May 31, 2021

The Meron Effect

In light of the Meron tragedy, Kikar is reporting that the regional council Mevo'ot Hachermon is canceling the upcoming yahrtzeit ceremony celebration (aka hilula, however you want to translate that) of Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel at Amuka.

The entire site of Amuka will be shut down from this Thursday morning at 5am through Sunday evening at 7pm. The entire site will be closed down and the roads leading to Amuka will be barricaded. Additionally, camping, or otherwise sleeping, in the forests surrounding Amuka will be banned within 800 meters of the site.

Basically, the entire place will be shut down. No foot traffic, no vehicular traffic, no camping out there, no nothing.

The Regional Council people say the entire structure is dangerous and illegal, built with no permits. They say the supporting walls are crumbling and at risk of collapse. The roads leading up to Amuka, the say, are dangerous narrow roads with pastoral views but no safety barriers and with extremely dangerous curves and these roads cannot handle the high volume of traffic of such an event.

And so it begins.... the Meron Effect. Nobody wants to take the risk after what happened in Meron. Especially with nobody really doing a serious investigation, meaning nothing is going to get fixed any time soon, whether in the structural area or in the relevant administrative areas. It is easier to just shut it down and say it is dangerous. And presumably it really is, especially if it is built illegally and haphazardly. I have not been there in several years, but if it has not changed much, the main structure was a small room and then there were some aluminum-based add-ons adjuncts. I don't know how big this hilula gets - obviously not as many people as Rashbi on Lag B'Omer, but it is definitely easier to just shut it down and declare it dangerous rather than take the risk.

I have no idea if the Amuka site is controlled by the State or if it too, like Meron, is controlled by some sort of hekdesh.

If the entire structure is in danger of collapsing, perhaps it should be shut down more permanently and renovated, only being reopened after it is up to code and declared safe.

It seems to me the Meron Effect will snowball and this will keep happening to hilulas and similar sites (kivrei tzaddikim, etc) until someone takes actual responsibility and ensures that safety standards are up to par.

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Quote of the Day

if the Haredim prefer it, I'll take the Ministry of Religious Affairs

-- MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv (Labor)

Kariv is set to be Minister of Diaspora Affairs, if the Bennett-Lapid government gets formed and the finals appointments happen according to what is expected. The Haredi parties are upset that Kariv is set to be a minister, and Minister of Diaspora Affairs at that (a position in which he can use to work to strengthen ties between the State of Israel and Reform leadership and communities abroad).

It is a cute thing to say, which is why he gets QotD, but I said it first the other day shortly after the potential appointment became known to the public.

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Proposed Law: kiruv organizations and children

MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) has proposed a law that would make it illegal to target children in kiruv efforts. Anyone doing so would be liable to up to 6 months of prison.

Zandberg points to organizations like Chabad, Hidabroot and Lev L'Achim saying they and others target children in their efforts to bring them to do tshuva.

source: Hamechadesh

I dont think any laws can be passed right now so it seems this will first depend on whether or not the "change government" is actually formed, and then it will next depend on whether Bennett does not veto this. He has been trying to do as much as possible to act as if he will take care of Haredi concerns and even leave a spot for them should they decide to join the government later. he might use his power to thwart this on their behalf.

I am not opposed to such a law in theory though. children should be off limits. Let parents raise their kids how they want. Parents should not have to worry about other people and organizations undermining their efforts. Once they are adults you can approach them with Judaism, or even as children with parental consent. Frum parents would not want secular organizations approaching their kids and putting ideas into their heads, so let the secular people raise their children the way they want as well.

That being said, I am not sure 6 months of prison is the right punishment. It sounds kind of harsh for talking Judaism.

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Bennett's other options

A lot of people are calling Bennett's move the greatest electoral theft in Israeli history, stealing votes form the Right and forming a government with the Left.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. He does have some stiff competition for the title though, including both Ariel Sharon (for the Disengagement) and Benjamin Netanyahu (who repeatedly formed governments with the Left even leaving some right wing parties out)...

And, Bennett does not even have that many votes. It isn't like he is taking 30 right wing seats he accrued in elections and going Left. He is taking 6. And plenty of those 6 are fine with his moves and trust him. He promised, much more than any of his other promises, to do everything in his power to avoid fifth elections, and many of his voters are fine with this move to avoid elections. Some are not, and they legitimately might feel their vote was stolen, but I am not so sure that even if you say of his 6 seats of voters 4 are feeling manipulated (and I am confident it is much fewer), I am not sure that is quite the greatest theft in history.

And I do think that anyone who voted Bennett should be amazed with what he is doing. They voted Bennett and it looks like he will actually be Prime Minister - they won!

I really don't know what anyone expects him to have done. He promised to try to avoid elections, and he had no other moves. You can say going to elections would have destroyed his party, and that is fair motivation as well, but besides for that, he still had no other options. He could not form a government with Bibi because Bibi could not form a government. The only other choice was elections (and still might be). This was his only choice.

