Congratulations to Moshe Abutbol on winning a close race for the mayorship of Bet Shemesh.

will post any interesting numbers and thoughts tomorrow (actually, later today).

The selfie.

SelfieFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A selfie is a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. Selfies are often associated with social networking. They are often casual, are typically taken either with a camera held at arm's length or in a mirror, and typically include either only the photographer or the photographer and as many people as can be in focus...

There are different theories of the psychology behind the selfie... generally some aspect of narcissism is thought to be involved.. haughtiness, being self-absorbed, attention-seeking, self-indulgence, etc. some question that and suggest it is a form of identity exploration..

It seems that this has also become a halachic issue..

According to a report on Mako, some rabbonim are disturbed by the popularity of the selfie and how the trend has caught on in the Haredi community (though what social media would they be posting to if they don't have Internet access?) and in yeshivas. They consider it some form of idol worship empowering man and causing people to forget about God. That is along with the problem of bittul torah.

idol worship? empowerment? seems a bit of a reach to me... I think they might just mean haughtiness, which can be compared to idol worship. I'll assume it is a Mako mistake.

One anonymous rav is quoted as saying that it cannot be that people are busy taking pictures of themselves and publicizing them and wasting so much time from torah learning, and it has an aspect of avoda zara.

Rav Eliyahu Abergil, av beis din in Jerusalem, said it is a trend that is pointless and should be stopped. He said it causes harm to avreichim and the torah world. I assume he means by being involved in such a waste of time and a distraction of one's focus..

so, the rabbonim are paskening against selfies...

MK Rabbi Dov Lipman just introduced a new initiative called "Alljobs" to help haredim find employment..

A guest post by Rav Chayim Soloveichik 

I went to Har Habayit this morning. Having a bris in Jerusalem gave me an opportunity to go early to Har Habayit and then to go to the bris...

No, I did not immerse my clothes in the mikva this morning when I went. Among other things, I davened (can I be arrested for admitting this?) for both peace in Bet Shemesh and that after the elections people will be able to respect each other again and live together peacefully.

The pictures are not in any particular order, but that is the fault of Google + and I did not yet have time to organize it properly.

We had a small group of 7 - 4 from Bet Shemesh, another 2 from Chashmonaim, and a woman from Jerusalem joined our group. I was surprised to see the Har so busy, with many tourists and Arabs. Often on days when the weather is cold and rainy the Har is mostly empty - today it was pretty busy. The police were a bit tense at the beginning, moving us along quickly and not letting us linger. When we got to the eastern side they calmed down and then pretty much let us have as much time as we wanted.

a bar mitzva boy of Bucharian descent near the Kotel

the navy had a group of teens at the Kotel

we all got patted down after emptying our pockets

view of the Kotel from the bridge to the Mugrabi Gate

the policeman curiously asked me about my footwear

the 'azarat yisrael'

Japanese tourists

if you are a parent who wants your child to get an education that includes both limudei kodesh and limudei chol, you have no business voting for Moshe Abutbol for mayor.

Moshe Abutbol's city government does everything it can to avoid helping schools that are not the mainstream haredi schools. If a school is more "open" than the average 'cheider', it will likely be generally brushed off and its needs ignored.

I have it on good authority, including having a document on Iryah stationery, that a local school is being refused a plot or building in a local area, forcing parents to pay extra money for transportation, making the kids leave earlier than what should be necessary because they have to travel to school instead of being able to go to school locally, all because some unnamed rabbonim have opposition to the school. When it was pointed out that many local rabbonim are involved in the school in various ways and come to speak at the school, the school was told that other rabbonim don't approve. And I am talking about a haredi school and haredi rabbonim.

While it may not be completely Moshe Abutbol's fault, and it would be more directly the fault of one of his supporting parties, the fact that the Iryah can reject such basic assistance for such a reason is a black mark on Moshe Abutbol's entire administration. They may not like the school, but it is a local school servicing local families and they should have to provide the required services. This is an example of Abutbol being controlled by the more extreme elements of the city.

As a matter of fact, the Agudah party, Gimmel, has gone on a campaign to try to pick up some of those disenfranchised parents. The hassidishe parties have always been mroe open to these types of schools. While I do not know how much they helped in the past,, they are starting to post letters around the neighborhood stating their commitment to helping these types of svchools. There was a letter recently of Gimmel committing to help Magen Avos, and now there is a letter from Gimmel committing to support the Mesivta. If you plan to vote for a haredi party, you might even want to consider voting for gimmel because they are the haredi party that is willing to publicly help these schools out. Will they or will they not - I have no idea, but we know the other party under whose blanket these schools should fall (both for the clientele and for the fact that it has held the haredi education portfolio) and the mayor is already not doing what they should do.

As I said, you don't have to send your child to either of these schools, or any other similar-styled school, if that's not the way you want to educate your children. but it is unconscionable that the Iryah will refuse to help a school because the more "extreme" rabbonim of the neighborhood don't want him to.

Nobody is saying these schools need to be given buildings in the heart of the haredi areas. RBS A is not monolithic, and a building or plot can be situated in a more diverse section of the neighborhood. But they continue to refuse the most basic assistance to these schools, and probably to others as well that I am not aware of. And their needs aren't always in the form of buildings - they have other needs that the Iryah provides to other schools but ignores these, and probably other, schools just because they are not mainstream haredi schools.

Vote Eli Cohen for mayor of Bet Shemesh. Bet Shemesh needs to be more moderate and less extreme.

A guest post by Shoshana Halberstadt

A guest post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier