If I didn't know he was arrogant, I might think he was naive. From Barack Obama's 'reflections' while meeting with rabbis before the Jewish New Year.
As Rabbi Matanky noted, Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection, and I'm
not exempt from that. So, looking back on the last eight years, I'm
both proud of what we've accomplished together, but also mindful of the
work we have before us.
When it comes to the unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security, we've
taken a clear stand, and the recent signing of the Memorandum of
Understanding constitutes the single largest pledge of military
assistance in U.S. history to any country, totaling $38 billion over 10
years.
I made a commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,
and because of our principled diplomacy, every pathway to a nuclear
weapon is now closed off. Iran has dismantled two-thirds of its
installed centrifuges, shipped out 98 percent of its enriched uranium,
rendered its plutonium reactor core unusable, and adopted the most
comprehensive nuclear inspection ever.
On the global fight against anti-Semitism, we've worked in partnership
with Israel and other countries to take a lead role in organizing the
first ever U.N. General Assembly meeting to combat anti-Semitism last
year.
And so on these issues and many others we have worked incredibly
closely with many of you, allocating millions in assistance for
Holocaust survivors, and ensuring that the U.N. finally recognized Yom
Kippur as an official holiday, and more broadly, working to rebuild a
sinking economy -- so that we've cut the unemployment rate by more than
half, provided health care to 20 million people who didn’t have it
before, ramped up our production of clean energy, signed a historic
Paris agreement that hopefully will curb the accelerating speed at which
our planet is warming and could threaten the future of our children and
our grandchildren.
Of course, we've still got a lot of work to do -- on the refugee
crisis, on criminal justice reform, reducing violence, and creating a
political culture in this country that’s a little more functional. But a
new year brings new hope, and the community represented on this phone
call has always known what it means to stand up for the less fortunate,
the stranger, the immigrant, the refugee. And so I'm confident that we
can stand together and make sure that as we pass the baton to the next
administration that we're going to be able to build on the enormous
progress that we've already made.
I don't have time to begin answering, but he is arrogance personified.
As some of you might recall, I visited Uman two years ago, albeit not on Rosh HaShanna. Thousands of Jewish men spend Rosh HaShanna in Uman at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Many who cannot afford to rent apartments (there are few or no hotels) stay in tents. Over the Sabbath, the tent city that was erected for the visitors this coming week was destroyed by Ukrainian nationalists.
“On Shabbat, when they knew we wouldn’t be able to respond or
activate the communication device, they simply knocked down the fence,
pushed the light poles and security cameras, and caused damage estimated
at half a million dollars,” Eliezer Kirshboim, chairman and director of
the Jewish association in Uman, told the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot. “We are approaching the High Holidays, and this disrupts all our work arrangements.”
Police officers did not intervene to stop the attacks, the newspaper reported, citing witnesses.
Since the fall of communism, Uman has seen the arrival of thousands
of pilgrims on the Jewish New Year who come to visit the gravesite of
the Breslover movement’s founder, Rabbi Nachman.
The pilgrimage often has created friction between the predominantly
Israeli new arrivals and locals, many of whom resent the cordoning off
by police of neighborhoods for the pilgrims.
Kirshboim said the mayor of Uman was “appointed” by members of the
nationalist Svoboda party following the revolution in Ukraine.
There's an election in October, and whoever harasses the Jews the most is likely to win.
Military Intelligence: 'The Rosh HaShannah attack was a myth invented by Haredi media. We know nothing about it'
A tweet from Haredi reporter Yaakov Rivlin.
בכיר באמ"ן בפני ועדת חו"ב: תוכנית החמאס לפרוץ בראש השנה מעשר מנהרות לשטח ישראל- אגדה שרצה בתקשורת החרדית. לנו אין כל מידע על זה.
— יעקב ריבלין (@arivlin1) July 30, 2014
Translation: Senior office in Military Intelligence before [Knesset] Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: The Hamas program to infiltrate into Israel on Rosh HaShannah via ten tunnels is a tale that is running around the Haredi media. We known nothing about it.
Hmmm.
Maybe this is connected to some hard questions being asked by journalist Nachum Barnea about why if the tunnels are such a danger, the government was willing to agree to a truce without touching them?
