Is this really who we want for mayor?

This story was related to me by someone who had firsthand knowledge, and was then confirmed by someone else involved.

At yesterday's plenum meeting in City Hall, under discussion was the debate over continuing the construction of the shopping center at the edge of RBS B (Kanyon Rasido) that has currently been stopped by the protest of the kannoim.

As the meeting was beginning, the Haredi representatives received calls from Rav Kopshitz that they must vote to oppose the continuing of the construction.

Montag voted "no", as Rav Kopshitz directed him. Berger voted "yes" claiming he had previous agreements with Rav Rottenberg and others on the issue.

Abutbol, the main candidate for mayor at this time, claiming to be open to keeping the status quo, busy formulating agreements with the secular parties to show how open he is and not connected to the radical right, was in a quandary. Here he is, with Rav Kopshitz telling him to vote no, and he has always been loyal to Rav Kopshitz, but he has a problem with the agreements he came to with the secular members of his "Gush Chevrati" coalition supporting him for mayor. They want him to vote yes and would not look kindly upon his giving in to the kannoim on this.

What did Abutbol decide to do?

He could not come to a decision, so he hastily left the meeting, claiming he had another meeting to attend to. Others said wait a few minutes, we are bout to vote, but he said he had to go. He told the other members of Shas to abstain in the vote, and he left.

Is this who we want for mayor? is this the representative we can rely upon to keep the status quo, as promised? Is he the one who will not give control of the city to the kannoim in RBS B and the Kirya?

Rav Kopshitz is a wonderful rav. I know people who are close with him and they tell me he is straight, he is direct, he is honest, and he is a talmid chacham of the highest caliber. the problem is that he is the Eidah rav in Bet Shemesh. Do we want the Eidah Charedis running Bet Shemesh? We all eat their kashrus, because they have a great reputation on controlling their standards in kashrus. But most of us do not live our lives according to the hashkafa of the Eida Charedis.

If Abutbol is going to be controlled by Rav Kopshitz and the kannoim, how can he really be our candidate for mayor? And if he is going to be controlled by Rav Kopshitz and the kannoim, how quickly will his secular party counterparts drop out of his "Gush Chevrati" coalition, rendering him unelectable?

Support Shalom Lerner, in November, for mayor of Bet Shemesh. The only candidate who has opposed the kannoim and their attempt to control the city.

The Burqa is a prison cell

A Muslim minister in the French government was behind the rejection of citizenship, which was later upheld by the High Court of France, of a Muslim immigrant applying for citizenship.

the reason for the rejection?

Because she wears a burqa. While claiming religious needs as the reason for her wearing a burqa, the French Muslim minister says the burqa has nothing to do with religion, rather it is a form of forced submission and is like a prison. She says that the woman cannot possibly integrate into French society while wearing a burqa and her practice of radical Islam is not cohesive with French society and its norms.

On the one hand, being raised with Democrat (rather than Republican) values, to me this is reprehensible. To discriminate against someone just because of what she wears? They did not see in her behavior anything specific linking her to radicalism or anti-French sentiments. What if a religious Jew wants to become a citizen of France - will they reject such an appilcation as wll, because the applicant wears tzitzis and a kippa, or a hat and jacket, or a shtreimel and long coat?

On the other hand, having seen the effects of radical Islam, after seeing the effects of radicalism in general, both by living in an ever increasing radical society of frumkeit, and by living in the Middle East in general, it seems to me to be a good move, even if it impinges on this individuals personal rights. By giving too much in the way of freedoms and rights, by being too liberal with people who are anti-liberal, that is how it came to be that radical Islam has been gaining power in Europe, and even in the USA (though less so). The threat is real, so perhaps certain liberal rights need to be curtailed in order to fend off the deterioration of any specific nations identity.

If this court decision will be one that deters radical Islam from gaining a foothold in French society, perhaps it is worth curtailing her rights, and perhaps France made a good move, from the nations perspective.

I wonder if either the USA or Israel would be able to get away with rejecting someone for such a reason....

Anonymous spam

No more anonymous commenting. Sorry for the inconvenience. Some anonymous comment spammer has been leaving way too much spam recently, so this is, my hopefully a temporary, effort to urge him to leave his spam elsewhere.

If it works, I will open anonymous commenting again as soon as possible.

Poor Kohanim

Have you ever noticed that sign near the front door of many hospitals in Israel, and especially in Jerusalem? The sign that says whether a kohein can or cannot enter the hospital? Unless you are a kohein, you likely did not even notice it.

So for the kohanim among you, that sign that has been a disturbance on your life might soon become obsolete.

Obviously if a kohein needs treatment, he can enter the hospital. The problem is when his wife gives birth, he might not be able to be present, or might have to leave ion the middle. A kohein might not be able to visit sick relatives and friends, or take his own relatives for treatment.

The newly reinstated Minister of Religious Affairs has been working with the hospitals and with Rabbonim to come up with a solution for kohanim. They are working on designing partitions that can be set up in time of need - if someone dies, or if a limb is amputated for example - that will , halachically,, not allow the tum'ah to pass to the rest of the hospital. So if someone dies, they will no longer need to put up the sign telling kohanim not to enter.

Actually, until now the kohanim have had a good excuse to not have to go visit people (or attend births :-) ). Now, if this solution actually gets implemented, they will have the same obligations as the rest of us...

the trade can still be made even

So the bodies of Elded Regev and Ehud Goldwasser have been returned in coffins. Will Olmert have the courage to order Samir Kuntar shot dead in order to make the trade even?

I doubt it.

Another option is to cancel the deal and tell Hizbollah to take back the 2 bodies now that we know they are dead to make the trade even..

Egged's response to the busjacking

The other day I wrote about an incident in which passengers of the 497 Egged route from Bnei Braq to Bet Shemesh "busjacked" a 402 bus. They were frustrated that Egged had not provided enough buses and they were on the verge of being stranded overnight in the streets as the last bus had passed. They did not take it sitting down and filled up a 402 bus (that was meant to go to Jerusalem) and "forced" the driver to change his route to that of the 497.

Egged has responded to the claims, and another article, this one online (though only in Hebrew) provides more of the details, along with Egge'ds response.

According to the article, the violent takeover of the bus caused a family, expecting to go to Jerusalem, get split up in the mass confusion. One child ended up lost and after a multi-city search they located the child in abother city, after he alighted another bus in the confusion.

Egged claims that they are under attack from a group of hooligans from Bnei Braq who have systematically been attacking their buses and causing delays. They even bring videos to take pictures for publicity so people will see Egged buses full of Haredim delayed and stuffed to the rafters, in an attempt, according to Egged, to portray Egged as treating the Haredi passengers poorly. According to Egged, they do this to assist their efforts in calling for opening up the transportation industry to more players.

Regarding that specific incident with the busjacking of the 497, Egged responds that the supervisor on site called requesting more buses. Immediately they went to work arranging more buses to be dispatched. When the buses arrived on site, the hooligans attacked the buses, standing in the street not allowing the buses to proceed, sowing anger among the other passengers, and causing delays of over an hour until orderliness could be implemented.

The question is which article is more accurate about what happened... but regardless, while possibly Egged might be right that passengers are angry at Egged and they cause greater delays, Egged has always provided poor service on many lines in the Haredi community (and other lines as well), whether it be in the form of not enough buses on a route, tardiness, overstuffing passengers on a bus and more. That has angered the passengers who are paying for a service that they cannot get elsewhere, as there is no competition.

For Egged to blame all their troubles on a group of hooligans, that does or does not exist, is a "cop-out" in my opinion.

Egged has to improve their service. They are well-known for providing horrible service, and many cities are starting to open up their routes to alternate bus companies because of it. It is high time Egged started improving their service.

Yes, the public wants competing bus companies. Competition is good for everybody. It brings prices down. It forces companies to improve their level of service and the quality of the product. the only loser in an open market would be Egged who would no longer have a free hand in making money off the public who has no alternative. So yes, the public wants more options. But they want this because of the poor service you have been providing for years. Not that your poor service is because of their desire for competition.

A Professional Shabbes Goy

A professional shabbes goy!

In the Bible Belt neighborhood of Mattesdorf in Jerusalem, the shabbes goy recently took on official employment. They set him up with a hut in which to spend shabbes. Part of the time he spends in the hut waiting for people to come to him for assistance, and part of the time he patrols the neighborhood to see if people need help.

