The Knesset Committee for Sharing the Burden met today to discuss details of the new draft law for drafting haredim and leaving in place an annual quota of 1800 especially talented students who would be granted exemptions.

According to reports, in an interesting move, after MK Gafni had threatened to pull the haredi parties representatives out of the committee and to no longer participate in what is a farcical process, MK Gafni declared that the committee should actually abandon the quota - meaning, everyone should be drafted with no exception and no exemptions.

Gafni said, dont do us any favors, we do not need your quotas. The Torah World will continue without you just fine.

Gafni also said that putting such a quota in place and requiring rosh yeshivas to decide which students are considered the elite would not pass legal muster and is not actually possible. So, Gafni claims it is a law that is not legal.

I like Gafni because he has interesting arguments. This qualifies as a head-scratcher - cancel the quota, we don't need your help. Gafni always has unusual arguments.

I do not know why such a quota would be not legal. Society has quotas in place all the time. Affirmative action quotas (which the haredim have even requested at times, among other minority groups), quotas for school acceptance, etc... maybe it is specifically having the rosh yeshiva be the one responsible for selecting who qualifies that is the problem. But that is surely a better solution than having an army clerk or a misrad hachinuch clerk make that determination!

On the holiday of Simchat Torah, a religious female soldier was called up to the Torah for an aliyah at a minyan on a naval base.

The minyan is made up of both soldiers from the base as well as residents from the surrounding area.

The gabbai, a local civilian resident asked the female soldier if she wanted to be called up for an aliyah, considering the minhag on Simchat Torah that every person gets an aliyah. The soldier agreed and was called up. Other religious soldiers present, hesder yeshiva soldiers, decided to not make a big deal out of it in order to not embarrass her and they did not walk out. The rationale was that she had already been called up, rather than it being a discussion of should they call her up, and being that it is not a regular aliyah but a customary aliyah of simchat torah that is not necessary anyway, they decided to not protest on the spot.

The rav of the base was not present at the time.

The army's response was that after the incident they clarified what happened and have sharpened the procedures of the base for the future...
(source: Kipa)

I am shocked by this. Both by the calling of a female soldier in a regular minyan, and by the soldiers who stayed in and did not register a protest. I have no problem with womens minyanim, and women at such minyanim get called up to the Torah, turning an Orthodox regular minyan into an egalitarian minyan is improper and should have demanded the protest. It is not like womens singing where the prohibition is not clear and disputed and there are ways to avoid the problem (not listen, sing along quietly, ignore, rely on various leniencies, etc). Turning an orthodox minyan into an egalitarian one, even if the aliyahs on simchat torah are just based on custom, is not something that should be let slide.

Continuing the trend of Haredi women into the local political scene is a new party that secretly registered to run in the elections for city council in the Haredi city of Elad. The party is called "עיר ואם", and it is running under the slogan of "Mothers for the city of Elad".

They decided to register secretly after having seen a number of haredi female candidates around the country threatened and pressured to withdraw their own candidacies. But you cannot run an election campaign in secret - you need people to vote for you. They have now gone public, and though they will not be posting banners and signs all over the city, they are running an active campaign and are gathering support.

According to Michal Chernovsky, head of the party, at the end of the day it is the women of the city who spend most of the time in the city, they are the ones using the public transportation more, they spend more time in the parks, they are active vis-a-vis the staff in the parks and kindergartens, the daycare centers and schools, and they are the ones who have to figure out activities for the kids in the afternoons and during vacations. The mothers are the ones who go to Tipat Chalav and most of the time also to the medical clinics. It is therefore only natural that it be the women to deal with the issues in city council. All those issues are areas that are the basic infrastructure of services to city residents.
(source: Ynet)

Good luck to them!

and meanwhile, the Muslims play soccer-football on Har Habayit, and the Jews get warned for it..

Pirchei Yerushalayim - really?

A private collector just introduced a 1200 year old siddur as part of his collection. The siddur is several hundred years older than the oldest Torah scrolls in existence, but not quite as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The collectors did not reveal where the siddur had been discovered.
(source: The Forward)

from the Green Collection

Interestingly, the siddur is far smaller and shorter than any siddur we have today. That is just looking at the size of it and how many prayers it can possibly contain.