Netanyahu agreed to
the ceasefire last week, despite knowing about the tunnels and the
threat they posed. His decision, and that of the Cabinet, was made
within the sphere of legitimacy. Bennett, who voted against it because
of the tunnels, thought otherwise, but the cabinet had other
considerations.
What is not legitimate is the gap between rhetoric and reality.
Netanyahu was not the first to warn about the tunnels, but he did so
halfheartedly. As prime minister he did not see the tunnels as
sufficient threat to justify military action, before and during Pillar
of Defense in 2012, and before and during Protective Edge. He chose to
take a risk. When he told Channel 2's Udi Segal that he hoped that the
problem of the tunnels could be solved politically, he knew that this
was not grounded in reality.
Netanyahu, like others in the government, was surprised by Hamas'
offensive ability, its fighting spirit and the subsequent number of
fallen soldiers. Only he can answer the question of whether prior
knowledge of the price would have prevented him from rolling into a
ground operation. It's not certain that he is able to answer such a
question - even to himself.
...
In summer 2010, a
discussion took place in the Southern Command - one of many - on the
issue of the tunnels. It was a fascinating discussion, precisely because
there wasn't really anything new in it. Anyone who today pleads
ignorance about the tunnels is lying to others - or to himself. For
better or for worse, everything was on the table.
GOC Southern Command at the time, Yoav Galant, opened the debate.
Terrorist organizations are preparing an attack via the tunnels, he
said, high-quality attacks in real time, using extensive infrastructure
throughout the sector. Hamas had taken advantage of the calm since
Operation Cast Lead to improve its level of preparedness for terrorist
attacks, and the tunnels were an important element in their planning.
The threat, Galant said, was expected to get stronger: The length of
the tunnels was growing, the pace of work accelerating, and the ability
to hide improving. The command made great efforts to address this issue
in six areas, including defense, attack, intelligence and development of
technology. These efforts must continue.
Subterranean warfare, said the general, is a method of fighting in
which the enemy has shown operational capability and success, and
against whose abilities there is no effective solution. The use of the
tunnels is growing, a fact that demands creative solutions.
A complete solution, he concluded, would include exposure of the
digging work, accurate detection of the tunnel routes and the ability to
prevent, disrupt or wipe out the threat.
No less than seven different methods for dealing with the
tunnels were raised during the discussion. Each had a more grandiose
name than the last (there are no limits to creativity when it comes to
inventing military names) but the results were ultimately disappointing.
The Southern Command established a test site near Kerem Shalom,
including a tunnel at a depth of 10 meters. And while these efforts bore
no fruit, there was still great faith in the summer of 2010 that a
solution would be found to the problem of the tunnels.
One idea included a system of sensors to detect all digging
operations. But the system failed and the army stopped using it. Another
system of sensors above ground was supposed to detect all activity
carried out below it, but this system was not automated and required
improvement.
A third invention was meant to locate tools that were being used
underground; a fourth involved drilling into the ground, inserting
poles, connecting to the water system and turning on the taps. The
monetary cost was astronomical, and ultimately prohibitive.
The fifth system was designed to monitor excavation work from the
air; the sixth aimed to reveal the route of a tunnel once it had been
discovered. And finally, the seventh system was based on "statistical"
drilling and explosions, and proved to have low efficiency.
In the absence of any redeeming technological invention, there was no
way around dealing with the tunnels on three parallel tracks:
intelligence, military operations beyond the Gaza border fence, and a
sizeable financial investment in technological development.
Intelligence-gathering efforts were made, but military operations beyond
the fence were disabled at government direction, and money was not
allocated. The tunnels were forced onto the backburner.
The data shows a clear shift after Operation Cast Lead. In the three
years between the disengagement from Gaza in summer 2005 and Cast Lead
in the winter of 2008-9, the fighters of the Southern Command embarked
on 92 missions to locate the tunnels and demolish them. Tunnels were
destroyed in, among others, Saja'iyya, Zeitun and Khan Younis - sites
the IDF has returned to this past week. The ground on Israel's Gaza
border was cleared during these missions.
At the end of Cast Lead, then-defense minister Ehud Barak ordered an
end to missions beyond the fence. Galant claimed that the understandings
reached with Hamas in the wake of the operation did allow for such
actions, but Barak argued otherwise. Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff at
the time, did not intervene.