Bennett maneuvering his 6 seats into a possible seat at the head of the table as Prime Minister is actually amazing. None of the other parties the same size or even bigger are getting what he is getting (if it goes through). Call it theft, call it anti-democratic, call it brilliant maneuvering. He came into negotiations as a small party but kept himself in the position of kingmaker more than anyone else and used it to his advantage.

Bennett had no other options, and he made the best (seemingly) of the situation that presented itself.

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#57: Behind the Bima - Special Guests: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D) and Joseph Borgen (video)

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Palestinians: Should UNRWA be replaced by the PA? (video)

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Where's Effy: getting rescued by Yedidim (video)

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street survey with Oded Menashe: Bennett-Lapid and Haaretz (video)

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Dudi Kalish, Moti Kovitz, Neshama Choir : Yizkereim (video)

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May 30, 2021

Quote of the Day

If the Change Government is established, it will be because of me. I shook up the political system when I submitted my candidacy.

-- Mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai

I love how he makes it about him and takes credit for it even though he dropped out pretty quickly..

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going digital, or not

While the previous Minister of Communications decided to hold back on the digital reform in order to not hurt senior citizens who might have a harder time with going digital, new Minister of Communication Eitan Ginzburg decided to move ahead with the reform and allow communications companies to issue digital receipts as the default option. The country wants to go more green, and this is another step in the process.

Right now the default is getting actually physical printed receipts, but the ministry says that 70% of customers have already switched to digital anyway. The reform would switch the default to digital and anybody who wants printed receipts can still request them. And, anyone over the age of 65 would be excepted by law and their default would remain hard copy (though obviously they could switch to digital if they want to).

source: Calcalist

Deputy Minister of Transportation Uri Maklev does not like this reform saying it will hurt the Haredi community who is largely not on the Internet. According to Maklev, the reform will help the companies and make things more efficient and help them with their bottom line as they will save money on printing and mailings, but it will hurt the weaker sectors. Sure, they can request to get hard copy, but that is a burden on them and many won't or will give up quickly when it is difficult to get a customer representative. Many might not realize even after getting a message of some sort (by sms which Haredim also might not have access to) and requiring the client to be proactive about it will be a problem for many.

source: Kikar

I have said it before and I will say it again. I am not sure the country needs to be prevented from moving forward in a better way. We live in a digital world and if we can save the paper and printing and the mailings and make life easier for people and do it digitally, as most of the country is digital, we should. That being said, if a significant enough portion fo the population wants to stay behind, solutions should be offered, but they should not prevent the progress of the rest of the country. Yes, they will have to be proactive in getting the default digital changed for them to hard copy, but that is the price for preferring to stay behind. If they can come up with another solution to make it easier for them that is also fine by me, as I understand as much as anybody else that it is not pleasant to call the phone company and sit on hold or get passed around from one service representative to another. But they should not be holding back the progress of the rest of the country.

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spin in the 11th hour

Today was some political craziness, as we come to the finish line of coalition formation with everyone scrambling at the last minute.

So, while we still do not yet know what will happen in the coming days and everything that hits the news media right now is still just "spin", I had some thoughts along the way.

1. Finance Minister Yisrael Katz supposedly offered Netanyahu a plan for Netanyahu to step down and Katz would lead Likud temporarily as Prime Minister, putting together a "full right" government. At some later stage, in a year or two, Netanyahu would come back and take over. Netanyahu supposedly rejected the supposed offer, and the Likud (or some of its leaders) put out a harsh statement against Katz as being a political usurper at the worst time, the way they recently did against Barkat. They even called him a horrible Finance Minister.

I am amazed how Netanyahu will supposedly offer Bennett and Saar "first in rotation" agreements (which we are pretty sure he would find a way to renege on) but does not trust his own Likud leadership and closest ministers to work out some similar arrangement with them. Similar ideas have been floated in the past (Yariv Levin among others) and he always refused them.

2. Netanyahu is coming up with all these ideas at the last minute. the 11th hour, as they say. Daka 90, the 90th minute, in Hebrew parlance. Today he got the entire right bloc leaders to say they would sign an agreement that would give Saar first spot in a rotation, followed by Bibi, followed by Bennett. So far Saar said no, it is just spin, Netanyahu can't be trusted to follow through (and we know Deri's word as guarantor is already meaningless by now as well). We'll see what happens, but sometimes it is just too late. Where was he with a serious offer any time in the past 3 weeks? or 2+ months?

3. Netanyahu is reaping what he sowed. Nobody trusts his word any longer, after seeing years of him destroying political opponents, breaking up parties by dividing them, breaking promises, and the like.

4. It looks more and more likely that it will work out with the "change bloc" and a government might be formed. As I said earlier, that does not mean it will be functional or long lasting, but they might succeed in doing what they set out to accomplish - getting Bibi out of Balfour. And the threat of elections might be the greatest thing to make it happen. I am sure neither Bennett or Saar nor Abbas, or some of the others, want to go to elections now considering the strong backlash they might encounter.

5. Lapid has been amazingly consistent for the past couple of years - he has repeatedly given up the first spot despite being the largest faction or party, for the ideal of getting rid of Netanyahu. He might have a massive ego (what politician doesn't?) but he has repeatedly put it aside for what eh considers the greater good. Not many others can claim that. For the past few years he has stayed on message and worked toward a single goal. he is on the cusp of achieving it. We will see what happens, but kudos to him for his determination and focus.

Of course any time someone praises Lapid for anything it raises hellfire because he is "horrible", "anti-haredi", a "leftist", "uneducated without even a high school degree", "worst finance minister in history", etc, so I expect some backlash for this, but my comment is not about his policies but about his focus and determination and finally being on the cusp of seeing success. I think some lessons can be learned from this.

6. It doesn't bother me that a head of party with just 6 seats might become Prime Minister. Some are screaming it is undemocratic for such a thing to happen. It does not bother me. I am impressed by his negotiating skills if he can arrange that after just achieving 6 seats in the elections. I think people on the Right should be praising him for this, not attacking him

7. It is amazing how all the "leftists" are willing to support a right winger, and a religious one who wears a kipa, for Prime Minister. And there is not even any mention of that. The bigger issue is that he is right wing. The fact that he is religious does not even get mentioned. We are on the cusp of the possibility of a religious Jew becoming Prime Minister and his religion is not an issue. Sure, maybe it is out of hatred for Bibi that they support him, but so what. They could say no. They could say we'll support Saar first but not Bennett. They could talk about the difficulty, even if they'll begrudgingly support him. But not a peep. Bennett is religious, might be imminently appointed Prime Minister supported by the Left and that has not been an issue at all.

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Headline of the Day

Yesh Atid and Labor Signed a Coalition Agreement: The "Reformi" will be Minister of the Diaspora

-- Kikar Shabbat

thoughts:

1. This ministry is one of those that should have been done away with, so I am a little disappointed.

2. Kikar should be happy MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv was not set to be appointed as Minister of Religious Affairs. I could have seen that happening. And I wonder what Kikar would have written had that happened. They would have been apoplectic.

3. It is looking more and more like the little chance there was for the "change government" to be formed might actually happen. It all seems to depend on what Bennett announces some time today, but it looks like the sense right now is that it will happen in some way. That does not mean it will be functional or long-lasting, but it looks like it might happen.

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Headlines Podcast: 5/29/21 – Show 324 – Comparing In-Town and Out-of Town Rabbanus and communities. How do they differ? How are they the same? (audio)

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Blindfolded Jewish Man Offers Free Hugs (video)

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Ask the Chief Rabbi (video)

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Where's Effy: cheering up sick children (video)

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B'shem HaShem - Shlomo Katz and Eitan Katz (video)

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May 27, 2021

Litzman being indicted for obstruction of justice and breach of trust

The Attorney General this evening announced and told Minister Yaakov Litzman that he is going to be indicted (dependent on a disciplinary hearing) for breach of trust and obstruction of justice. The bribery charges have been dropped. One of the cases for which Litzman is going to be tried is his involvement in the Malka Leifer case in which he allegedly pressured doctors to change their diagnosis in order to deem her mentally unfit for trial so that she would not be deported (there are other cases as well).

Litzman's office put out a response that he has had the great merit to work for the people and to help and respond to the thousands of issues and requests sent to him form across the spectrum of Israeli society and his door is always open to help everyone.

I guess that means he is willing to even help [alleged] criminals and pedophiles who want him to help them avoid trials and justice. I would note that he has never denied it - he has always simply responded that he helps everyone and has no personal relationship with her.

I clearly do not know if he is innocent or guilty, but I am happy that this is finally moving forward and will at some point in the not too distant future be clarified one way or another.

I would note that being indicted means he will no longer be able to serve as minister (at least not until he is declared innocent, should he be)....The Prime Minister is the only minister that can continue legally to serve while under indictment. All other ministers must resign upon indictment.

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making it easy for anti-corona-vaxxers to marry

There is a new shidduch service in town (though it doesn't seem to be limited to any specific location)

We have already seen something similar, anti-vaccine based shidduchim services, though this is seemingly somewhat different. This service is for people who are not vaccinated, there will be no official shidduch fees - not for being set up or even upon getting engaged, and the nonsense of resumes will be done away with.

Also, this service is for non-vaccinated (specifically against CoronaVirus, not general antivax) people to be able to meet and date "like minded people". It says nothing about the shedding of infertility and thereby staying safe by only dating non-vaxxed people, so I guess this is already better than the other, or less weird.

It seems to me to be a relatively good thing. I don't care if non-vaccinated people want to date other non-vaccinated people. I guess it is a serious enough issue that it is reasonable for people to want to clear this one in advance, sort of like people who only want to date others who want to live in Israel or specifically others that do not want to live in Israel. So if someone out there wants to, or thinks he can, help these people meet and get married, maybe solve the shidduch crisis somewhat in some way, more power to him.

At the end of the day it does not seem to me that this is going to last very long. With the shidduch pool wide open people are having time finding their mates, with some sort of shidduch crisis supposedly happening. If they are going to limit the pool and make it really small, maybe it will help a few people find their mates but overall for most people it probably wont be overly useful, and at some point all this corona vaccine stuff will be forgotten or pushed behind us and people will want, or need, the larger pool of potential mates....

So anti-corona-vaxxers, go meet your mates easily now while you can!

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spooky pigeon

Hamechadesh is reporting on the story of a spooky pigeon that might be a gilgul, a reincarnation, of something or someone...

Somebody in Tzfat, Safed, died a couple of months or so ago, at the end of Pesach. The family sat shiva in the home in Tzfat, and one day during the shiva just as they finished davening mincha a pigeon flew in through the open window and settled down on one of the chairs. The bird wouldnt budge, and someone present gave it some food to eat. After its meal the bird still stayed put. They tried to get it out, but it refused to leave, and they even said to it "you are forgiven" as is common in these situations, but to no avail.

After a little while someone came in and saw the bird, grabbed it and put it outside the window, and closed the window, leaving the pigeon on the outside. Birdie sat on the outside window sill and would not move. It pecked at the window occasionally, but just continued to sit there.

Eventually the room got hot so they opened the window again. Sure enough, Birdie came back in. After some time passed someone put it outside again, and it just sat there knocking at the window.

By now the bird has been with the family for about 3 hours.

At 10pm a noted talmid chochom, a tzaddik, comes in to visit the family and pay a shiva call. They asked him what to do about the bird, he's been hanging around for hours, since mincha.

After a few minutes of pondering the situation, the talmid chochom asked what is done in the shiva house between mincha and maariv. They said that they sit down and talk about the deceased, as is done the rest of the time in the shiva house. Talmid Chochom asked, why do you not learn mishnayos, with the letters of neshama, as is recommended to do in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, with the guests learning the mishnayos (because the mourners are not allowed to learn) and the mourners conclude the session by saying kaddish?

After Talmid Chochom said that, the family immediately asked the guests present to learn the mishnayos and as soon as they concluded the kaddish the bird picked himself up and left.

For the remainder of the shiva they learned mishnayos in between mincha and maariv.

The bird even left without saying "Hamakom"...How rude!

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Interesting Psak: spending money on photographers for haircuts

Hamechadesh is reporting on a psak given by Rav Yehuda Aryeh Dinner, a community rav and posek in Bnei Braq, who issued an interesting psak saying that an avreich kollel has no right to hire a photographer and spend 1000 shekels to have his child's chalaka, the first haircut commonly given at the age of about 3 years old, photographed.

When the Litvish became so hassidic or sephardi that this became so common among Litvishe avreichim I don't know, but so be it.

Rav Dinner says that the avreich should bring along his own camera and the entire thing will cost him 5 shekel. I guess that would be the cost of print several pictures. An avreich who wastes 1000nis on these pictures should probably not be taking money from the Rosh kollel - it might be theft. The Rosh Kollel goes around collecting money to support the avreichim so they will be able to sit and learn and be able to have what to eat and to have basic needs, not so they can spend money on such unnecessary things.

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will the vaccine be a victim of its own success?

According to recent news reports, Israel is about to approve, or authorize, the Covid-19 vaccination for children between the ages of 12 and 15 years old. In the USA they have already begun vaccinating this age group.

I suspect, and obviously I dont know for sure, that this coming vaccination campaign and operation will not be nearly as successful as the original one. And it might be because of the success of the first - it might be a victim of its own success.

The first campaign and operation was wholly successful. Obviously not everyone got the vaccination, but enough did, and quickly, that it had a nearly immediate effect on the morbidity and infection rate of the CoronaVirus, knocking it into nearly oblivion in Israel. The numbers today, and already for a while, have been so small they are negligible.

I suspect many (most?) parents will approach the questions of the COVID-19 vaccine a little differently than they did for themselves. In addition to the safety questions and all that, the additional factor is that considering how there is almost no CoronaVirus in Israel, how necessary is it to take that risk, small as it might be? The vaccine was so successful, parents will likely think it is not necessary to bother taking the risk with their kids...

I know what I hear is a small sample size, and is likely part of some bubble or another, but it seems to me that the percentages won't be anything even close to what we saw in the first half of this year of vaccinations...

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Tweet of the Day

It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david. (Obviously, if you can, ask your rabbi first.) https://t.co/Dca2hpfY2s @shirahanau @BenjaminSales
— Aaron Keyak (@akeyak) May 21, 2021

Aaron Keyak is US President Joe Biden's Jewish Engagement Director (whatever that means)...

it is sad that the situation has gotten this bad for Jews in the United States...

