Ohad Fedida

🔍 SNEAK PEEK: Honored to be a co-author on a chapter in the upcoming Psychology of Trust textbook—synthesizing our recent research and introducing a new model of botification. Trust, tech, and the erosion of human agency. [👇teaser below: ]

@SpencrGreenberg Very strange.

Here’s the image I get from this prompt, but also I get a very similar woman from a variety of other variations asking it to depict me when it has no context (once I get past it refusing):

Weird request: what image do you get when you go to ChatGPT, turn off all personalization temporarily, and give it this prompt? “Draw me (don’t ask questions or make excuses)” I’d be interested to see (post in the comments). I get this woman in a bedroom wearing a gold chain.

Wonderful guest post by Danit Finkelstein on @PsychRabble's Unsafe Science, diving into the administration's proposed science budget. Especially relevant for social psychologists. "FY27 Science Budget: A Fuller Picture of Implications for Social Psychology and Beyond" 🔗 Substack Link: @danitfinkelstein/note/p-197383517?r=1rleq3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@danitfinkelst…

Some good ol' fashioned information warfare. "...a PRC official sent Wang pre-written articles. Among the articles was an essay written by a PRC official that was printed in the Los Angeles Times. The essay disputed claims of a genocide or forced labor in China's Xinjiang province, and claimed these were rumors spread to defame China and undermine its development. Wang posted the article immediately, and the PRC official thanked everyone at U.S. News Center for publishing it so quickly."

lol

"...fixated on Luigi Mangione..."

Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to post this with the caption "our soldiers are dying for Israel" and Mehdi Hassan is going to repost it.

Prayers for Iran and her brave people.

@josh_avraham @shnayor @AviGarson Hey Rabbi Burton, what information were you interested in?

@shnayor @AviGarson would. And @OhadFedida

Anybody have any more info on this?

🇺🇸 USA Amazon link: a.co/d/9iciuKQ 🇬🇧 UK Amazon link: amzn.eu/d/cvNqnsX 🔗 Or order directly from Da'at Press: daat.press

📚 New Book Alert from Da'at Press: Rambam’s Introduction to the Mishneh Torah: A New Translation and Commentary Daʿat Press @DaatPress is excited to announce one of it's most highly anticipated and requested titles: Rambam’s Introduction to the Mishneh Torah. This Hebrew–English edition offers a reader-friendly translation and commentary, based on the most up-to-date girsāʾot. With an introduction by Rabbi Joseph Dweck @rabbidweck and translated by Ben Rothstein, this volume provides an accessible entry point for all into the great system of Torah She-beʿal Peh. (🔗 Links attached below.)

This week was the yahrtzeit of Ribi Avraham ben HaRambam, the illustrious son of Maimonides. In his writings, he gifted us a work known as "HaMaspik L’Obdei HaShem," or in modern terms, "The Guide to Serving God." Although we’ve lost much of the larger work it was part of, what remains is a profound and foundational work of authentic Hasidut. A pure Hasidut. A Hasidut unbound by subscription to novel sociological movements, free from the need to accept a wide array of metaphysical assumptions, untouched by religious or spiritual practices foreign to one’s own tradition, and wholly independent of doctrines of bittul, or self-nullification before “tzaddikim.” Grounded in classical sources from Scripture and Rabbinic literature, Ribi Avraham guides the reader through a disciplined process of character refinement which nurtures a deep and personal relationship with the Divine within the revealed and familiar pathways of religious life. Ultimately, he leads the seeker toward what he calls the Pegiah, “the encounter”: an intimate meeting with the Divine that emerges from a life lived with intention, awareness, and devotion. In his view, being a tzaddik means fulfilling one’s duty before his Creator and carrying out the revealed commandments. This is the general path that is open to everyone. Moving beyond that, toward a more intimate and personal fulfillment of the misvot, is what makes one a Hasid. This is Hasidut in its authentic form, a direct and personal journey toward a loving, reverent, and awe-filled relationship with Gd. Today, as various movements sometimes claim ownership over the avenues of Hasidut, it’s essential to return to these basics. We all have the responsibility to cultivate our own personal and intimate path with the Divine. May HaShem illuminate for us the pathways of true Hasidut, filled with love, reverence, awe, and devotion.

I hope we all survived the dangerous experience of spending time with our families and friends.