The siddur is a compilation of Shabbos prayers, along with 100 brachos said daily. The article says that this is the earliest source for such the idea of saying 100 brachos daily. Scholars don't seem to understand how the two go together, as the 100 daily benedictions would be a daily read - I would suggest it was bundled with the Shabbos services because during the Shabbos services we organically say less brachos than on the average weekday. Printing a list of 100 blessings in a Shabbos siddur would make it easier for the person holding the suddur to say enough appropriate blessings to fill his quota of 100.
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If you thought the most dangerous part of swimming in the Mediterranean along the cost of Israel was getting stung by jellyfish, it is time to upgrade your scare factor.

A young man in the waters of the Mediterranean off the coast of Ashdod was just attacked this morning by a shark probably in the Great White Shark family (of the few species of sharks found in the Mediterranean, this shark is among the more common).

Think Jaws.

The fellow was working in a fish farm, checking the traps, 11km off the coast, and when he stuck his hand in the water, he was bitten by the shark. He was bitten in the hand. and after receiving medical attention and being taken to the hospital, part of his hand was amputated.

Refuah Shleimah.

Does anybody import shark repellent yet?

I wonder if this is an Egyptian shark or a Turkish shark? Or maybe Iranian or Syrian.. It is surely a spy for one of the Islamist countries. This must be retribution for the original Zionist shark.. the Muslims are upping their game and showing that they too can recruit the animal kingdom to its sides.

Even with this new threat it still seems that swimming off the coast is not quite as dangerous as driving on the roads...

Reports coming out of the hospital indicate that there has been a slight improvement in the condition of Rav Ovadia Yosef, though he still remains in critical condition. One can pray for Rav Ovadia's improved health - his name being Chaim Ovadia Yosef ben Georgia (the Chaim was recently added to his name).

Besides for prayer, some other methods have been initiated to do for the merit of Rav Ovadia. For your consideration:

1.
A year and a half ago, when Rav Elyashiv fell ill, someone donated a year of his life to Rav Elyashiv. We have no way of knowing if it helped or not, but Rav Elyashiv did not live for a full year after that donation (he only lived an additional 5 months or so). Maybe it is pro-rated, and a year of an average fellow's life is maybe not worth the same number of days as a year of Rav Elyashiv's life... Another idea, as a follow-up to the original, for those unwilling to part with a full year was to just donate 2 minutes. Whether it works or not, his sentiment is admirable.

That same fellow has now donated a year of his life to Rav Ovadia. He also calls on other people to donate 2 minutes each. He says that Rav Ovadia supported his initiative to donate a year to Rav Elyashiv,and he says hundreds of people have already donated from their lives for Rav Ovadia.

Again, it raises the question how long can a person possibly live on donated time. Can he get past the supposed limit of 120 years if enough people donate?

Aharon, the donor, says that the way he made his donation is by saying during davening: Ribono shel Olam, I [state your name ben mothers name] donate a year of my life for the merit and recovery of Rabbi Chaim Ovadia Yosef ben Georgia. It is as simple as that.
(source: Ynet)

2.
The next option is to break your iPhone for the merit of Rav Ovadia. And if you do not have one to break, go buy one and then break it. Or maybe break someone else's iPhone. So, far, supposedly, tens of thousands of iPhones have been destroyed for the merit of Rav Ovadia.

I wonder if they destroyed iPhones in current use or had already upgraded to newer versions and destroyed their old and unused iPhones... I also wonder how much health each iPhone is worth. With each additional iPhone destroyed, how much better does Rav Ovadia get? Maybe this is a very efficient method, or maybe it is not efficient at all.

Shas leaders actually do not know who is behind this campaign and reportedly have criticized it for its cynicism and its abuse of the situation for ulterior motives - on behalf of the anti-iPhone campaign.
(source: Mako News, NRG)

3.
one can always turn to prayer and learning Torah for the merit of Rav Ovadia. It might be old-fashioned, but this method has survived the tests of time.