But one incident did play a defining role for both sides. In November
2008, a tunnel leading from Gaza into Israel was discovered south of
Wadi Gaza, in the central Strip. The decision was taken to attack it.
Barak and Ashkenazi both wanted to strike from the air, but Galant
claimed an air strike would not destroy the tunnel - it would only take
out the mouth, thereby making it difficult to locate later. Barak was
persuaded, and successfully dispatched a Paratrooper Reconnaissance
Battalion (commanded by Yaron Finkelman, today commander of the Gaza
border region).
Hamas' New Year surprise... and John Kerry's cease fire - UPDATED
Maariv - Israel's third largest circulation daily - is confirming that Hamas planned a mass terror attack on southern Israel on Rosh HaShannah, the Jewish New Year, a little more than two months from now (second link in Hebrew).
According to the report, Hamas planned to send up to 200 terrorists through many tunnels that lead into six different kibbutzim, moshavim and villages around Gaza's borders. The terrorists' mission was to have been the mass murder and kidnapping of as many Jews as possible. Although the newspaper does not make the connection, I suspect that this map likely shows some of the places involved, and explains why the battle of Shejaiya earlier this week was so important.
The IDF was aware of the tunnels, and as a result, the soldiers who were sent to destroy them over the past week knew exactly where to go. But the IDF was not aware of the specific plan for a mass terror attack two months from now - that came from interrogating Hamas terrorists who were captured this past week.
During the course of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF discovered that the tunnels did not go straight as it assumed, but the tunnels intersected with each other, to allow the transfer of terrorists from one tunnel to the next. The tunnels also included storage rooms for weapons, tranquilizer drugs, and cables to tie the hands of potential kidnap victims. The idea was to kill as many people as possible, and bring back many more to ransom for 'Palestinian' terrorists languishing in Israel prisons.
According to Maariv, the tunnel digging started several years ago, and in the last year Hamas terrorists have been working three shifts per day, around the clock, in order to add 15 meters per day to each tunnel. Hamas has spent hundreds of millions of dollars (actually, euros) on the tunnels, which money could have gone to pay for schools hospitals, bomb shelters, etc.
The IDF has told the political echelon that it is capable of finishing the job, but it needs several more days to do so. Hamas, whose plans and capabilities have been completely exposed, now wants a cease fire to save what is left (about 4,000 of its 9,000 rockets, among other things), but it is in the IDF's interest not to have a cease fire now, and to nail Hamas to the wall.
Enter US Secretary of State John FN Kerry... our unwelcome guest.
Kerry has proposed a week-long cease fire beginning on Sunday (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). During that week, the parties would negotiate for a more permanent deal, i.e. until the next time Hamas violates it. It would leave Hamas with some tunnels intact, with about 45% of its rocket supply, and with the ability to fight another day. It would also bring Hamas billions in international aid for 'reconstruction,' much of which would likely be diverted to reconstruct the tunnels, as was the case after Operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense.
As soon as the truce took effect, Palestinian
and Israeli officials would begin negotiations on the principal
economic, political and security concerns about Gaza, with other nations
attending.
Important
details of the plan remained under negotiation early Friday, said the
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the negotiations
were at a delicate stage. Among the unresolved issues is an Israeli
proposal that its troops be allowed to remain in Gaza during the
temporary truce.
It was not clear if the final plan would be endorsed by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, or by the Israeli cabinet.
I don't see how Israel could withdraw from Gaza now. As noted above, a cease fire now is not in Israel's best interest, and in any event a withdrawal would make it that much harder to get back in. The last two times in this operation, Hamas did our dirty work by turning down the cased fire. Will it happen again?
Hamas’s political leader, Khaled Meshal, has stated that he would not
accept an enduring cease-fire until his demands were met, including the
lifting of an economic blockade on Gaza. But Mr. Meshal called Wednesday
for a humanitarian truce to allow relief aid to reach Gaza, and the
proposed start of the seven-day truce is intended to coincide with the
Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, which signals the end of Ramadan. The
Israeli cabinet was expected to discuss the plan on Friday afternoon, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.