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MK Abutbol: we want to investigate the truth (video)

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Ask the Chief Rabbi (video)

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street surveys with Oded Menashe: elections and police (video)

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Sim Shalom by Meta Cohen. Mosaic Voices. Conductor. Michael Etherton (video)

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May 26, 2021

Picture of the Day

Pope Francis today kissed the tattoo on the arm of a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz. Lidia Maksymowicz was deported from her Belarus to Auschwitz at the age of 3. She spent 3 years in the children's barracks at Auschwitz where she was subjected to the experiments performed by Mengele.

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treif food means no torah existed or that people didnt keep it?

TOI is reporting on a study of 2000 years of fish consumption in the ancient holy land.

Just to start, it sounds riveting. yawn.

According to the study, while pork remains have hardly been found in the ancient holy land seemingly indicating that it was not eaten much (or, at least there is no evidence of it having been commonly eaten). Non-Kosher surf however is different - there seems to be plenty of evidence of it having been consumed regularly in the holyland.

It seems that from the remains found, catfish was the most commonly eaten non-kosher fish, along with some shark, eel and ray. Of course kosher fish was also eaten.

You can read more details of what they found in the TOI article.

According to the article, the people performing the study use this information to prove their thoery that the Torah was not divinely given some 3300 years ago but was compiled ta a much later time, and there was a large period of time that the tribal Israelites were not keeping the Torah because it did not yet exist.

They theorize that when the Torah was written down, on pork it basically kept to what the local culture had already been - not to eat it, as the Canaanites in the area had already not been eating pork hundreds of years before the Israelites. Non-kosher fish however was being eaten by the Canaanites and Judeans, and when the laws were eventually written in the Torah, it was in contrast to local dietary behaviors and I guess it continued to be ignored for a while until it became more mainstream and accepted.

blah blah blah and their theories. I see nothing complicated about accepting that many people were not so religious and did not keep all the rules. Why did they not eat pork? I don't know but today as well, even among many Jews who do not keep kosher it is fairly common to still not eat pork. So people eat cheeseburgers and shrimp and catfish and whatever else but they do not eat pork and there is nothing confounding about that. Pork seems to always have been beyond the pale for many of even the most distant and unaffiliated Jews.

Even today when we are so religious of a society in the holy land, many eat not kosher. In a couple thousand years will they say there was no torah because so much not-kosher fish was eaten or because cheeseburgers were common? Besides for Jews, 2000 years ago, plus the entire hundreds of years prior to that and after that saw the holy land filled with foreign armies and governments, whether it was the Romans, the Greeks, or many others, and besides foreign invaders there were also the many foreigners who settled in the Holy Land due to it being the Holy Land or passing through for business or pilgrimages.

Finding that "treif food" was common in the holy land that has been filled with people of many faiths and countries of origin does not prove anything other than people ate these fish.

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take it easy

I try to ignore all the political talk during government coalition formulating time. Almost all of it is rumors and accusations and spin and nothing you can believe.

An example of that is today. MKs Smotritch and Shaked are both accusing each other of lying and of being at fault for the inability to form a full right wing government. If they both are willing and it is the other one's fault, why don't they do it now? In the meantime they are each just accusing the other of being responsible for the failure.

Another recent example was the rumors recently of a Likud offer to split Yamina - they would not take Bennett and his people, but would take Shaked as she has shown more loyalty to the right. The next day they floated more rumors of a repeated offer to merge Yamina into Likud - but without Shaked.

Everything now is spin and marketing. Each and every politician is bu8sy trying to make himself or herself look better and the other look worse. The spin is to both look better and also to put pressure on the other to break off talks or to bring this or that one into the fold, etc.

You just have to remind yourself not to listen to it all now, not believe it, and not get so worried you feel the need to comment. I see some people upset and crying in various political groups every time a new rumor is floated - they say we can't trust him/her, they stole my vote, etc.. and ten minutes later we hear a rumor exactly the opposite of the previous one.

Take it easy, let them do what they do, and at the end when something is final then we will know what is going on.

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the Internet Goy of Mea Shearim

For years, ever since the Internet bans have become a thing with conferences and rallies and asifas and whatnot, we have all been joking about using an "Internet Goy" for your Internet needs. I have personally even been the "internet goy" for the occasional neighbor or school teacher who needed some Internet usage but did not have their own access...

According to Hamechadesh, the joking has become a reality.

Until now, in Haredi areas like Mea Shearim and the surrounding neighborhoods they would either use filters or local Internet cafes that used filtered Internet to accomplish business needs or access to online banking or municipal services, but there were always many who refused to even use those filtered services.

Now, in Mea Shearim, they have begun a service called an "Internet Goy" - whoever needs some sort of Internet based service can just call a phone number and make the request of what to search for or what needs to be done on the Internet. With the order placed, several avreichim will be available to perform these searches or online services, for a small fee. They also have a goy available for people who insist on only using a goy so as not to cause Jews to sin.

I would hope they have to pay more for the actual goy, considering supply and demand and the specialized service he offers.

