העורך Editor

Here’s an enlightening excerpt from a screen-skeptical parenting blog:

I know when my children were young, I thought managing their screens came down to 2 things: 1) limiting their time so they aren’t watching too much and 2) making sure they aren’t watching anything violent or ***ual. If the content was silly or mindless, so what? After all, I watched cartoons as a kid, and I turned out fine. And now, as an adult, I had my own “mindless content,” shows I would watch to unwind after the kids went to bed.

Here’s the thing that I didn’t realize then that I do now: the “mindless” content our children are being exposed to today—especially on YouTube—is not the same as the silly, escapist reality shows that we adults sometimes watch. The short and (I’ll just say it) stupid videos our children are watching on YouTube aren’t just wasting their time; they are actually harming their brains.

In fact, there’s a word for this particular kind of content: brain rot. And brain rot is having such a profound impact on our children at large that it actually was named the Oxford Dictionary’s 2024 Word of the Year.

Read the rest of it here…

I would suggest that lowering the brightness and speed of the video also lessens the risks, adjusted by the child’s age.

Needless to say, I’m not actually endorsing any adults or children seeing videos, etc., etc., etc.

A decade old, but still holds up.

Half an hour in 3 parts here…

ב”ר ל”ט ו’:

רבי עזריה משום רבי אחא פתח (תהלים מ”ה), אהבת צדק ותשנא רשע על כן משחך אלהים אלהיך שמן ששון מחבריך רבי עזריה פתר קרייה באברהם בשעה שעמד אברהם אבינו לבקש רחמים על הסדומים מה כתיב תמן (בראשית י”ח) חלילה לך מעשות כדבר הזה להמית צדיק עם רשע והיה וגו’.

א”ר אחא, נשבעת ואמרת שאין אתה מביא מבול לעולם ומה אתה מערים על השבועה אתמהא מבול של מים אין אתה מביא מבול אש אתה מביא א”כ לא יצאת ידי השבועה.

אגב, כבר העירו שמבואר בש”ס (סוטה י”א א’, זבחים קט”ז א’) לא כן, שרק על כל אומות העולם אינו מביא, אבל על מקום אחד שפיר מביא מבול, וכ”ש מבול של אש. וכן קשה על רבי לוי בהמשך המדרש, “השופט כל הארץ לא יעשה משפט, אם עולם אתה מבקש אין דין ואם דין אתה מבקש אין עולם ומה אתה תופש חבל בתרין ראשין וכו'”.

Also, grass is green, the sky is blue, etc.

From the media recently:

Previously classified hostage, Elyakim Libman hy”d, was accidentally buried with another person already murdered on Shmini Atzeres

Tidbit (I haven’t found the original source): During the entire period Elyakim was considered a hostage, the “security services” kept telling the family they had “signs of life” for the ostensible hostage (as of January 2024), but couldn’t share details with them due to “security reasons”…

Ponder that…

The same way there are sites tracking the ever-ballooning government debt, for example.

History.com has a fun overview (links omitted):

Is the United States currently experiencing a national emergency? No matter when you read this, the answer is “yes.”

Technically, the United States has been in a constant state of emergency since November 1979, when Jimmy Carter responded to the Iran hostage crisis by issuing an executive order declaring a national emergency and blocking Iranian government property. Even though Iran released the hostages on Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day in 1981, Reagan renewed Carter’s emergency declaration every year during his presidency. Since then, every president has continued to renew the 1979 emergency—while also declaring many emergencies of their own.

When Donald Trump started his second term on January 20, 2025, the United States had around 40 active emergency declarations (no really, we are serious), including the national emergency George W. Bush declared in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

On his inauguration day, Trump initiated two more: a national energy emergency and an emergency at the U.S.-Mexican border.

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To quote Wikipedia (goto for the incomplete list):

A national emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to perform actions not normally permitted. The 1976 National Emergencies Act implemented various legal requirements regarding emergencies declared by the President of the United States.

As of January 2025, 85 emergencies have been declared; 41 have expired and another 44 are currently in effect, each having been renewed annually by the president.

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