The security cabinet is meeting now (after the meeting was postponed from Noon to 3:00 pm), but the plan it is considering would not only have the IDF remain in Gaza for the week, but it would have the IDF continue to destroy tunnels (presumably around the clock), and I'd be shocked if Hamas accepted that.
An Israeli official said the Netanyahu government envisages the
initial halt to the fighting lasting seven days, during which the army
would keep digging up tunnels on Gaza's eastern frontier.
"First
Israel wants to hear Hamas's response to the (Kerry) proposals," an
official said, adding that some members of the security cabinet also
sought assurances that Gaza would be stripped of its remaining rockets
under any extended ceasefire.
A Washington Post editorial earlier this week actually called for disarming Gaza, but I cannot see Hamas agreeing to that, at least so long as there are expendable civilians. And there are plenty of voices in Israel who don't want a cease fire either. For example, Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beytenu)
publicly expressed support for continuing Operation Protective Edge on
Friday, at a press conference with Israeli reporters.
"A ceasefire without exposing all the tunnels would be a mistake," he said.
...
Aharonovitch denied that Israel was considering a cease-fire just yet, however.
"There are all kinds of proposals," he noted. "The IDF is
operating in Gaza and exposing many terror tunnels, and the goal is to
expose them all. We need to do what needs to be done, and not limit the
IDF to a deadline."
Meanwhile, Kerry is trying to pressure the parties to reach an agreement by threatening to leave. This is the Times again.
“He
isn’t here for an indefinite amount of time, and in the near future, he
will determine whether there is a willingness to come to an agreement
on a cease-fire,” a senior State Department official told reporters
Thursday evening.
The Israeli news media has reported that Mr. Kerry planned to leave Cairo for the United States on Friday afternoon.
We wish he would leave. After all, Nantucket awaits.
Whether he will leave empty handed remains to be seen - at least as of now. But many here hope he goes home with his tail between his legs and doesn't return for a long time. We didn't ask him to come in the first place.
Rohani tweets Jewish New Year greetings, Netanyahu rejects them
As you can see above, Jewish New Year's greetings from a Twitter account ostensibly belonging to Iranian President Hassan Rohani were tweeted on Wednesday evening.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded skeptically to Rosh Hashana greetings
tweeted by the Iranian president and foreign minister on the occasion
of the Jewish New Year earlier this week, saying Saturday, " I am not
impressed with greetings coming from a regime that only last week
threatened to annihilate the State of Israel."
Netanyahu stated
that "the Iranian regime will be judged by its actions not by greetings
aimed at diverting attention from continued uranium enrichment."
And Rohani may not have sent the greetings at all.
Mohammad Reza Sadeq, an adviser to Rouhani, denied that the Twitter
account belonged to the Iranian president, telling the Fars News Agency
that "any official news on him (the president) is released by the
presidential office.”
However, CNN quoted a close aide to Rouhani
as saying that, while the president himself did not send out the tweet,
staff members in his office run the account, and therefore it is
semi-official.
And then there was this interesting exchange between Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Christine Pelosi, the daughter of US House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi in response to Zarif's Jewish New Year greetings.
But Netanyahu is right: Actions speak louder than words. Let's see Iran open up all of their nuclear programs for inspection and get rid of at least the weapons components, and then there might be something to discuss.
I did not have time to post at all this afternoon (it was really crazy), but Shana Tova - a Happy New Year to all of you. Because of the three-day holiday, I will not be back online again until Saturday night. But if you have not done so already, please go to the post below this one and show your appreciation for this blog.
Obama in the call on Friday afternoon extended the greetings on behalf
of himself and the first lady for a sweet, happy and healthy New Year.
He noted that the Jewish High Holidays provide an opportunity for Jews
to reflect on the past year and recommit themselves to core values.
...
With the United States marking the 50th anniversary of
the March on Washington, Obama also noted the important role played by
American Jews in the civil rights movement.
The president also
discussed the upcoming enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act
and the renewed Israel-Palestinians peace talks.
Four major
rabbinical organizations hosted the call: the Central Conference of
American Rabbis (Reform); the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative); the
Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox); and the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical Association.