I recommend method #3...

I am not a big fan of Amir Peretz, now Minister of Environmental Protection, but I am in favor of his plan to do away with throwaway plastic bags.

As reported by Globes, the ministry is promoting the end of throwaway plastic bags as given out in stores.. to replace them, they will give away, for free for the first few initial months and then for a fee, multi-use plastic bags.

Minister of Environmental Protection Amir Peretz is trying to fix what his predecessor failed to do. Under the plan, multiuse plastic bags will be distributed to the public for free over several months, after which the use of throwaway plastic bags will be ended.
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, more than 2.2 million plastic bags are used in Israel every year, more than half of which are distributed by grocery stores and supermarket chains.
The timetable for the switch to multiuse plastic bags has not yet been set, and Ministry of Environmental Protection director general David Leffler is due to draw it up in collaboration with large retail chains. However, during 2014, the ministry wants to distribute to the public an alternative to throwaway plastic bags in the form of multiuse plastic bags. These plastic bags will initially be distributed free, jointly financed by the ministry and retail chains, along with a simultaneous ad campaign, but later, will again cost money. The distribution of throwaway plastic bags to shoppers will be stopped.

I reuse those throwaway bags all the time, except when they tear while loading or emptying groceries, but I guess that is not good enough to consider them multi-use. I do sometimes feel pangs of guilt when using so many bags for my groceries and pining for the days of the good old brown paper bag... People will not be happy about having to pay for bags...

I hope that when the ministry finally gets rid of all these bags, they don't just throw them into some landfill....

Yehuda Glick offers a prayer for the security forces on har Habayit on Hoshanna Rabba, despite the ban on Jewish prayer, and the policeman responds with a hearty "amen"..



in this video you can see the Arabs start to get rowdy and upset about something, drawing police attention.. at about 31 seconds you can see two undercover policemen prepare to get involved in putting an end to the scuffle as they pull police caps out of their pockets and socks and start to move towards the incident.

A Guest Post by Aleh

I went last night to Kever Yosef. They opened it up for Jewish access on the night of the "ushpizin" of Yosef HaTzaddik, and my boys wanted to go, so off we went.

The experience was a little different this time. We were there early - our bus was in the first wave of buses rather than in a later wave. It meant less pressure. There were 8 buses in our wave, meaning about 400 people. They had put up a mechitza in the room of the kever, with women entering from one side and men from the other, and maybe that also contributed to the experience - less pushing and squeezing in. There was also a sukka behind the mausoleum, and when I went to grab a bite and get a drink, Rav Rafi Peretz, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, had just come in to the sukka and started speaking - see my video below....

Another aspect of how the experience was different, they did not rush us. They usually move people in and out quickly. They give each wave about 20-30 minutes and then they start sending people back to the buses. This time they gave us 45 minutes before sending us back.

Thee was also less food than usual, maybe because of the limited space of a small sukka to eat it in...

pictures after the video..

Whoever tries to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite. We will continue to fight terrorism and hit the terrorists with one hand, and we will continue to strengthen the settlement enterprise with the other hand.

  -- PM Benjamin Netanyahu, while ordering steps to be taken in order to resettle the Bet HaMachpela

the topic raises a lot of emotions on both sides, making it an entertaining discussion...

I hope that by now you have already built your sukka.. but if not, this might be for you!

There was a horrible head-on collision yesterday on Highway 38 that resulted in two tragic deaths. It once again raised the issue of why Highway 38 has not yet been upgraded and improved, considering it was originally designed to service a city of 15,000 residents that now actually contains 85,000+ residents, with thousands more on their way...

Besides for the fact that the upgrade project is almost underway - tenders have been issued and I think things should start to move within 4 months, even had the 38 already been upgraded to a beautiful road years ago, the accident would probably not have been prevented. This specific accident happened near Givat Yeshayahu. The upgrade of 38 is only supposed to be from Shaar Ha'Gay until Bet Shemesh and will not include the section of the highway past 38 - where the accident was.

