Moshe Abutbol, former mayor of Bet Shemesh, is one of the hot names for being added to the national list of Shas for Knesset in the upcoming elections.

I wish him well, if he is chosen among the other candidates for the list.

I do find it strange that they would take a politician who lost an election he should have had in his back pocket and expect him to bring them success. Had he won the election, adding him to the national list would make more sense.

A Haredi woman who goes to a non-Haredi political party and is active for a party that will do damage to Shabbos observance and will advance homosexual marriage, even if she is given freedom to vote her conscience on those issues she is still helping that party, that is damaging.

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), about Haredi lawyer Omer Yankelevitch running as a candidate for Chosen l'Yisrael (Benny Gantz's party)...

as I have said before, when you give people no opportunity for advancement in their own political home, they will go elsewhere..

a few more days...

PM Netanyahu is a funny guy.

It was just reported that the Likud, .i.e. Netanyahu and his people, just filed a request/demand that the Attorney General investigate the connections between MK Itzik Shmuley (Labor) and the Yediot Achronot newspaper. The suspicion to be investigated is some type of connection between the two leading Yediot to write favorable articles about Shmuley.

One of Netanyahu's tactics in speaking against the investigation into one of his bribery charges is comparing his situation to other politicians who have received favorable treatment by newspapers and asking why none of them are under investigation. I don't know why he is calling for an investigation into Shmuley but did not make the same request for an investigation into Lapid, whom he pointed out weeks ago as having a similar situation with a newspaper and friendship with its owner, but for now he is demanding an investigation into Shmuley and Yediot.

This is cute, and if the Attorney General accepts the request and opens an investigation, I hope Shmuley is clean, but if not he should pay the price like anyone else.

That being said, there is a clear difference between a Prime Minister allegedly trading favors and attempts to close down competing newspapers in exchange for favorable articles and between a newspaper writing a favorable article or three about a regular Member of Knesset. I think Netanyahu should have to present some sort of evidence pointing to a nefarious relationship between the two in order to demand an investigation and not just the fact that some nice articles were written.

According to Ladaat, the question about the kashrus of electronic cigarettes was recently brought before Rav Moshe Shternbuch.

Compared to regular classic cigarettes, the kashrus issue is different. Regarding cigarettes, the poskim have concluded that no hechsher is needed, as smoking cigarettes is "hana'a", a enjoyable benefit, but is not considered consumption or eating the product. As well, the contents of cigarettes are not considered food or edible items. Vaping with electronic cigarettes, on the other hand, is considered eating, or consuming, because the vaper is ingesting the steam, the vapor, and the majority of the contents of e-cigs are edible items.

So, the question about the kashrut of electronic cigarettes was brought before Rav Shternbuch.

Rav Shternbuch responded saying that electronic cigarettes do need a hechsher. The liquid in the e-cigs contains good flavoring that turns into vapors, and its taste is then felt inside the mouth. According to halacha, this is considered tasting.

This should clear the way for kashrus organizations to get into the e-cig business.

I am not so sure the contents of e-cigs are really so edible. From what I have read a lot of it is made up of chemicals and consuming them individually, not in the form of vaping the mixture, could be unsafe, though I have no personal knowledge of this.

If the poskim determined that cigarettes do not need a hechsher, why do Israeli cigarettes have a hechsher? Is it just marketing, like by bleach and laundry detergent?

I was shocked to hear that the Haredim in Tiberias declared a mass prayer service against the mayor and are also threatening with a tax rebellion. It is worth remembering that the founding father's of the nation: Herzl, Pinsker, and Jabotinsky, loved Jewish tradition very much and even drew from it many idea and concepts in order to coalesce a diplomatic and social worldview. That being said, they were never strict about keep Shabbat and kashrut. Trumpeldor as well, the pioneers and the Beitarniks     were not exactly counted among those who kept the mitzvos..If we would have waited for Gafni, Litzman and Deri - the Jewish State ould never have been established. Therefore I call upon the Haredi public to disconnect from that group of activists with personal interests, to join the DF and go out to work. I call upon us all to adopt the simple concept - live and let live.

  -- MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beyteynu

lol

Mordechai Ben David and Avraham Fried are learning together at the ATime Shas-A-Thon, where a room full of people learned through Shas in one day... I understand the money raised for this event was to be given to help couple in need of fertility treatments...

very cool. I am cheering them on..

the launch is now scheduled for February 22, 2019, later this weekat 3:45am. They say there will be a live feed online to watch the launch and the link will be publicized later in the week.

this is a few years old, though I don't think I have seen it before.. though yesterday it came up in my feed a couple of times...

this is very cool. the leatherback sea turtle comes on a rare visit to Israel...