Okay folks, notice what's missing. No mention of Iran. No mention of possible danger to Israel as a result of Obama's possible attack on Syria. No mention of Egypt. The only thing that seems to interest him about this region is the 'peace talks.'
A rabbi in the Midwest tells me that the only rabbis supporting an attack on Syria are the politically conservative ones - Obama is getting very little support on Syria from his 'progressive' political base. That and Obama's ignoring Iran doesn't bode well for a future strike on that country's nuclear assets.
The image is from Tashlich (the prayer where we symbolically throw our sins into a body of water - except in Jerusalem where we mostly use drain pipes) in 1926 in Tel Aviv (Hat Tip: Yisrael Medad).
“My family’s been just as shocked by the lies and smears as I’ve been,”
Aboushi said in a telephone interview. “I don’t think I’m radical at
all. I have never done any radical behavior. For the writer to come out
and claim that just builds lies on top of the lies.”
Aboushi, an offensive lineman from Virginia, has been besieged by
angry tweets and messages since an article published Tuesday by the
website Frontpagemag.com labeled him “a fundamentalist Muslim with
radical associations and a heritage that pushes him towards a
destructive world of violence and hate.”
The report also called
for the Jets — whose fanbase includes such a large Jewish contingent
that the team asked the NFL to reschedule its 2009 home opener to avoid
conflict with Rosh Hashana — to immediately release Aboushi because of
his views.Ӭ
Aboushi told The Post his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are anything but radical.
“My
feelings are very fair — I wish both sides would come to a peaceful
agreement and both live in peace,” Aboushi said. “I want to see them
live together in harmony and enjoy the land instead of focusing on
conflict with each other.”
Asked if he considers himself anti-Semitic, Aboushi scoffed.
“I
have plenty of friends who are Jewish,” he told The Post. “Some of my
best friends are Jewish. I have teammates who are Jewish, and I was
brought up with Jewish kids. I never had any problem with them, and I
respect them just as much as they respect me.
Asked if he considers himself anti-Semitic, Aboushi scoffed.
“I
have plenty of friends who are Jewish,” he told The Post. “Some of my
best friends are Jewish. I have teammates who are Jewish, and I was
brought up with Jewish kids. I never had any problem with them, and I
respect them just as much as they respect me.
“Everybody has a right to believe what they want to believe, and
everybody has a right to say what they want to say. At the end of the
day, I don’t have any disrespect or hateful things to say against the
Jewish community, and I’m definitely not anti-Semitic.”
The Anti-Defamation League has rushed to Aboushi's defense, while Major League Baseball's new media coordinator (whose Twitter account is now protected) posted this:
Hmmm.
But note that Aboushi doesn't discuss anywhere whether he attended and spoke at El Bireh 'Palestine' Society conference, which is the only relevant issue.... And that's because he did.
Arlington for the El bireh convention.
— Oday Aboushi (@Oday_Aboushi75) June 29, 2013
AL bireh convention was a pleasure. Proud Palestinians is always a good sight.
— Oday Aboushi (@Oday_Aboushi75) June 30, 2013
As if we needed another reason to hate the New York Jets.... Their team now includes an Islamist 'Palestinian' named Oday Aboushi who is a prominent Jew-hater on social media.
Far from being an American dream, Oday Aboushi has exhibited this
exact type of extremism. He too has targeted Israel with his Twitter
account, one tweet even having anti-Semitic overtones. This past
January, he posted a photo depicting an old woman looking down while
three clearly Orthodox Jews talk to each other in the background. The
caption reads, “88 year-old Palestinian evicted from home in Jerusalem
by Israel authorities to make room 4 Orthodox Jews.”
The photo contains the logo of Middle East Monitor (MEM), an
anti-Zionist publication based in England. The picture has recently been
used in a smear campaign against Israel and her observant Jewish
citizens. Aboushi chose to be one of the smear merchants.
On April 19, one week before the NFL Draft, Aboushi wrote a tweet exalting a fundraising dinner
sponsored by Islamic Relief (IR), an organization with numerous ties to
terrorism. He wrote, “Beautiful NJ fundraiser event for the kids of
Palestine in refugee camps.” The affair was held in Hasbrouk Heights,
New Jersey and was titled, ‘A Night for Palestine.’