While the 38 is really an inadequate and dangerous road, not all accidents happen because of the road. One can be a great driver, but if the driver across from you, beside you, behind you, or  in front of you, is not, you can still get into an accident. if someone falls asleep at the wheel and heads at you straight on, even if you are a very careful driver, there might be almost nothing you can do about it. If someone else is texting while driving, you can be a great driver.. There are endless types of scenarios in which anything can happen and there are no guarantees, even on the best of roads.

Drive safely, and be alert. Not every accident should be blamed on the road, as lousy as it is.

According to Kipa, if you are an esrog or lulav merchant you had better watch out.. Kipa is reporting that undercover tax officials are going to "4 species markets"  around the country and catching merchants who are not registered with the tax authorities and/or doing businesses without paying the necessary taxes.

They say the lulav-esrog market is mostly a black market, with nearly the entire thing being off the books. Tax officials have supposedly been going to markets in various towns and after questioning sellers about getting receipts for purchases are slapping fines on the sellers.

I remember a few years agon in Bet Shemesh the mayor decided to crack down on the black market, to a certain extent. People who would set up booths without paying the necessary fees to the Iryah would get shut down and fined. There was an outcry, but they still seem to do it. The other outcry that was ignored was  from the merchants who claimed it to be unfair - the ones with booths are being stopped, but many sell otu of their homes, and the ads are all over the neighborhood, but no supervisors go to those houses to shut down those merchants or to fine them..

So, watch out. Or register your business and give receipts.

Do you prefer to buy an esrog with a pittem? (I don't even know the proper spelling for pittem, if there is one..). Back in the USA, way back when, I remember, esrog with pittem was the standard. Here in Israel, esrog without pittem is the standard, and some people look for the esrog with the pittem, which is usually a bit more expensive and also a bit harder to find.

By the way,, another thing different today than back in the good old days is the horsehair wrapping. It used to be when you buy an esrog it would be wrapped in this amazing bed of horsehair. In shul you would unwrap it, and after shaking and doing what you need to do, you would lovingly rewrap it. Nowadays they almsot all come with foam wraps that just are not the same.

It used to be thought that people who bought the esrog with a pittem either did not have little children at home, or they were just big risk-takers. If the pittem breaks off, the esrog becomes invalid. After spending a lot of money on an esrog with a pittem, that could be a big loss for the pittem to break off...

If you are one of those pittem risk-takers, you now have a solution to your hedge against your risk. We used to joke about pittem-insurance, but now it is a reality, at least in New York.

The way it works is that the buyer of the pittemed esrog will pay an additional $10 to the merchant above the price of the esrog. That $10 is his insurance payment, in case the pittem breaks off. If it does break during the holiday, he will be given a brand new beautiful pittemed esrog.

I wonder how easy or difficult it will be to find the esrog merchant to cash in on the insurance, should it be necessary, once the holiday has begun..

The next stage is selling all sorts of complimentary insurance packages. Against black dots, against dry spots, against aravot drying out, against the tip of the lulav splitting, etc. all sorts of possibilities exist! And then investigators will be hired to look into fraud and insurance scams - did he break the pittem himself because he wanted a new fresh esrog? was he negligent? did his wife bite off the pittem too early? did his kid use it as a baseball?

This could lead to so many new industries!

If you thought the kosher cellphone market was just to control usage and access, as well as making some people some money by deals for packages, supervision and unique devices, it turns out you were only partly right.

Ynet recently reported on, and Kikar has expanded on it a bit, a recent discovery that the Committee for holy communication, or whatever they call themselves, that cotrols and supervises the kosher cellular market, has blocked the ability to make phone calls, from kosher phones, to emergency hotline centers for reporting child abuse, violence, kids at risk and other similar national emergency hotlines.

The Ministry of Communication has passed off any responsibility for this, saying the law defines certain numbers as official emergency numbers, and those are all open on available on kosher phones. These other numbers are less clear in the law how these other emergency hotlines are defined, but they will look into it. As well, people sign up voluntarily for the kosher service, and the rabbinic committee does what it does with the agreement of the haredi community. There has not yet been a response from the representative of the committee.