He is armed with a price list so peope will know how much it costs to turn on the air conditioner, to turn on the lights, to get a ride to the hospital, etc.

The halachos involved in the issue of telling a goy to do things for you are very complex, but the basics are the goy has to be doing it for himself, and you cannot tell him directly - you can only hint to him. So the goy in Mattesdorf has some keywords, depending on what you need done, and with that he will set off to do your "work" for you.

I do not know if you are meant to tell him where the money is so he can take it when he does the "work", or if he extends credit on payment until after Shabbos.

I think every religious neighborhood should have one of these!

Headline of the Day (hotd)

"Illegitimate"? ok, that can be your opinion. No problem, even if I argue.
But "non-existant"? Are you living in the same universe as the rest of us?

You are in Bnei Braq now!

(My wife told me the following story. She heard it firsthand from the person involved)

We had a ganenet who got married and moved to Bnei Braq. She is starting her new life, and for whatever reason she is also changing professions. She is now going to be working in an old age home with old people and then also with disabled children.

She will be great at her new job - no doubt about it - she is a warm, loving and happy person..

She had to register some stuff with the Iriya in Bnei Braq. She went in and waited on line.

She finally gets her turn at the desk:

One clerk is davening.

Then next clerk is also davening.

The last one is bentching.

In her words, she finally loses it (hard to imagine, knowing her, but ok).

The clerks are all "Emm" ing and gesticulating, but not talking because they are davening. All the other people in line are ok with it - she says they seem used to it, but she said she got her turn, she wants to do what she needs to do and get out of there.

The 'bentcher' clerk finished and kind of apologized but explained that they also need to live and daven and eat and bentch and that's life - get used to it - you are in Bnei Braq now!!

I don't know - yes, they need breaks to go to the washroom, snack, daven, whatever. But all at the same time?

Train minyan introduces new Torah!

How many Torah scrolls does your shul have? My shul only has two Torah scrolls.

I am always amazed by shuls that have 8 or 10 Torahs stacked up in their Aron Kodesh, and continue to receive donations of new Torah scrolls. I wonder, when I see it happen, what do they need it for? Most of the Torahs never get used, except for maybe once or twice a year (on the yahrtzeit of the donor or some other stipulated date), and there are plenty of other shuls with not enough Torahs that could make much better use of an additional Torah.

About 4 months ago, the passengers of the 8:23 train from Bet Shemesh to Tel Aviv introduced the first "Train Torah" to its minyan with a respectable ceremony.

Last night, the passengers of the 6:23am train introduced the second "Train Torah" with a ceremony in the shul of the donor in RBS.

So now the train has two Torah scrolls - as many as my shul.

Tzedaka - l'mehadrin min haMehadrin

Just the other day, there were a number of articles about how hard of a hit various institutions have taken because of the decrease in value of the dollar.

For a charitable organization, the hit can be three times as hard. The value of the donations decrease (if donations are given in dollars), and donors are giving less as the economy gets worse, and prices are going up as inflation rises.

Lema'an Achai has been hard hit by the shrunk dollar & the economic downturn in the US, combined with the rise in basic food and living costs in Israel, hitting us from both sides.

Donations are down 50%, while the need for our help is going up daily....

This has severely impacted Lema'an Achai's ability to help the two hundred local impoverished families we assist - and we are faced with having to say No to new families in crisis.
Lema'an Achai is the only organization servicing the population of RBS with professional in-house teams of social workers, financial counselors, employment counselors, legal/rights advocates, and over 25 volunteer manned programs of aid and rehabilitation services.

For families IN crisis, Lema'an Achai is their route OUT.

Lema'an Achai has no major funders - all our support comes from private donors from the general public.

This dire situation can only be fixed by donors taking up the challenge, and increasing their financial support for Lema'an Achai's critical activities.
Donations details: http://www.lemaanachai.org/donate.asp

Here is a letter, unprecedented in the wide spectrum of local Rabbis lending their name and support to Lemaan Achai, calling upon the public to donate..


Tizku L'Mitzvos

The "Get Out of Jail Free" card!

Why do many criminals who end up being arrested and taken to court arrive wearing a big black kippa on their head?
Do they think the judge will be lenient on them because they appear religious? As if they have suddenly turned their lives' around and improved themselves?