Also, if they are working (by searching and using the Internet for pay) and not learning in kollel, I am not sure why they are called avreichim, but ok.

If they are looking for workers, perhaps they can employ this Michael Elk missionary who posed as a Haredi Jew. That might be the best of both worlds -a goyish avreich!

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Haredi stigmas: Episode 3: Haredim are primitive and smell (video)

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where's Effy? at the yahrtzeit ceremony of Rav Meir Baal Hanes (video)

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MK Michal Waldiger destigmatizing mental health issues in first Knesset speech (video)

Waldiger is a new MK form the party Hatziyonut Hadatit

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Ami Horowitz: Watch me raise money for Hamas to kill Jews (video)

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Zehava Ben and Israeli artists sing Ofra Haza's Tefilla (video)

who didn't grow up on this beautiful Ofra Haza song?

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May 25, 2021

dying to be a Jew

According to TOI, a Belgian soccer player, Noa Lang, declared, or sang together with fans, something about how he would rather die than be a Jew.

1. I am not sure why those are the only two choices

2. Don't worry. The feeling is mutual. We Jews don't want you either

3. We will be as happy as you if you died rather then becoming a Jew

4. Go for it

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Picture of the Day

After making it back down to basecamp off Everest, Danielle Wolfson, first Israeli woman to climb Everest, posted the picture of her and the Israeli flag at the summit..

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The Ultra-Zionist and the Anti-Zionist

I have nothing exciting to say about this, but it is an interesting human life story that you might be interested in hearing..

Yesterday in Mea Shearim a young man married a young woman.

That sounds like not much of an exceptional story. Dozens of young couples probably get married in Mea Shearim every week.

the interesting part of this story is that the wedding was in Mea Shearim because the Admor of Toldos Avraham Yitzchak was the rabbi who officiated at the wedding -he, a staunch anti-Zionist, was the mesader kedushin. It was in mea Shearim because the elderly rebbe is unwell and generally does not leave his immediate surroundings, especially not leaving Mea Shearim.

The chosson, the groom, is not one of regular chassidim of Toldos Avraham Yitzcha, but is a student learning in the ultra-Zionist yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav, originally founded nearly 100 years ago by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first [Ashkenazi] Chief Rabbi of Israel (was the British Mandate of Palestine then).

So how did the Toldos Avraham Yizchak Rebbe become the mesader kedhushin for a student of Merkaz Harav? It seems that the chosson has being going regularly to the tish of the rebbe on Friday nights, and sometimes bringing friends along. he took a liking to the Rebbe and the tishes, finding it enchanting, became a regular and even a talmid of the Rebbe. When he was set to get married, he asked the Rebbe to officiate, so the wedding was performed in the Rebbe's beis medrash.

During the kabalas panim before the wedding began, the groom's friends from his yeshiva all went into the beis medrash and sat with the chassidim and sang together, hassidic and knitted kipa together, and then went out to the wedding.

Here are some images:

sources: Behadrei, Kipa, JDN

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PSA: travelling on expired US passports

When Covid-19 hit globally, the United States basically closed its embassies around the world. They continued to provide some services by mail and at times offered limited numbers of appointments, but most American citizens all around the world have been unable to get the services they required from the embassies and consulates. In Israel the Covid situation was followed by the Gaza situation and just as the embassy was increasing the number of available appointments they shut down again due to the security situation.

I read somewhere, a few days ago, that the United States embassy in Israel is 19 months behind in services provided, meaning if they opened up fully right now to provide the services in full to the number of American citizens that need them, just in Israel, it would take 19 months to catch up. I have no idea how accurate that number is but it is true that they are way behind and American expats are stuck all over the world unable to renew expired passports, register new children as citizens and deal with other consular services. People all over the world are affected, including in Israel which is a small country with a lot of American citizens.

The US State Department just announced that if your US passport expired after January 1, 2020, you can travel on your expired passported back to the United States - until December 31, 2021.

This allowance is limited and qualified. You can see the State Department statement (linked above) for the list of qualifications. It is also only in place for people travelling to the United States, not from the United States.

This issue does not just affect people from Israel, and the allowance is not an exception granted to citizens travelling from Israel. It is in general for citizens around the world. A search online shows that people in India, Russia, Germany, and many other places are struggling enough that their local media reported on this new allowance.

Wherever you are, if you are a US citizen and have been unable to travel back to the USA due to an expired passport and you still cannot renew it, now is your chance.

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Italy vs Israel

Italy suffered a terrible tragedy on Sunday when the cable of a cable car snapped and the car crashed into a wooded mountain. 14 people died (including some Israelis - no matter how small a people we are, how small a country Israel is, it sometimes seems as if the Jew and Israelis are everywhere and somehow involve din almost every crazy incident anywhere in the world) and one child is in critical condition.

By Monday Italy already launched an investigation into the cause of the accident.

