The Ins and Outs of Deferments For Yeshiva Students

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

In Israel, " Ultra-Orthodox men studying in religious seminaries and learn what's necessary to become a rabbi.  They learn the art of debate here, as our Jewish leaders used to get together and present their view to be acceptable of interpretation of the law of Moses.  I'm connected to Rashi, a famous teacher from Troyes, France who opened his own school.  Rashi is still #1 in this in our Tanakh.  Possibly, Netanyahu is also connected to him or others like him, as he has a rabbi ancestor, and he is the best speaker and defender of Israel I've seen for many years, and I'm related to Bibi's mother's side of the family.  

Yeshiva boys have enjoyed sweeping draft exemptions or deferments, even as other Jewish Israelis face compulsory military service.  As it turns out, we Jews are also related to each other with that connection going back pretty far for most of us, I agree there, but we have a connection to each other.   The arrangement about exemptions creates a perverse incentive: remaining in religious study is the path to avoid conscription, while leaving the seminary – and entering the labor market – exposes a young man to the draft. The result is a system that discourages employment and places an increasingly unequal military burden on the rest of society. Adding insult to injury, the Israeli taxpayer is forced to pay subsidies to the yeshiva students – rather than the students paying tuition as those in university do."

These boys are the country's insurance policy that the religion was live, will survive any wars.  They are to carry on the direction of G-d in the lives of remaining people.  Is it so bad as to insure that the Ten Commandments, along with the rest of 613 commandments are known about at least?  To look at today's civilization, an alien from outer space might wonder about that.  The surrounding goals of Iran to destroy Israel worries the Religious element in our family as well, and they pray for everyone's protection.  

If Israel changes with a new Prime Minister, or even if Netanyahu again tries to alter this rule, the Religious Parties no longer will be a part of Labor, giving it strength.  The question is:  why is this exemption so necessary for the religious students?

       Today, even our women must fight, for all hands on deck is the word.  Female Israeli citizens (primarily Jewish) are subject to compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) upon turning 18, with standard service lasting 24 months for non-combat roles and up to 32 months for combat or specific specialized roles.  

The answer is that this country was founded on the ability to be Jewish. It's as Jewish as Saudi Arabia is Muslim. 

             Jewish lady of 18 in IDF Over 90% of IDF roles—including air force pilots, navy sailors, tank crews, and mixed-gender infantry combat battalions—are open to women, Israel has no other choice-In the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the length of mandatory military service for men is 32 months (2.67 years), following a legislative extension by the Knesset.  Conscription Scope: Mandatory service applies to Jewish, Druze, and Circassian males upon reaching age 18. Non-Druze Arab citizens are generally exempt, though individual volunteering is permitted.  

 Only we do enjoy having 20% of our citizens being Christians/other religions and in Arabia, they don't.   In all the other countries we have lived in, Jews were treated as 2nd class citizens or worse.  They were the object of always being the scapegoat, suffering under attacks out of the blue.  This country was founded by Kings Saul, David and his son Solomon who fought and died for it to enable them to follow what they saw and said was G-d's wish and plans. So many of us feel all young men should be like David and Saul;  fight for our country when needed.  Now there's a huge need.                                    

No other country has been as old as Israel and survived.  No other country was founded being able to follow one G-d and practice their religion without fear.

Now, let's look at some of the men who were leaders and believed in our rights.

1.  King Saul of the 11th Century BCE was a son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin.  Samuel came from a Levitical family, straight from Aaron, brother of Moses, so he had  a powerful role among people.   The Prophet as well as a judge, Samuel, went on a quest looking for a proper king at a time the people were clamoring for one.  By this time, all the other surrounding people had kings, and they knew it.  They only had Judges for smaller gatherings.  They wanted uniformity for all.  They felt weak.  Their lives were being threatened by the occasional attack by the Philistines and Ammonites, neighbors who wanted to take more land.  