In May 2006, Israel labeled Islamic Relief a front for Hamas
after arresting the group’s Gaza program manager, Ayaz Ali, for
providing “funds and assistance to various Hamas institutions and
organizations.” Ali admitted that he had cooperated with local Hamas
operatives.
As well, in 1999, IR collected and sent more than $6 million
to Chechen rebels with ties to al-Qaeda. The same year, IR received
$50,000 from Human Concern International (HCI), a charity that the U.S.
Department of Treasury described as a “Bin Laden front.” Shortly after
the September 11 attacks, IR itself was investigated by the Treasury Department as a possible source of funding for al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.”
Besides Twitter, Oday Aboushi also has a Facebook account. Currently in the ‘Likes’ section of his Facebook page
is the imam of the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley (ICTV), Mohamed
Mabrouk. Mabrouk was previously the imam of the Islamic Society of
Greater Lansing (ISGL). Both of these mosques have ties to terrorism.
Last March, ICTV held a conference and banquet at the Anaheim Hilton, titled, ‘Muhammad (pbuh): The Prophet for Our Times.’
The event was co-sponsored by Islamic Relief. Among the speakers for
the function was the imam of Brooklyn’s al-Taqwa mosque, Siraj Wahhaj.
Wahhaj had previously been named by the U.S. government as an
“unindicted co-conspirator” for a trial dealing with the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj had been linked to the bombmaker of the attack,
Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and during the trial, he was a character
witness for the spiritual leader of the attack, Omar Abdel Rahman, whom
Wahhaj has openly praised.
Four years ago, the Jets seemed to know who their fan base is.
In April 2009, the Jets front office contacted the NFL
to ask that the date of its home opener be moved, as it was going to
coincide with the Jewish high holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The team did the
right thing to complain on behalf of their Jewish fan base, and they
need to do the same in the case of their Islamist draft pick.
Well, yeah. Except that the Jets may figure that the three-day-a-year Jews who would go to synagogue on Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur would be pleased to show how liberal they are by embracing a creep like Aboushi.
It didn't quite make it here in time for Rosh HaShanna, but there's still a week to Yom Kippur.
Here's a video made to the words of U'Nesane Tokef (one of the highlights of the Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur prayers) that shows how it came true over the past year.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: The Beguiling Avigayil).
LATMA's Rosh HaShana song: He who believes is not afraid
LATMA has put out a Rosh HaShana (Jewish New Year) song a few days early. It's called Mi She'Ma'amin Lo Mefached (He who believes isn't afraid) and it's very catchy.
I'm sitting in an airport terminal in an unnamed European city (no, not Istanbul) and they've just announced that my flight is an hour late, so if my battery holds out (no place to plug in) you may get more than you thought today.
The Obama administration has turned the political sermon into an art form, and last week's conference call with 900 rabbis, which was designed to give 'guidance' on what to discuss this year, was the third year in a row that Obama has 'suggested' topics for rabbis. Tevi Troy doesn't like it and I agree with him.
Political sermonizing is a mistake for many reasons. First, the Holy Days are supposed to bring forth a universal message about the unity of the Jewish people, the importance of our shared religious tradition, and the need to rededicate ourselves to observance of the Torah in the year to come.
Then there's the risk of alienating part of the congregation. Even if you know that 70%-80% of your synagogue votes one way—and public opinion polls suggest that this may be the case in Conservative and Reform synagogues—why risk alienating the other 20%-30%? In many (or most) communities, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the only time certain congregants set foot in synagogue that year. Why risk driving them away with a message that could offend?
Furthermore, while it may appear easy to find support for left-wing political positions in the Torah and rabbinical sources, the truth is that the Jewish tradition doesn't give much guidance on the optimum level of marginal tax rates, Medicare restructuring, or food-stamp funding. To claim otherwise is to give false guidance.
The passages read aloud on the High Holidays each year are filled with the most important problems of the human condition, including Jonah's attempt to shirk his responsibilities, Hannah's desperate plea for a child, and God's testing of Abraham's faith with the binding of Isaac. All of these stories still resonate today, and skillful speakers can use them to guide congregants.
The mandate of religious leaders is to convey to their communities spiritual encouragement and the wisdom of the ages. For the other stuff, there's cable news.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