What do they think they will gain from it? The kid in this case was not religious. He murdered someone in cold blood, for no particular reason. He has expressed no remorse. Suddenly he shows up wearing a kippa.

What does the kippa do for these criminals? Do they think it is a "Get Out of Jail Free" card?

Touring in Eretz Yisrael: Hebron: Rocking the Casbah (not!)

This edition of the Touring in Eretz Yisrael series is about Shabbos in Hebron.

Someone put together a group of families from our shul to go to Hebron for Shabbos this week. We joined the group, as Hebron is always an exciting, and inspiring, place to go visit, especially for a Shabbos stay.

We were a group of about 10 families plus a few individuals. Most went on the armored bus, but we drove our car (along with two other familes), due to a shortage of space on the bus.

Friday afternoon we drove down to the Hebron area. We started off the trip with a visit to the Noam Federman farm in Hebron. Federman has been in and out of jail and house arrest for many years for 'extremist' activities, some of which have been proven false. He moved a few years ago out of Hebron proper and bought this farm on the outskirts. He raises some sheep and goats, has some fruit trees, and lives off the land. We had some activities on the farm, such as feeding the goats, kids rode the horse, we made fresh pita bread on the saaj (not sure of proper spelling), a rock climbing wall for kids, and relaxing in the open field with a guitar and everyone's company.

Rafi G.'s hand feeding a goat

Noam Federman looking on

Pita baking on the saaj

a "Settler Scarecrow" (dubbed by me). Not sure if meant to scare away the crows, invading Arabs, or police coming to arrest Noam...

After we spent some time enjoying the farm life, we moved on as it was getting closer to Shabbos. We went to visit a fairly new "community" on a hilltop on the outskirts of Hebron/Kiryat Arba. I think it was called "Maalei Gal", and is a community of three families right now.

They met with us and described the ideology of living in practical solitude among a sea of people, both Arabs and government, who want you out. Some of them move from place to place every year or two as they get thrown out of each place, usually by the government.

The person living in this house (really a caravan), had gotten hold of an old Egged bus in disuse and lived in it for almost a year and a half! Only then did he get a caravan/container and attach it to his bus/house to add a living room and another bedroom. It was really funky.




Yifat Alkoby, one of the residents, met with us and explained how and why they live there. Yifat is more famous for having been involved in an incident in January of 2007 in which she was videoed in Hebron "attacking" a Palestinian. The video actually only showed her screaming at the Palestinian and did not show what led up to it, but she is awaiting trial for that harassment. I asked her about it and she did not seem worried. She said her trial is due in a few months and whatever will be will be ok. Hashem takes care of us. The whole story was nothing big.

The community "park"

Then we went to Hebron for SHabbos. We settled in in the Beitar Guest House. We davened at "the Me'arah" and had a great Shabbos. The kids had a great time hanging out with the soldiers who seemed to enjoy all the kids talking to them (I am surprised they do not get tired of it). They made friends with a few of the soldiers and the soldiers gave them a bit of a tour as they allwed the kids to come along on one of the patrols. We visited a resident who is an artist named Shmuel Muchnik. He is an amazing artist and had a room full of beautiful paintings.

We were then supposed to join the weekly tour of the Casbah. The Casbah is the market in Hebron. Much of the property within is owned by the Jewish community, but it has been declared a closed military zone and Jews cannot go in. They only allow Jews in with the army once a week (I think) under very tight security. They recently started limiting the Casbah tours to a maximum of 30 people, so my family, and most of our group, did not make it in. Maybe next time. That was the one disappointment - not being able to rock the Casbah. Instead somebody else gave us a tour of another part of Hebron.

This is the building that until a year ago were populated by residents. the High Court threw them out calling it a provocation, even though all had been legally purchased from the Arab owners, and even though it is all property that had been owned by jews before the 1929 massacre and then taken by the Arabs. Everything is now gutted. You can still see sinks and some cabinets attached to the walls. They just sit empty, and they are within the Jewish area, so I am not sure what the provocation is.

One ironic item of graffiti the guide pointed out to us was this (written in Hebrew so it rhymed, but I am translating it to English so it does not rhyme):

Dear Sharon:
I wanted to say tehillim for you, but the seforim were locked away in the container.
I wanted to daven for you, but the shuls were burned down and destroyed.
I wanted to cross my fingers for you, but the yasamnikim (riot police) broke them.