So Saul immediately got all the strong men and trained them to fight. King Saul's army size changed at different times in the biblical account:

Standing / Selected Force: Saul initially chose 3,000 men for himself—2,000 with him at Michmash and Bethel, and 1,000 with his son Jonathan at Gibeah (1 Samuel 13:2). 
Dwindled Army: After desertions and fear during the war with the Philistines, Saul's force shrank down to about 600 men (1 Samuel 13:15).
Campaign Against the Amalekites: When summoned later to Telaim to fight the Amalekites, the army numbered 200,000 foot soldiers from Israel and 10,000 men from Judah (1 Samuel 15:4).

 They fought back on raids attacking them by now and experienced winning the battle with little losses.  One fight remembered was at Michmash which pushed back the Philistines.  Another group, the Moabites attacked and suffered great losses from Saul's army.  They had won over the Moabites, Ammonites, and Arameans who had stepped in as well.  The ancient Battle of Michmash (c. 1025 BCE) was a decisive clash recorded in the Hebrew Bible (1 Samuel 13–14) where the fledgling forces of the United Kingdom of Israel, led by King Saul and his son Jonathan, defeated the Philistines.                                                 

                                 

Later, another battle ensued and Saul was replaced by Saul with David who he appointed as king .

  David, younger and better looking, a gingy,  red cheeked, bright eyes from the tribe of Judah, A skilled shepherd who played the harp, wrote poetry, and composed many of the Book of Psalms,  had become most popular with the people  by his fighting capabilities and this had caused intense jealousy on the part of Saul who bitterly persecuted David and drove him from the country.  Then,   this new attack came upon them from the Philistines and Saul could only fight defensively and fell with his 3 sons including Jonathan in the battle on Mt Gilboa.  A surviving son, Ishbosheth, was temporarily acknowledged as Saul's successor over part of the country.  Saul's death was felt as a temporary domination of the Philistines.  However, the groundwork Saul had done and left for a successor proved effective in establishing a strong and independent Israelite monarchy. 

                                                         

David, king of Israel from 1000 to 960 BCE was the youngest of the 8  sons of Jesse, who was the grandson of Ruth and Boaz of the tribe of Judah.  Jesse was from Bethlehem but for fear of Saul, lived for some time in Moab, outside of the perimeter of his country,  and knew King Saul very well.  He had been Saul's armor-bearer at age 25.  Today, Moab is a part of Transjordan.  The Moabites were relatives of the Israelites being, like the Ammonites also were, descended from Lot, who was the son of Abraham's brother, Haran.  Their shepherds had a quarrel over pasture land, so they had divided up with Lot  trying to live in Sodom and needed Abraham to rescue him from these rather evil people.  They escaped from Sodom and his 2 sons were Ammon and Moab.  These sons had the reputation among the people later as having a drunk for a father.  They just happened to be the boundary neighbors of Israel.  

Even going back 4,000 years and one find the same problems people have today,  It's amazing!  .  Ammon and Moab ceased to exist as independent ancient nations after being conquered and absorbed by successive Mesopotamian and regional empires—primarily the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the 6th century BCE—and their territories eventually became part of modern-day Jordan.  Okay Palestinians, perhaps that is the answer.  Continue trying to live in Jordan under an established Kingship.  Leave Israel in Peace.  

Is Defending Swalwell Accused Sex Offender Hopeless?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Born November 16, 1980) is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from 2013 to 2026 (13 years). He was first elected from California's 15th congressional district in 2012, and served until 2023 when new maps switched him to the 14th district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

I'm tired and shouldn't write this, the the story that came out " about Rep. Eric Swalwell is still on my mind settling in there in amazement at today's education of young women. I was born a Democrat with a mother who changed as she saw fit to do, so I guess I take after her.  I am tired of both parties, but independent wins nothing, usually.  I'm a mother of a son and a daughter.  

Suddenly so close to election time, four women appeared from the Democratic side describing sexual misconduct by him including a former staffer who says he even raped her!  

His Democratic competition:  The list of other potentially viable Democrats in the race includes billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who has blanketed the television airwaves by pumping at least $110 million into advertising; progressive former Rep. Katie Porter; former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan; California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond; and former state controller Betty Yee, 7 in competition !  