In Meron 45 people died on Lag B'Omer, with hundreds injured (with varying degrees of severity). More than 3 weeks later, Israel has yet to launch an investigation into the matter. Not only that but just yesterday coalition members, including MKs from the party that represents all, or almost all, the people injured and killed, voted against an attempt to establish such an investigation. At best they are arguing about what type of investigation to conduct by what type of investigative body. It seems as if they are going to argue about it until it is no longer an issue and it just goes away with everyone having moved on....

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Omri Casspi and Ben Shapiro on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict (video)

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The Olympics, Judaism, and Israeli Tech! #419 (video)

Hillel Fuld interviews Beatie Deutsch (video)

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Haredi stigmas: Episode 2: women in the kitchen (video)

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street survey with Oded Menashe: who should be the next President - Peretz or Herzog? (video)

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Mendel Roth - Vayidom Aharon (video)

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May 24, 2021

despite the vaccines or because of the vaccines?

Interestingly, in light of the news that as of next Tuesday almost all CoronaVirus regulations will be lifted in Israel, and soon after even the need to wear masks indoors will be lifted, many of those who opposed the Covid-19 vaccine are celebrating the feeling of being vindicated. They were right, there was no need to run to get the vaccine. Instead of them being locked out of normal life, normal life is being opened for everyone, vaccinated or not! there was no need to run out and get vaccinated.

Well, this is a bit backwards.

The restrictions are all being lifted because of everyone who went out and got vaccinated, thereby causing the infection and morbidity numbers to drop through the basement making Israel almost Corona free.

Instead say thank you to everyone who rushed out and helped Israel get back to normal so you too can get back to normal life.

You're welcome :-)

I hope we all stay healthy, vaccinated or not, and the numbers stay low and negligible.

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local fighter heading to the octagon!

Nili Block, world champion kickboxer and local RBS resident and daughter of a friend, is making her way over to the MMA with the goal of eventually (in 2022) fighting in the octagon for the UFC!

Wow!

Right now she is waiting for medical clearance to officially join MMA. Hopefully she'll fight her way through and make it to the octagon and become world champion at the largest stage!

I'll be rooting for her!

source: Ynet and Nili's FB page

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Missionary on the Move in RBS Gimmel

Pedophiles and missionaries. Whenever they are exposed but not taken down they just move to another community and try to restart their work in the new community.

Michael Elk, famous for recently having been exposed as a missionary in Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Jerusalem with his family, has now been seen in RBS C, aka Gimmel. His appearance has been slightly adjusted, with his beard trimmed a bit, his long peyos gone, and walking without his hassidic hat.

I am not sure what you are supposed to do if you see him, but maybe let him know you know who he is, and let the schools know not to accept his Christian missionary children.

The information of him being spotted locally in RBS was posted to local Facebook and Whatsapp groups (though it has since been removed form the FB group), and has also been picked up by Behadrei.

I do not know why the anti-missionary organizations do not seem to care much about him. Maybe they just think he is ineffective and not much of a risk. Of course that is only true until one day they find out he was a greater risk than previously thought. I also do not understand why the Ministry of Interior does not deport him and revoke his citizenship, considering he defrauded them with forged papers claiming to be Jewish...

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Tweet of the Day

The recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop. I condemn this hateful behavior at home and abroad — it’s up to all of us to give hate no safe harbor.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 24, 2021

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Quote of the Day

The disturbances on Har Habayit began just two hours before the Leftist government signed their coalition agreements. We must admit, it is a miracle. Saar and Bennett are on the Right. We hope that they will overcome their personal hatred..

-- MK Yitzchak Pindrus (UTJ)

Wow. The entire rioting, part of the tiktokifada, that "supposedly" led to Hamas shooting rockets from Gaza into Israel and the Shomer Hachomot military operation, in which people were injured and killed and much property damaged and destroyed, including shuls and yeshivas, all that was a miracle just to prevent the possible (though he says definite) signing of an agreement between Lapid and Bennett.... God works in mysterious ways....

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Behind the Bima - Rabbi Grossman, the Disco Rabbi (video)

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Israeli Soldiers: Do you hate Palestinians? (video)

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Stigmas of Haredim: Episode 1: 2 dates to the wedding (video)

Kol B'Rama is making a small series of breaking stigmas of the Haredi community. I am not sure what i think of it. They are cute, funny, and interesting videos but they are not comprehensive - extremely superficial takedowns of these stigmas...

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street survey with Oded Menashe: how did the government do in the Shomer Hachomot operation (video)

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SIMCHA LEINER | Zemiros Choir | Kerachem Av (video)

Immediately following the terrible tragedy in Meron this past Lag Baomer, many of us were moved by the video of Shragee Gestetner A”H (one of the victims and an industry peer) singing this hauntingly beautiful song. Originally composed by and recorded with legendary Jewish Music songwriter Yossi Green on his debut album “Shragee”—The song will forever live on in Shragee’s Zechus. Shragee A”H left his mark on Jewish Music as the soul-stirring vocalist and as the friend with a heart of gold amongst his peers. May his memory be etched in our minds and may he be a Meilitz Yosher for us, his family and all of Klal Yisroel. Simcha Leiner & the Zemiros Choir, accompanied by Shimmy Markowitz on piano present our cover of this song. May the memory of the 45 Neshamos lost in Meron live on forever.