You can never get enough of Hebron!

Busjacking in Bnei Braq!

The local rag 'Chadash' ran a story of an incident that happened last week.

The mishaps and inefficiencies of Egged have been very well documented all around the country. An extreme example was on Lag B'Omer there was a complete failure of the system and people waited hours on end for Egged to bring buses. The Lag B'Omer situation was so bad that there was even a drive to have it discussed in the Knesset.
In Bet Shemesh the problem has been pretty bad with buses not showing up, being late, overpacked, etc. The 417 line is actually pretty decent, though it is often overcrowded during the peak hours with not enoughbuses on the line, but many of the other lines provide horrendous service.

One such line is the 497 line between Bet Shemesh and Bnei Braq. I have heard nothing but complaints about this line. Buses that never show up. Buses that are overfull. Delays. etc.

So the incident is that last week on Motzai Shabbos, people were waiting in Bnei Braq at the bus stop for a 497 to go back home to Bet Shemesh. The 9:30 bus only left half an hour late, and filled up very quickly, leaving many people around Bnei Braq stranded, as they could not get on the bus.

An Egged supervisor passed by and promised them that another bus was being dispatched right away. A short while later anothe rbus passed also packed to the gills, not letting anybody on.

11pm had already come and gone, and the people realized they would soon be stuck there overnight unless they did something drastic. They got an empty 402 bus to pull over, thinking they would be going to Jerusalem. Everybody got on the bus and told the driver that he has to take them to Bet Shemesh. The driver insisted his route is Jerusalem and not Bet Shemesh, but the passengers refused to give in and insisted he take them to Bet Shemesh.

the article did not describe any violence or threats of violence used during the confrontation with the bus driver, but eventually the driver agreed and took them to Bet Shemesh.

This is what happens when a company is provided with a near monopoly on providing a public service. Kol Hakavod (not knowing what they actually did) to the passengers who stood up to the Egged behmoth.

Haveil Havalim #173

Jack, the manager, is also hosting this week.

falafel for a mitzva

Last night we hosted a Sheva Brachos dinner in our house for a cousin who just got married the night before (my speech, sans post drasha blessings to the couples).

During the dinner, one of my boys found, floating in the toilet, a 200NIS bill. He took it out and wanted to keep it. My wife asked the various people there who it might have fallen from, and eventually found the owner.

My son did not want to return it. Being that he is an eleven year old talmid chacham learning in a cheder, he came up with some good svara why he can keep it. He compared it to a case the mishna and gemara discuss in which somebody retrieves something from the mouth of a lion. he can keep it in that case because the owner would otherwise have lost it completely anyway. He said this would have been lost - flushed down the toilet, so he should be alowed to keep it.

I thought he should return, even if just for chinuch reasons. I thought it wrong to keep something that was lost at a party in our house, when we know who lost it. Also I suggested that he clearly had found it before the owner had given up hope of finding it (yi'ush) - as the owner of the money only realized it had fallen after we asked about it. Being that he found it before yi'ush, he would have to return it.

He was very upset because he really wanted to keep the money.

The one who lost the money agreed that it would be good for him to know we asked a Rav the shailoh, and whatever the Rav decides is how we would proceed.

So I asked my Rav the shailoh. The Rav answered that there are a numbers of reasons that for chinuch he should have to return it. And while the logic he used was good (comparing it to the case of the item in the lion's mouth), it is not definite that it would have been lost from the loser and from all people (maybe it would have floated and not been flushed down? maybe somebody else would have gone to use the toilet and found it?), and therefore not comparable to the case of the lion.

My son was very disappointed because he really thought he should be able to keep it. We told him that the mitzva is worth so much for than 200 shekels, and is worth even more because the nisayon is so difficult for him.

As a motivational celebration, we went out for dinner to falafel, as per his preference, and celebrated his big mitzva of hashavas aveida.

And I told him I would post it on my blog, to which he smiled and then waved his hand and 'pooh poohed' it...

Israel's water shortage problem has been solved!

Whew! That was close! We were almost in for a versy serious water shortage this summer.

Good thing we have innovative public officials who could come up with an efficient solution to resolve the problem quickly.

the solution: They simply lowered the red line again, so now there is no problem, because we have not hit the red line. Really. I am not kidding.