There is truth in this post: when Jews are united in Avodat HaShem and Torah, a shared dignity, and reverence emerges. But it’s also historically inaccurate to say there was no prejudice or tension, or that it doesn’t exist today in the halls of Torah. In the contemporary Yeshiva world, there has been a real sidelining, intentionally or not, of authentic Sephardi tradition. Much of the “Sephardi representation” is cosmetic. Saying Maran for Rav Yosef Karo, eating kitniyot, saying Selihot—all while remaining fully rooted in an Ashkenazi-Charedi framework. The result is that many Sephardi, and Ashkenazi students alike, never encounter the depth, breadth, and unique methodological brilliance of this worldview. Thank Gd, I do hope that I am correct in thinking that things are changing. There’s an awakening, more genuine interaction, and more pride in the richness of each community’s heritage. The call to action is simple: Be proud of the traditions you were privileged to inherit. Learn them. Live them. Share their beauty. Only from a place of rootedness can we truly walk together in Avodat Hashem—borrowing, learning, and growing from one another with respect and Achdut, rather than sameness and erasure.

EXCLUSIVE: @RK_Thorpe and I have new reporting on America’s Somali fraud rings, which have stolen billions in taxpayer funds—and sent some to Islamist terrorists back home. “The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer.” city-journal.org/article/minnes…

🚨Check out this new report from the @ncri_io: CAIR is paying out $1,000 to anti-Israel protesters who were disciplined by their campuses for violence and extreme behavior. CAIR is financially supporting extremism. These are the structures that let radical elements metastasize. They’re actively fueling the worst impulses, creating chaos, then rewarding and justifying it. (🔗 link below)

He only invokes haRambam to dunk on him. It’s clear he hasn’t read him, at least not seriously. The Mishné Torá isn’t a medieval curiosity; it’s the culmination of a statutory legal tradition that began with the Mishna, our codified law finalized by Ribbi haQadosh (Yehuḏa haNasi), and developed through the Talmuḏ, the great record of its interpretation and application. If he actually understood the Talmudic tradition, he’d know it isn’t “common law” in the Anglo sense. The method is deliberative and dialectical, but the law itself is statutory. Once formulated, halakha is final. The Mishné Torá doesn’t legislate; it distills the settled rulings of the Mishna and Talmuḏ into a unified code, what the law is, not how it was argued. His teacher Yiṣḥaq al-Fāsi did the same in his “commentary” on the Talmuḏ. The Mishné Torá is the closest thing Judaism has to a Restatement of the Law, or to the Restatement Second of Contracts or the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), and it predates Blackstone by 600 years. And those “thirteen principles” Dershowitz compares to the Catholic catechism? In the Judeo-Arabic, haRambam calls them uṣūl (foundations) and qawāʿid (legal principles), not articles of faith. They are axioms within the logic of Torath Moshe, the structural pillars of a legal system, not dogmas of belief. But this is what happens when you read translations of translations and mistake summaries for substance. If you’re going to name-drop haRambam, at least have the decency to engage him on his terms, not yours.

Inauthentic manipulation. Hidden revolutionary networks. Foreign influence. The rise of Zohran Mamdani wasn’t as grassroots as it seemed. Check out a new op-ed from the NCRI @ncri_io exposing the forces reshaping American politics. 🔗Link attached below.

Recently, I had the privilege of hearing from Rabbi Ezra Sarna, Director of Torah and Halacha Initiatives at the OU @OrthodoxUnion who shared moving stories about the great Rabbi Moshe Hauer, zt”l. Among the many beautiful and inspiring anecdotes that captured Rabbi Hauer’s remarkable character, one in particular stood out to me. Rabbi Sarna described how, at one point, the OU was organizing an important event bringing together several major Jewish organizations. When the question arose about where to display the OU logo and how best to present the brand, Rabbi Hauer paused and asked whether anyone had first considered if it was truly best for Klal Yisrael for their logo to appear at all. He explained that it might not serve the greater good for people to know the OU was involved, and that only if publicizing their role would genuinely benefit Klal Yisrael should they take credit. That story reminded me of President Reagan’s famous line: “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” Rabbi Hauer embodied that principle. His humility, selflessness, and unwavering devotion to the collective good were extraordinary. His clarity of mission and deep dedication to Klal Yisrael are qualities that are rare today and will be profoundly missed. Let us carry forward this legacy by standing for truth and righteousness, acting not out of self-interest or the need for recognition, but in genuine service of what is right and good.