What is lacking in this response of the Ministry of Communications is that people do not sign up for it necessarily voluntarily. While some do, many are forced to sign up for it, or risk being thrown out of schools, yeshivot, etc. As well, people probably do not know that they will be limited in these ways by signing up for it, and even if they do, when they sign up they probably don't think they will ever need access to those numbers so are willing to accept that condition. Only when they unfortunately need it do they find out they can't access it.

The kosher cellphone is not just blocking access to the internet and to SMS messaging...

I am not sure why this is news, but Mynet is reporting that the Jerusalem Light-Rail now has its first female driver. not just that, but she is also religious and covers her hair!

Another step in the path of society towards real equality and treatment!

As Virginia Slims has been saying for a long time.. You've come a long way, baby!

one thing I noticed that has bothered me is that Moshe Abutbol and the Chadash newspaper consistently attack Eli Cohen as being anti-haredi and they accuse him of running an anti-haredi campaign, or that he will soon raise an anti-haredi campaign in order to rile people up.

Eli Cohen is no Messiah. Surely he has faults. Surely there must be issues that Abutbol and Chadash could attack him on, points in his plans for the city that maybe Abutbol thinks are wrong or bad for the city. One thing he is not, is anti-haredi. I have heard him numerous times talk about fair distribution of funds and he is quick to point out that everybody deserves an equal part of the pie, haredi need their classrooms to be proper classrooms, they need shuls and yeshivot, while the hilonim need their heichal hatarbut and matnas and other things, and each will get what each community needs. I have never heard him say a bad word about haredim. He talks about respect for religion, he talks about how Bet Shemesh opened its doors to the haredi community with warmth and nostalgia. Surely he has faults, but he is not anti-haredi.

That being said, with Abutbol's repeated claims that Cohen is anti-haredi and is running an anti-haredi campaign, I decided to revisit the matter and take another look. For the past 3 weeks I have been paying attention to all articles about Bet Shemesh elections, no matter from what source - I have been getting all the local newspapers, along with articles in the national press, both haredi and not-haredi, and reading every article.

Here is what I found:

In the non-haredi media, there has been not a word about haredim from the perspective of the Eli Cohen campaign. Not anything negative and not anything positive. he talks about the city, proper administration, his plans, his "5 mems", his political activities, etc. Nothing about the haredim, nothing about the need to stop them, nothign about them taking over, nothing about closing their schools and stopping their funding - all those claims are fictitious, because he never says any such things. The people making these claims might be good prophets and are predicting the future, despite the lack of any such statements, but they are not based on the reality painted in the non-haredi media.

In the haredi media, there have been regular articles and interviews claiming that Eli Cohen is anti-haredi. Most of the time any "proof" is included, it is using quotes from Naftali Bennet rather than from Eli Cohen. Moshe Abutbol also regularly claims that he is connected to the people and running a clean, quiet campaign while Eli Cohen is anti-haredi and is full of hatred. The haredi media attacks Eli Cohen as being anti-haredi, and they attack him for his anti-haredi campaign and his soon to be anti-haredi campaign. Open the past 3 weeks of Chadash and see for yourself. Mishpacha has stayed away from the details, and focuses more on the haredi parties. Kol Hai and Kol BeRama interviews are full of such attacks with regularity.

My conclusion is that the anti-haredi campaign is one that is being fictitiously made up by Moshe Abutbol and the haredi media in order to rile up things in his favor, to motivate haredim to not be complacent, and to try to prevent haredim from supporting Eli Cohen.

An example of this is this most-recent interview on Radio Kol Hai with Moshe Abutbol. Watch and listen for yourself. On the one hand I am not sure what he means when he calls himself a "street cat", and I am unimpressed when he denigrates degrees and management experience as if saying that is a fault - true it might not be necessary for public service, but it is not a fault. On the other hand, Kahn asks about whether the campaign will deteriorate to anti-haredi attacks. Abutbol says it definitely will, and the other side will rile things up to vote against the torani candidate... Funnily enough, shortly after that in the same interview Abutbol goes on to talk about haredi rabbonim supporting him and it being a chilul hashem to support a secular candidate - he himself becomes divisive about the issue, after he attacks Eli Cohen for being the one to turn it into an issue!