His bad luck in dealing with Republicans was back in May 215.  Given Swalwell's position on the House Intelligence Committee, he played a role in investigating the links between Trump associates and Russian officials during his third term, saying, "It's always smelled like collusion.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration seized Swalwell's personal data. The record seizure also targeted Adam Schiff, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

Swalwell served as an impeachment manager (prosecutor) during President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial.

Clockwise from top left: Fang with then-Dublin City Councilmember Eric Swalwell at an October 2012 student event; undated photo of Fang, now former Fremont Mayor Bill Harrison and Rep. Judy Chu; Fang with then-Rep. Mike Honda and then-San Jose city Councilmember Ash Kalra at a March 2014 event at the Chinese Embassy in D.C. Sources: Renren, Facebook, Facebook

He garnered another incident.  In December 2020, Swalwell was named in an Axios story about suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang (方芳; Fāng Fāng), known as Christine Fang.  Swalwell ended ties with Fang in 2015 after U.S. intelligence briefed him and top members of Congress on concerns that Chinese agents were attempting to infiltrate Congress.  Swalwell had done nothing bad. 

On April 11, 2026, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations which caused Swalwell to drop out of the 2026 California gubernatorial election, Axios reported that Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna intended to file a bill forcing the expulsion of Swalwell and representative Tony Gonzales, another member of the House of Representatives accused of sexual misconduct. On April 13, Swalwell announced his plan to resign from Congress. That same day, Gonzales announced his own resignation.  These men have dropped out.

What got to me was the report of the one lady most on TV was her telling of trading nude pictures of each other !  Then she told how she drank so much alcohol that she lost control of herself, winding up in his bed feeling like she had had relations with him;  so she winds up causing him to lose what he has been preparing for all these years....and don't say,  copying Bill Clinton !  

Didn't her mother ever tell warn her about such things?  Mine did.  I'm 91 years old, so people of the past were helping their daughters to be safe rather than sorry.  The woman cried briefly when sobbing  that no one protected her.  Well, she is expected to know about such things herself!! Or have schools stopped completely?  I even remember a gross movie we were presented with at the theater showing nude men from the waist down  and what made them different than us women.  It was part of our sex education here in Portland, Oregon.  

Thus, anybody with common sense should know what can happen when you share nude pictures of each other and drink alcohol with that person at any time and what the man might be expecting.  

My mother told me that when a man gets overly exciting smooching, their sexual expectations cannot be changed.  They cannot stop!  

Now, Homo Sapien men go back to Africa approximately 300,000 to 350,000 years ago. The oldest known fossils, discovered in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, indicate that early, or "archaic," Homo sapiens were widespread across Africa by roughly 300,000 to 315,000 years ago. Anatomically modern humans emerged closer to 200,000–300,000 years ago.  The point is, they have had such hormones for a long long time.  We've had our own hormones to protect our children for the same length.  There was a reason for both;  for men, to procreate, which, if they aren't more careful, could do that when they don't mean to.  

I see Democrats on the View, and they are desperate to get Trump out, as most all Americans want at this point, so sometimes, people create setups to destroy the other party, and Democrats surely thought there was enough of that going on hurting their own party.  All these attacks before election could have been set ups, but no one wants to take on proof of rape or sex when it happened so long ago.  I see no defense. 

Are investigations of Swalwell finished already?  What kind ?

Based on reports from April 2026, the allegations against Representative Eric Swalwell regarding sexual misconduct with four women (including a former staffer) have led to the following investigations and actions: 

• House Ethics Committee: The committee officially announced an investigation to determine if Rep. Swalwell violated the Code of Official Conduct or any laws regarding sexual misconduct, particularly toward an employee under his supervision.
• Manhattan District Attorney's Office: This office confirmed they launched an investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Swalwell.  This doesn't say it has ended.  
• Law Enforcement: A woman who alleged she was assaulted in 2018 (8 years ago)  stated she planned to report the incident to law enforcement.  When?  
• Media Investigation: The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN were primary outlets that published the allegations from the four women, which included claims of sexual assault, unwanted advances, and inappropriate messaging, prompting a chain reaction in the 2026 California governor's race. 