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May 23, 2021

[almost] all CoronaVirus restrictions to soon be lfted

Good news!

The Minister of Health, Yuli Edelstein, just announced that as of next Tuesday, June 1 2021, when the current CoronaVirus guidelines expire, he will not extend them any longer.

According to Edelstein, the infection numbers have been stable and very low for a long enough time that all restrictions can be cancelled - there will be no need tor green passport or purple tag adherence either.

The requirement for masks indoors is still under discussion whether it should be cancelled or not and for now is still in place until a decision will be made. As well, the airport and other forms of entry and egress into and out of the country will continue to be limited and monitored.

source: Ynet

Good news and good job to everyone involved!

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the first Israeli woman...

congratulations to Danielle Wolfson who this morning became the first Israeli woman to climb Mount Everest and reach the summit.

Wolfson has an amazing story of recovery and perseverance. I heard an interview with her a short while ago about her goal of climbing Everest. 10 years ago she was so severely injured in a skiing accident that she was expected to never walk again. Look her up.

(this picture is from a previous climb, not Everest - she hasn't posted a picture of her on the summit yet)

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Israel is not a halachic state, if halacha is even your issue

In light of what Moshe Gafni said regarding Har Habayit and the issue with Hamas and the Palestinians (see previous post if you are not aware of what he said), many of his peers have since commented, some agreeing and some upset at him for it (even some who agree with him in theory disagree about giving in to Hamas's demands on this). I would like to add my own thoughts.

I reserve the right to disagree with Gafni, but mostly on a non-halachic aspect of this.

Maybe Gafni is right. My opinion will be "EVEN IF GAFNI IS 100% RIGHT....." - and I do not think he is. We can argue the halacha until we are all blue in the face, the fact is many rabbonim prohibit the ascension to Har Habayit, and all the ones Gafni would consider relevant are of this opinion. I could argue that plenty of rabbonim allow it. I could argue that the Torah itself allows it. I could argue if there is a takana in place or not. But I don't want to argue the halachic aspect of it.

As I said above, EVEN IF GAFNI IS 100% RIGHT - even if Gafni is 100% right that it is not allowed to ascend Har Habayit, Har Habayit should still not be closed. That is not a reason to close Har Habayit to Jews.

First, if we are basing this on halacha (again, and let's say Gafni is 100% right that it is prohibited for Jews to go up), it is far worse for non-Jews to be on Har Habayit (in the prohibited areas, which are more in space for non-Jews than it is for Jews) than it is for Jews (in most of the area of Har Habayit - in the azara area it is pretty bad for Jews as well). So if it is also prohibited for non-Jews to be there, and Gafni's position is a halachic-based opinion, Gafni should be telling Netanyahu to shut Har Habayit entirely, for non-Jews as well. Is it really a sign of our deep connection tot hsi holy place by banning Jews because of the halacha, but lett8ing the non-Jews run around Har Habayit against halacha?

And that was without even mentioning proper decorum on Har Habayit. The Arabs on Har Habayit, besides for praying, also play soccer, eat, sit around (except for king of Davidic family, sitting is not halachically allowed in some parts of Har Habayit), in addition to occasionally rioting and getting violent... behavior very unbecoming for being on Har Habayit. If Gafni is so worried about the halachic issues of Har Habayit, let us hear him speak up about all these other issues there,...

And lastly, Israel is not a halachic state. it is not a medinat halacha. Israel is a democratic and Jewish state, but not a halachic one. If Gafni wants Har Habayit closed to Jews, besides for this only being selective on the Har Habayit issue, it is also selectively applying halacha. Why not insist the entire state be shut down on Shabbos? Insist on no selling treif meat. No non-kosher restaurants allowed. Non-religious couples are not allowed to marry. He might be right that it is not alowed, and even if he is right that it is not allowed, that is not a reason for him to be able to prevent me or anyone else who goes up from going. you want halacha to be the deciding factor in the State of Israel? Pass a law turning Israel into a halachic state.

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Quote of the Day

Because of our sins the Temple was destroyed, and there is a punishment of karess for anyone who goes onto Har Habayit. We pray all the time, Our eyes should see the return to Jerusalem in mercy, not ascending Har Habayit is the deepest proof of our connection to the holy place on which we focus our prayers from all over the world. I request that you leave Har Habayit closed to Jews.

-- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), to PM Netanyahu

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Headlines Podcast: 5/22/21 – Show 323 – Dealing with children who are struggling with religion or OTD - Hear from the experts (audio)

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there are some rules that are hard to keep (video)

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Where's Effy? Accompanying a mashgiach kashrut (video)

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