Eli Cohen has not made this election into an issue of haredim vs general. Eli Cohen has only spoken about the issues - how his opponent has failed on various aspects of city management, and what his plans are for the future of city management. Moshe Abutbol has.mostly spoken about haredi vs general, he has accused his opponent wrongly of doing just that, and only recently has he started talking about his plans for the future/

Again, surely Eli Cohen is not perfect, and surely his plans for the future are not perfect and could be debated. He is not anti-haredi. I have no problem is someone wants to vote Moshe Abutbol because that person likes him, thinks he has done a great job, thinks he will do a great job, or for any other reason that might make a person want to vote for him. Don't just vote for him though because he says Eli Cohen is anti-haredi.

And you do not need to take my word for it. You can meet Eli Cohen yourself, ask him all your questions, question him on his plans and what he will do or won't do for the haredi community and for Bet Shemesh in general, and decide for yourself. Find a chug bayit to go to, and see for yourself if he is anti-haredi or not. Contact me, and I can try to arrange a meeting, if you prefer to talk more privately with him. Go to one of his events where he is talking to tens or hundreds of his non-haredi supporters and hear him not say one bad word, and even a few positive ones, about the haredi community - I have heard him say such things to non-haredi crowds many times.


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Not to create a panic, but over the years I have been asked this question many times and never had an answer until now. So, I decided to post it, thinking maybe it will help some people, maybe it will make it easier for some people to decide to visit Israel and enjoy calmly their visit.

In light of the recent rush for gas masks, many people here cannot get them and feel frightened that they are being left unprotected. Whether it is tourists here for a short visit or people who live here without Israeli citizenship. When Israel gives out gas masks to the public, they only give out to citizens. Tourists are the last to receive them, and then only at the last moment, when war actually breaks out, and then they can't necessarily be counted on to get the information out well (based on what i remember from the Gulf War).

tourists dont wait in line, but they do have to pay

So, tourists or non-citizen residents, looking to buy gas masks privately, here is some helpful information for you. Thanks to the people who went to get their gas masks from these places and were able to then give me the information..

Shalon Chemical Industries, 2 Kaplan st. 10th floor, Tel Aviv. 03-695-7191. look for Riki (spoke English).

The have a factory in Kiryat Gat, which is is a bit more complicated to find, but they also had masks for people with beards.
Address: 35/2 Israel Pollak road, Kiryat Gat. name of factory is Shalon (it is near the Sugat sugar factory - there are a number of locations on that road). 08-687-9111. speak to Adi. if going to Shalon in Kiryat Gat, you have to call in advance to make sure they have it, and you have to tell them to put it on the side for you, and tell them you are coming. (they dont normally sell from there to to the public).

if you need the one for people with a beard, you have to be either old or say you have asthma. they  seemingly dont just give them out for people with beards.

The gas mask costs 400 NIS, the one for beards cost 800 NIS.

There is also a place in Netanya called Fire Center, located at 1 HaMelacha st. in the new Industrial Zone of Netanya, phone number 09-8355212.

I am told they are more expensive at Fire Center, but Fire Center will mail the masks to you, which Shalon will not do.

1,973 people needed medical treatment during the holiday [of Yom Kippur]

  -- Israel Hayom

that's a freaky headline, considering this Yom Kippur commemorated 40 years from the Yom Kippur War, which happened on Yom Kippur of 1973...

this is crazy that they just started school and the kids are already on vacation. I see no reason why the kids need vacation on the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, when they only just started school...

This speech by MK Rabbi Dov Lipman is a good speech. I don't find it to be an inspiring speech, in the form of the famous commencement speeches by Steve Jobs and others, but it is an interesting speech in the way Lipman describes how Yesh Atid came together, how they tackled some issues.. particularly interesting is how he says that he cannot use government to force his way on others..