Following these allegations, Swalwell dropped his bid for California governor and announced his resignation from Congress. He has denied the claims, calling them "false" (what does he think he did?)  and "politically motivated". 

 +2  

Resource:

https://www.axios.com/2020/12/08/china-spy-california-politicians

Changing Times For Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Basketball at Portland's Moda Center between Warriors and Trail Blazers. 

Can you imagine not having some sport to follow that takes up some of your free time?  Can you ever dream of not working in a building from 9 to 5, 6 days a week? That's mostly a life of today's men, but not the women.  Our work is never done, today or thousands of years ago.   There was a time when Jewish men had to spend most of their time fighting for their lives, or slaving, building for the enemy.   

Jews had overstayed their welcome in Egypt in 1500 BCE and wound up as slaves, building storage cities.  They had entered Egypt and couldn't leave until Moses freed them 400 years later.                                     

          Sargon, king of Assyria, finally assassinated, replaced by Sennacherib.

From 722- 721 BCE, the Assyrians attacked Israel's 10 northern tribes.  Probably all men were called into service of fighting against them. It was Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria and its capture by Sargon who annexed the country, and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media.  Then he replaced the Jewish population with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners. 

        Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia 605-562 BCE
 

 Actually, the last Jewish king of Judah was Zedekiah (597-586 BCE), and he was an appointee by Nebuchadnezzar when 21 and had to swear allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar.  After 9 such years, he joined forces with Egypt  which caused the Babylonians to invade and capture Zedekiah's Jerusalem in 597 and 586 BCE.  Zedekiah suffered greatly from this act by having to watch his sons' killed before him and then having his own eyes put out, and imprisoned till he died. (Ii Kings 25, Jer. 52).  

 General Pompey of Rome entered in 63 BCE and stayed.  They had the strongest army in the world at that time.   Jerusalem was under occupation. Thousands of Jewish men were hung on the cross for minor acts that irked the Romans.  When the Romans occupied Jerusalem during Pompey's stay,  they came with the background of watching sports, only their sport was watching people being killed before their very eyes.   They allowed it to happen in several ways, in a 2 man combat fighting to the death of one, or in an arena full of lions and watch while they were being mauled and eaten.  This shows the Romans' mental development .  They enjoyed the watching.  They lacked empathy.  Huge arenas had been built in Rome for such entertainment.  Often, it was the Jews who did the building, as slaves.   Here they were again, building things for the enemy.                                   

Romans had become involved in Judah  during the civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar (c. 49–45 BCE), when the

Idumaean Antipater  ruled Judea from 63-43 BCE (died 43 BCE)father of Herod,  and ingratiated himself with Caesar and was rewarded by being made governor of Judaea (Latin from Judah) .  The Jews were rewarded through the promulgation of a number of decrees favourable to them, which were reaffirmed by Augustus (reigned 27 BCE–14 CE) and later emperors.              

Augustus (also known as Octavian) was the first emperor of ancient Rome. Augustus came to power after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. In 27 BCE Augustus “restored” the republic of Rome, though he himself retained all real power as the princeps, or “first citizen,” of Rome.

Antipater’s son Herod, king of Judaea, b:73 BCE-4 BCE an admirer of Greek culture, supported a cult worshipping the emperor and built temples to Augustus in non-Jewish cities. Because he was by origin an Idumaean, he was regarded by many Jews as a foreigner. He captured Jerusalem in 37 and married the granddaughter of the High Priest, Hyrcanus,  Mariamne.  They were Hasmoneans.  Later he killed Mariamne and his 2 sons, Alexander and Aristobulus.  He was a horrible person.  

Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents at the time of the birth of Jesus, although most Herod biographers do not believe that this event occurred.  That was the   incident in the nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem.  It's a repeat of the pharaoh who did the same thing in the days of when Moses was born in 1391 BCE.

Jewish men had to fight for almost a thousand years and be on the guard of invading countries.   