Shimon Peres has become newly religious!

Mashiach must be coming!

According to Haaretz, Peres got special permission to stay in the Olympic Village, so he could be present at the opening ceremony of the Olympics and still keep Shabbos.

(HatTip: MN)

The next ban: Vaseline and Hellman's Mayonnaise

I was initially not going to post about this, but the story has now taken an interesting twist, so I thought I would mention it.

Recently, the beginning of the week, Unilever brought in some internationally recognized DJ/model Nicci Belucci to host a promotional campaign for one of their products, AXE deodorants. It seems that she is a very provocative model and, true to her reputation, she ran the promotion while topless (no I do not have a video link for this).

The Haredim heard about it and threatened to boycott Unilever. That would be major, and probably impossible, as Unilever is a major importer and manufacturer, one of the largest, of basic products such as AXE, Vaseline, foods such as cereals, chocolates, pretzels, margarines, mayonaisse, soaps, detergents, etc. Basic items used by everybody, many of them with a Badat'z hechsher.

The various committees demanded apologies saying things such as from Mottka Bloi (the guy who ran the bans on MBD and Shweckey a while back) "we should not have to hear about this type of outrage", "bring an abonimation to Eretz Yisrael", "the gedolim have to consider a boycott" etc. From Goldknopff (the guy running the threat of boycott against Shefa Shuk and ran the boycott against El Al and others) we have things like, "Every product has an alternative", "if things are not immediately repaired, people should not buy products from them", "people who want to work with us have to know we have our sensitivities", etc. From Shmuel Peppenheim, the former spokesperson for the Eida Haredis and current representative of the Eidah hechsher, we have quotes like, "Obviously we are considering removing our hechsher", "we cannot allow this to pass quietly" etc.

Unilever Israel issued an apology to the Haredi comunity, saying AXE is an international brand following an international advertising policy set by the company, the event was private, Unilever respects all its customers, including the Haredi customers, we apologize, blah blah blah...

The interesting thing is the next part of the story. After Unilever issued its apology yesterday, Peppenheim from the Eidah Haredis has responded again. This time, he says, the apology is not enough. According to TheMarker, Peppenheim said to them, "Originally the apology would have been enough. But now [RG: I have no idea what changed], the Badatz has decided to demand that Unilever issue an apology in the secular media as well, because they have hurt the secular people no less than they have hurt us." .

So from this story it comes out that, aside from banning Hellman's Mayonnaise, the Badatz is concerned about, and looks after the welfare, of secular Israelis, and not just the identity of Haredi Judaism, as they generally claim. I just thought that was an interesting twist I would share with you.

wasting water in the mikva

Israel is suffering, as always but much worse this year, from a severe water shortage. Not only do we not have oil in this little strip of land we call home, but we also do not have water. Great place to live in the hottest region on the planet.

The water situation has gotten so bad that authorities are warning that there soon might not be water coming out of our faucets, as the water level is dangerously close to the level of the pumps. If it gets below pump level, they cannot pump any more water out.

Everyone is looking for ways to conserve water. Ynet has discovered that there is a tremendous waste of water in the mikva world. There is no supervision, and they generally change the water 2 to 3 times a week, just throwing the water out. They want them to be recycling the water, have some authority supervising the disposal, etc.

While they are quick to criticize the frum world for wasting water in the mikvas, I noticed last week when the Great Tel Aviv Water Fight took place in Rabin Square, that all the articles were very straightforward mentioning the item, yet none of the articles that I saw criticized them for wasting all that water. (I linked to Haaretz because I could not find a ynet article right now, but they also wrote about it at the time). For a cool video of the water fight, click here - warning: there might be inappropriately dressed women participating in the water fight.

I am not saying Mikva authorities should continue wasting water. They should recycle the water instead of draining it into the sewage sytem. Every drop counts.
As a side note, if the mikvas look the way they do and they are being changed 2-3 times a week, I would seriously be afraid to consider what mikvas would look like if they changed the water less frequently!