40 years have passed. Most of Israel's citizens did not personally experience the shock of the fearful siren, wailing up and down, that at 2 PM ripped through the silence of the holiness of Yom Kippur. The nation was wrapped then in its fast, gathered in the synagogues, or in the privacy of their homes. The gates of heaven were not open that day, the prayers were not answered, the war broke out. The fire was on two fronts, the north and the south, by the time the siren sounded, the first soldiers had already fallen. Israel had made a mistake and was surprised, and her children gave their lives with amazing heroism and saved it from the valley of tears.

  -- President Shimon Peres, at memorial ceremony on Har Hartzl for the fallen soldiers of the Yom Kippur War

thoughts:

1. Shimon Peres, a representative of Israel's leadership, speaks about God's involvement in a public ceremony and not just in one for religious people.
2. He remembered to blame God for the bad, the attack on Israel - our prayers were not answered. the gates of heaven were not open. How often, if at all, in a public ceremony, does he, or any representative of the Israeli government/leadership, give God some credit for the good?
3. Even specifically here: he blamed God for the failure - our prayers were not answered. And then when things turned around, he gives credit only to the heroic soldiers (and they were heroic - I am not saying otherwise) but makes no mention of God..

it's good that he thought of including God in the process, but it is a shame he only thinks of God for the bad things and not the good things...

in appreciation of... another peaceful Yom Kippur, despite the news the past few weeks, months and even years, that seems to always make it feel as if war is imminent. With all the news leading up to Yom Kippur having memorials and memories of the Yom Kippur War, a peaceful Yom Kippur is something to be appreciative about.. The only "war" this Yom Kippur was between man and God, with man fighting for forgiveness.

Last year a young man discovered the body of long-time missing soldier Majdy Halabi. He had gone missing in 2005 when on duty near Haifa. Israel had offered a 10 million dollar reward for good information as to his whereabouts.

When Ibrahim Kuzali and his brother discovered the body of Halabi in the forest near their village, and reported it, they expected to be granted the reward money. When Israel told the Kuzalis that they would not be getting the prize money for finding Majdy Halabi's body, the Kuzali brothers sued for it.

Majdy Halabi

The courts have no dismissed the lawsuit. While the suit was dismissed for technical reasons - the Kuzali brothers did not deposit the 1 million shekel filing fee (half of it to be paid upon filing, which was never paid). As well, they never filed an amended suit with a smaller claim, in order to reduce the deposit and payment for filing - that they had requested.

Despite that, what is interesting, at least for lawyers, is that the court also said that the reward money had been offered to people who supply Israel with information as to Halabi's whereabouts. That does not include stumbling over the body in the forest and reporting it. Reporting such a find is the obligation of every citizen in Israel, and is also in Israeli law. There is no monetary reward for doing that.  
(source: NRG)

Ibrahim Kuzali

I find the distinction interesting that actually finding the body is worth less than just having information about it. I still think they should have been given some reward, even if not the full thing. Paying out something would have been a nice story. Now, people who might have information about other MIAs and are considering offering it in exchange for prize money might not come forward simply because they think they will be scammed out of their reward. I see why people should not be rewarded for doing something they have to do anyway, but this was a big find, and it has implications for other missing soldiers. I think they should have been given some sort of reward.

Beitar Illit, Israel - Haredi Rabbis Issue Ban On All-Female Zumba Classes In Beitar Illit

  -- VIN

rabbis are insisting that zumba classes only be mixed. no all-female classes allowed! just a bit of humor after the original post on the subject...

and sports is not the only realm in which people are making kiddush hashem (kiddushei hashem?).

Kikar reports on a beautiful story that happened in the Gush Dan area that is a tremendous kiddush hashem.

A couple weeks prior to Yom Kippur, a group of yeshiva students were sitting in a restaurant near their yeshiva eating cholent (can a story start off with a better stereotype than this?). While eating, a secular fellow approached them and asked if they could help him build a sukka. He said t was going to be the first time in his life ever having a sukka.

When pressed he explained that in his building, some haredim have recently moved in. They were building their sukkot outside of the building, and he asked them why they are doing this, without permission from the other residents, and ruining the beauty of the building. He continued saying that they explained how important it is, and it amazed him and he decided to build his own sukka.

The yeshiva boys offered their help.