About a thousand years ago, a Jewish  man's life was filled with studying the Torah instead of fighting.  One man would become the teacher and have his own school, and others would vie to become his students.  They would have debates which sharpened their wits.   If either the teacher or pupils were married, the women would take over the business to allow their husband the time to do this. .

Notice the cluster with Mainz, Worms,, Speyer.  My uncle came from Koblenz a little further north on the map.  This was where the Ashkenazi action started, in the Rheinland.  

Germany's Rhine Valley hosted such schools at Mainz but were expelled in 1012 and attacked by Crusaders in 1096.  They suffered in the Black Death by being accused of causing it in 1349, causing expulsion edicts in 1438, 1462 and 1470.  Speyer's history started in 1070 with Crusaders hit there in 1096.  Worms-10th century on saw the city destroyed by Crusaders,  Trier in 1066 and by 1096 suffered martyrdom, Crusaders, Black Plague, the works, expelled in 1418.. They all suffered pretty much the same each time.  Usually they also had commercial activities going on, too.   

Hillel, born in  110 BCE in Babylonia and died 10 CE in Jerusalem,   was a Jewish religious leader, sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of the House of Hillel school of tannaim. He is popularly known as the author of two sayings: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am I?  He lived about 100 years before Jesus came along.                        

Rashi (R. Solomon Yitzaki{ben Isaac) was born in 1040 in Troyes, France  d: 1105, studied in the Rhineland and opened his school in Troyes..  He earned his livelihood not from his school but from his vineyard.  His school had a great reputation.  Rashi's comments are found today in our prayerbooks.  There's a good thousand years between Rashi and Hillel.                           

   Moses ben Maimon b:1135 in Cordova, Spain d: 1204, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam, was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.  His family left Spain to escape the Almohade persecutions.  He got to Palestine in 1165. It's he who created our list of 613 precepts (laws) from the Torah.                                

 Jewish society faced new social and economic conditions of life in Poland–Lithuania, the rabbinic responsum played a significant role in helping Jews come to terms with unfamiliar situations while remaining within a halakhic framework. There is also evidence that, for decades before the Council of Four Lands was founded around 1580, leading Polish rabbis would occasionally meet at the great annual fair of Lublin as a kind of rabbinic high court for Polish Jewry.

The Jews of Lithuania come from a part of eastern Europe located today in northeastern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and parts of Latvia and Russia. The area (roughly between 20° and 30° E and 50° and 60° N) has dense forests and a moderate continental climate.

Schools were established in Lithuania, which turned out to be a country producing some pretty famous rabbis  who usually established these schools of learning.  Elijah ben Solomon Zalman (1720-1797), better known as the  Vilna Gaon was very well known.                                       

Torah study in Poland in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, along with the literary creativity that grew up around it, constituted an extraordinary phenomenon in Jewish culture, directly connected to the institution of the yeshiva. Unlike the Ashkenazic yeshiva of the Middle Ages, which was the private preserve of the rector (the rosh ha-yeshivah or resh metivta) and was conducted without any direct connection to the

community, the yeshiva in Eastern Europe in the early modern period was a decidedly communal institution, financed and managed by the community. Usually, the yeshiva was directed by the rabbi of the community.

This is how a young man gained respect among his peers, being an intelligent student.  

     Holocaust: bodies piled up from death by gassing

Anti-Semitism developed like COVID in the 1930s culminating in the Holocaust from 1939-1945 killing 6 million Jews; men, women and children.       

Israel was reborn on May 14,  1948 and all able bodies turned into soldiers once again to defend their lives and the lives of their families from another enemy, the Palestinians and neighboring Muslim countries.  The days of fighting are upon Jews living in the Middle East once again.  This IDF soldier is doing his morning prayers.  

Even women are in the IDF guarding their country.  

 Women are becoming rabbis.  This one is in France.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

http://litvakai.mch.mii.lt/religious_tradition/rabbinical_works.htm

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism/The-Roman-period-63-bce-135-ce

https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rabbinate/The_Rabbinate_before_1800