But to not criticize the great water fight, to even allow it to have happened at all, questions the real motivations behind the criticism of the mikvas. Are they really concerned about the water waste or is this just a way of getting at the frum? And yes, I understand the amount of water wasted in a one time fight is much less than the amount wasted on a regular basis by the mikvas, but the wastage of the water fight had absolutely no purpose, while the mikva is at least religiously needed..

abusing good will in NY

Last year there was a video news report about permission that had been given to use a specific rest stop on the side of the highway on the way up to the mountains of NY for a davening stop. The news report showed how people were abusing the privilege and selling food there. They were selling salads for Shabbos, cholent, sandwiches, etc., people were collecting tzedaka, etc. A result of this was making a tremendous mess, leaving their garbage piled up there.

The authorities got pretty PO'ed that the permission they had given had been abused.

The machers of NY who just had to sell cholent will be proud to know that because of them this year the police have canceled the permission to use the stop for davening.

An alternate location, much smaller, has been promised, on condition the mess of last year does not repeat itself. This itself was a fight, as the police, understandably, did not want to hear more promises how it would only be for prayer. but in the end they agreed, with the threat that they would cancel it immediately if the rules are not adhered to.

(source: Mishpacha newspaper)

Interesting Psak from Rav Kanievsky: Obligations of a Rav

Mishpacha newspaper reported about a new community called "Green Park" (a new neighborhood in Modiin Ilit). The residents of the neighborhood appointed a Rav named Rav Ovadiah Yaavetz. Rav Yaavetz went to the gedolim to get their blessings for his new position.

Rav Kanievsky did not just give him his blessing, but also gave him some instructions. Rav Kanievsky said, "Every community needs to have a Rav - someone who will guide them. Without a Rav, a community cannot succeed, as people will breaks fences that earlier generations established.
A Rav needs to know that he must work for the success of those in his community in Torah and yiras shamayim. This is the first thing a Rav has to do."

Because Rav Yaavetz lives in Bnei Braq and not in Modiin Ilit, Rav Kanievsky addes he should be in Green Park neighborhood as much as possible. "Even though you live in Bnei Braq, you should go spend the first Shabbos in Green Park, right away, to be with your community."

In many new communities it is common for shuls/communities to hire a Rav on a part time basis. Often the Rav will not move to the community but come once in a while to give some shiurim during the week and come for a specified number of Shabbasos every month.

In my shul, our Rav still does not live in RBS, but he comes almost every single Shabbos (he only does not come once in a very rare while), and is in the shul almost every single night giving Shiruim and guidance to members who need to talk with him.

Rav Kanievsy is saying that for a Rav to be able to do his job successfully and guide his 'flock', he has to be able to develop relationships with the members, and that takes presence. He has to be there as much as possible for that to happen.

Running of the Bulls - where is my knife? (video)

the annual Running of the Bulls Festival in Italy has begun.. these guys are just crazy, but it looks like something I would be tempted to do, maybe with my chalaf handy....

Aaron Razel in Tapuach. Amazing. (video)

Aaron Razel is amazing. here is a 2.5 hour clip of his recent performance in Kfar Tapuach....

The difference between Neturei Karta and Satmar

The lines between Neturei Karta and Satmar are often blurred and unclear. Both are anti-zionist, and in general Neturei Karta is an offspring of Satmar. People commonly mistake the two and when Neturei Karta does something outrageous in public, often Satmar gets some flak.

Mishpacha (Hebrew) newspaper reported this past week on a protest in England that Satmar Hassidim were scheduled to take part in.

The protest was to be against some sort of event in London celebrating the 60th anniversary fo Israel. The Satmar Rebbe had called upon his Hassidim to protest the event, as "we must remind everybody that Judaism is not necessarily Zionism, and that there are many who think that the establishment of the State was a rebellion against the kingdom of God that continues to this day".

He set rules however. Rules that included a stipulation that the Hassidim could only protest as long as they "would not be anywhere in the vicinity of Palestinian protestors, who protest for their own reasons, and definitely not near Neturei Karta protestors who make a tremendous chilul Hashem with their identification with the murderous Arabs and their disgracing the kannoim who are God fearing and Jew loving."

They got the various licenses to hod their protest. After all the announcements and arrangements, the police called them up and told them, on the day of the protest, that they had decided that all protestors would have to stand in one area and it did not matter that they were protesting for different reasons.

The Admor of Satmar immediately put out announcements cancelling the protest, despite their having spread the word around all the Haredi areas on Shabbos.