A few days later, a few of those yeshiva boys showed up at this fellow's house with tools and equipment, ready to build his sukka. This happened in the Pardes Katz neighborhood of Bnei Braq.

(illustration photo)

The yeshiva boys later said that they had come to help with the sukka, and arrived only to discover that the sukka  to be built was very small, really only large enough for one person. They built the sukka, the family was amazed, the father and son put on kippot (brought by the yeshiva boys) and helped put on the schach. (the report says they made a bracha together, but I have no idea what bracha it is referring to). The yeshiva boys described how emotional it was.

They ended up turning the concept into a project. This fellow had a couple of friends who also decided to build sukkot for the holiday, and the yeshiva boys decided they would start a project building sukkot for secular people who want a sukka but dont know what or how to go about it. They received the blessing and the ok from a rosh yeshiva to go ahead with the project, despite it meaning they would be taking away time from yeshiva - they considered waiting until after yom kippur, but the rosh yeshiva told them to not wait - people might change their minds and decide not to put up a sukka at all, better to strike while the iron is hot.

This project is completely voluntary. They do not take money for the building of these sukkot.

I wonder how many people are just taking advantage of a free service to get their sukka built, but would have built one anyway. There are plenty of secular people who celebrate sukkot in some way, including some with a sukka. But that is besides the point. From the side of the builders, this is a tremendous kiddush hashem. and from the side of the secular sukka-wanters, it is wonderful to see the growing interest in the mitzva of sukka.

It is a tremendous kiddush hashem. Kol Hakavod to them.

Tennis Duo Israeli stars playing in the Davis Cup, Andy Ram and Yoni Ehrlich, also known as AndYoni, had a nice kiddush hashem this past week, when they refused to play tennis on Yom Kippur.

It might sound easy, as one can think of the scorn and anger that would have been heaped on them had they played on Yom Kippur - it seems like it would be an easy decision to not play. But when competing in the Davis Cup, the demand to change the schedule takes on another level. The organizers can say no, they can be disqualified from a major tournament, they can lose rankings and lots of money.. it is not really such an easy decision.

They were set to play a match on Friday, late enough in the day that there was a concern it could possibly extend into the beginning of Yom Kippur. They made a demand that the match must be stopped an hour before sunset at the latest, and if necessary they would be willing to continue it on Sunday. They came to an agreement with the ITF, the International Tennis Federation, but had already said that whether it is officially halted or not, they would not play on Yom Kippur - even if it means forfeiting the match.

In the end, everything worked out. They began the match with the decision that at a certain point they would just walk out for Yom Kippur. They did not need to because they won the match with enough time to leave for Yom Kippur. Their victory, by scores of 3-6 7-5 6-1 5-7 3-6 gives the Israeli team the lead over the Belgians by 2-1, for now.

I am happy they won early, but it would have been nice to see them walk out of the match because of Yom Kippur. it would also would have made a lot more press and gotten more exposure than just a simple win with a byline about the Yom Kippur issue.

There was a lot of anger about the extension of Daylight Savings Time until the end of October, some of it focused on how it would affect the Yom Kippur experience. I am curious how it actually affected your Yom Kippur - was your fast harder,  was davening longer, was it easier,  in what way did it actually affect your Yom Kippur experience?

Davening by us did not start later than usual, even though the shuls got that extra hour of daytime tacked on at the end of the day. Instead, we had a two and a half hour break after Mussaf. That was great. I was able to go home and lay down, and even sleep a little and rest up for the end of the davening.. I did not notice any difference in the fasting - it was not more difficult for me due to the day being "longer". It was not hotter in shul due to more daylight hours - the air conditioning worked fine.

How did DST affect your Yom Kippur experience?

this portrayal of new immigrants is pretty funny... the only thing missing is the Nefesh bNefesh baseball caps!

I am a big fan of the classic tune of Kol Niidre, as probably most Jews are, the more haunting the tune the better.. I even have a playlist on You Tube with just different renditions of Kol Nidre...

I am not sure why the word "live" is in quotation marks. It really was live. Maybe it wasn't an actual Kol Nidre service?

Here is a new one..

nice song, very nice clip, from his new album...