A Deep Swamp, Indeed
President Trump said it best when he admitted that he never thought the Washington swamp was so deep. This election hoax is the final act of the impeachment hoax, all conceived to solidify the political power of the “soft” communist regime that America has already succumbed to. People are scare to publicly express their opinions at work or voice them in a university classroom.
But with the current focus on election fraud, we Americans are ignoring the biggest fraud of all: the journalistic collusion to suppress freedom of thought.
There is mounting evidence that Vice President Biden and his son Hunter were involved in international deals in which access to political power was traded for tens of millions of dollars. All of this evidence has been ignored or, worse, suppressed by mainstream media and social media.
These same news sources also spread false information from politically-biased pollsters, indicating that Joe Biden had an enormous lead over President Trump for the purpose of discouraging voter turnout and campaign contributions. The news sources are guilty of election interference – big time!
If the current legal battle for fair elections proves to be unfruitful, a case can be made for the president declaring a state of emergency for the purpose of carrying out fair elections with an informed citizenry.
David Ferster
What a Joke (I)
Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth A. Berney asked last week, “Why Didn’t President Trump Get The Nobel Peace Prize?”
But there is a silver lining to Trump not being awarded the prize. Had he received it, some people might have thought that all the other winners over the years did great things – which of course is far from true.
Not receiving the prize also puts to rest the false accusations that Trump is anti-Semitic: Trump never won the Nobel Peace Prize, so how can he be anti-Semitic?
Josh Greenberger
Brooklyn, NY
What a Joke (II)
I regard Donald Trump as a con-artist – hardly the kind of person I would want in the White House. But his eligibility for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is an entirely different matter.
No other person has done so much to bring peace to the Middle East. Many others have tried – unsuccessfully. Indeed, Trump’s efforts and accomplishments in this regard have been extraordinary. No other president has come close.
So how could the Nobel Peace Prize commission give the award instead to the scandal-ridden UN World Food Programme? How could the commission have awarded the prize in 1994 to Yasser Arafat, “the unrepentant lifelong terrorist” who was responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews?
What does that say about the Nobel Peace Prize commission? I think it needs better leadership.
George Epstein
Los Angeles, CA
They Hate the Establishment
President Trump received 70 million votes on Tuesday – the greatest number a sitting president has ever received. Why did so many people vote for him?
I believe there were two reasons: 1) He succeeded in putting money in the pockets of working people, and 2) millions of Americans despise the Trump-haters who are on display 24/7. It’s amazing, but some anti-Trumpers are so vile that they actually generate sympathy for the bombastic Trump.
People claim Trump brought some of the opposition on himself, but that hypothesis falls apart when you examine the “Russian collusion” fiasco, the Hunter Biden blackout, and the unending chaos that the Washington establishment tried to sow in the Trump administration.
So 70 million voters said, “Go jump in a lake” to the establishment. That may not console the president or his supporters, but it’s a fact. And anti-establishment anger is growing with each passing day.
Brian J. Goldenfeld
Oak Park, CA
Thanks for Books
I appreciated the ad on the Book Review page last week. I am a big mystery book fan and immediately ordered the two books advertised, Murder in the Kollel and The Kosher Butcher. I look forward to reading them and thank The Jewish Press for bringing them to my attention.
Anna Cohen
What Does Torah Im Derech Eretz Mean?
Saul J. Singer’s essay a few weeks ago on the life of Heinrich Graetz was informative. However, in defining the Torah Im Derech Eretz approach of Rav S. R. Hirsch, the talented columnist actually articulated the Torah Umadda doctrine advocated by Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel.
Singer writes that Torah Im Derech Eretz is “a synthesis of Torah knowledge and secular knowledge in which it is important to learn Philosophy, Arts, and Sciences,” and writes that without a person integrating secular knowledge with Torah knowledge, a vacuum of intellectual wholesomeness rests in him.
But Torah Im Derech Eretz doesn’t mean learning secular knowledge as a means of achieving “shlemut” or as a criterion for a budding Torah scholar. It simply means that halacha and Torah principles are applicable in every society.
The historical backdrop of this doctrine was early-mid 19th century Germany. The German government enacted a law positing that a prospective rav must have a university degree, so Rav S. R. Hirsch responded by meeting the needs of the day.
His Torah Im Derech Eretz principle never meant that mastery of Torah knowledge without a thorough familiarity of the humanities is less than ideal.
T.S. Engel
Saul Jay Singer responds:
I thank Mr. Engel for his thought-provoking letter, but I must disagree with his thesis – though I deeply appreciate his referring to me as “a talented columnist.”
The phrase “Torah Im Derech Eretz” is first found in Pirkei Avot (2:2): “Beautiful is the study of Torah with derech eretz [literally, “the way of the land”], as involvement with both makes one forget sin.” Although the term is arguably ambiguous, the general understanding of it matches the interpretation of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, with whom the term has become inexorably linked.
The most frequently-offered definition of derech eretz in the majority of contexts pre-Hirsch revolve around earning a livelihood. (Thus, according to many recognized leading halachic authorities, the principle is “Beautiful is the study of Torah when accompanied by supporting oneself” – something that supporters of a kollel lifestyle might want to think about long and hard.)
As early as the 16th century, though, we find the Maharal explaining that derech eretz is not limited to merely earning one’s own sustenance; it also involves skills a Jews needs to function effectively in the natural world. Rav Hirsch extended this interpretation to include a broad knowledge of culture and society, specifically including – as he explains in his commentary on Pirkei Avot – “everything concerning humanistic and civil education.”
According to R. Hirsch, this includes broad knowledge of the secular world and living within Western culture – while, of course, at all times and in all ways maintaining, first and foremost, the strictest fidelity to halacha – and he himself wrote that this approach constituted the ideal, not a mere concession to modernity.
This topic is far too broad – and interesting – to fully address in the letters section, but I don’t think there is any question that my presentation of the doctrine of Torah Im Derech Eretz in the Graetz article is wholly consistent with Rav Hirsch’s use of that term.
I Want Fair Elections
For the last 13 years, I have taught my two young children about honesty and integrity. Don’t steal, don’t lie, etc.
But over the last few years, the greatest Washington liars and thieves have all gone unpunished (e.g., spy-gate, Clinton destroying her e-mails, and fake Russian collusion set-up.) So you can imagine that my family is confused.
If justice isn’t served in these cases, and if this obviously fraudulent election isn’t successfully investigated, hope will be lost forever – not just in my heart, but in the hearts of many millions of great Americans.
The Democrats have been setting up this election scam for the last couple of years. Why else would they incessantly ask President Trump if he’ll go away quietly?
All I’m asking is that if and when the evidence presents itself – and G-d willing it will – appropriate measures are put in place. I am calling for new elections without mail-in ballots, which will undoubtedly destroy our country forever if allowed to be used in the future as they were used in this last election.
Members of the National Guard or military must be at the counting stations all over the country making sure that every ballot that’s counted is observed and examined. Countless millions of citizens will never trust our country again otherwise.
Howard Kligman