So there you have the difference between Neturei Karta and Satmar. Satmar protests Zionism and what it sees as a rebellion against Hashem. That protest, however, does not allow one to join up with any other people just to achieve a certain goal. No chilul Hashem can be created in the process. While Neturei Karta people go and kiss people like Arafat and Ahmadinejad and praise them in their efforts to eradicate the Jewish people.

Meet new Hassidic policewoman Officer Bayle

For the first time ever, a Hassidic woman has graduated from the Police Academy (no, not the movie) and has been hired as a police officer.

Bayle Glauber has requested Shabbos off, and the police have agreed, after having consulted with the Town Attorney, though in case of emergency they told her they will call her just like any other policeman.

"He said Glauber is the town's first ultra-Orthodox Jewish officer and her request for religious days off is the first he's come across in 25 years with the town. The county's other Hasidic officer, Shlomo Koenig, is a detective for the Rockland Sheriff's Department, but did not work the Sabbath when he started.

Klein said Glauber's schedule is temporary and contingent on his research of the constitutional issues. He said there were court cases involving employers respecting a person's religious rights, including issues of working on the Sabbath.

He said the town was also seeking an opinion from the state Attorney General's Office.

"We have to balance her religious rights with the job of a police officer to respond at all times," Klein said. "We'll be researching the issue and reporting back to the town and police department."

The Ramapo Police Commission, which comprises the Town Board, will discuss the issue, along with the PBA, Klein said.

Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, who supported Glauber's hiring, said he had no problems with her work schedule. He said he had no problem making reasonable accommodations for people based on their religious beliefs."

Interesting Psak by Rav Cherlow: Committing to Sherut Leumi - setting rules for society

Rav Yuval Cherlow was asked by a petitioner, how to relate to her second year of Sherut Leumi.

She asked that perhaps she should be preparing for marriage, as she is dating and hoping to get married, by getting a job and saving money so her husband will be able to sit and learn Torah in kollel, and thereby perhaps her contribution in the long term will be greater. Or perhaps she should commit to a second year of Sherut Leumi and contribute in this way now to the Jewish people even though there is a chance that it will be interrupted should she get married. Which contribution is more important?

Rav Cherlow responded that as a society we have to make general rules. That is what halacha is - a set of general rules that establishes with tzibbur of the Jewish Nation, rather than every indivdual formulating his or her own set of rules.

So to start off, we have to establish that the general rule is that girls should serve two years of Sherut Leumi. Now we have to figure out the exceptions to the rule. Is somebody not appropriate for it? Can somebody specific not handle it? Is somebody specific getting married?

In the case of somebody who is an exception and in an exceptional situation, it is better for that person to not serve the second year.

So you have to decide if you fall into the category of the exceptions, or if your situation is exceptional or not, and therefore you should be the exception to the rule. Or does your personal situation fit in with most of the community..

Torat Yisrael paper looks great!

There is a new publication being distributed around various communities around Israel. It is called Torat Yisrael.

After a successful pilot run, the founders took a break of a few months, put together a full business plan, redesigned the paper where necessary, and took care of various business aspects necessary for the successful relaunch of Torat Yisrael.

They recently relaunched, but have had some distribution glitches. My shul had not received Torat Yisrael's first few editions due to the 'glitch'. This past Shabbos, my shul finally received a batch of them and they were snatched up right away.

The paper is refreshing, with full color pages and interesting articles written by "Land of Israel" activists and Talmidei Chachamim.

Sometimes I read something in these Shabbos parsha papers but can never find them again. I might have read something that I would like to reference or remember, but by the time the edition is gone, it is often impossible to find old copies or any other way of recovering the article you wanted to review.

With Torat Yisrael, that is not a problem. They have a website that includes all the articles they print, and they also now have a blog that includes many of the articles and many timely updates and issues that arise that do not necessarily make it into the Shabbos paper.

Check them out and look for the paper in your shul! If your shul does not receive it, contact the editors (links from their websites) and I am sure they will try to include your shul in their distribution if possible.

And of course, if you have a business or product, consider advertising with them. They have a wide reach, as their distribution includes communities all over Israel.

(for good measure I will point out that the Editor in Chief, Shmuel Sokol, is my cousin)