Talmudic common law. Torah does not “compare” to a Constitution any more than does a דיוק נמשל actually compares to its משל metaphor.

      Employment of משל\נמשל a method of Hebrew speech. Children only understand the simple stories. Adults who cling to the understanding of children – what an utter disgrace. The challenge of maintaining a strong Jewish identity in g’lut … antisemitism-the curse of Amalek.

      Jewish assimilation and intermarriage with Goyim invokes the curse of the 2nd Sinai commandment from generation to generation. Herein explains why the B’HaG ruled that the mitzva of reading the M’gillah qualifies as a time oriented commandment from the Torah.

      The ever repeated conclusions made by generation after generation of g’lut Jews, that they can live in peace in g’lut – utterly false. Herzl understood that the curse of European antisemitism has no cure. Its a cancer of the Goyim minds which no doctor can heal. Only Jews who commit to leaving g’lut Egypt, a לאו דוקא משל, and making aliya to Israel — possess the potential to acquire Zionism – Jewish self determination to pursue justice among and between our own people.

    • Geoff Arnold's avatar Geoff Arnold  On November 24, 2025 at 10:22 am

      I administer a number of WordPress blogs, so I know that Doug has a number of tools available to him that can deal with mosckerr‘s blatant abuse of the comment system. My personal policies look like this:

      • Users must be registered and logged in to comment
      • Before a comment appears” … “Comment author must have a previously approved comment
      • Use the “disallowed comment keys” feature to trigger moderation for certain types of content.

      Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t let you restrict comment length, although there are several third-party plugins that support this.

      • ccyager's avatar ccyager  On November 24, 2025 at 12:27 pm

        Thanks, Geoff, for the info. I have my own WordPress blog since 2007, and I didn’t know about those options. Very good to know!

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