Interesting Posts #44

1. Michael Sedley doesn't know how to explain the newest wave of riots to his son...

2. Lulei D'Mistafina says bloggers have taken a scorched earth policy when criticizing events in the frum world...

3. Alleyways to Torah wishes all a freilichen Tisha B'av, with a nice story.

4. Lost in Kollel says to be your own boss - no more of "my son, the lawyer".

5. Holy Exposures has some advice of some of the do's and don't's in a mourners house...

6. Daat Torah brings Rav Moshe Sternbuch's opinion on the rioting in Jerusalem. He is openly against it. He says he does not speak out because the people rioting don't listen to him. He should still speak out, I think, because they are rioting in the name of the Eida, and he should be saying the Eida does not support it.

Go Visit Israel

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As we head into summer vacation, there is this great website you should check out to help plan your vacation. It is called Go Visit Israel.

Whether you are planning a trip to Israel from abroad, or if you live in Israel and are trying to figure out what to do, where to go, what food options are available where you will be going, etc. Go Visit Israel is an amazing site of resources to help you plan all that.

They have great features, like Itinerary recommendations where you can get ideas for specific tours for any part of the country. You can get listings of places to stay, restaurants, activities, etc.

Basically it is a great resource for you to have available when you are trying to plan your vacations schedule. Even if you are not going anywhere, but just want to know what is available in your own region of Israel, Go Visit Israel is an amazing resource.


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The Games Must go on!

Maccabiah Softball is back in business!

They worked out all their issues, got through the bureaucracy, and got that last piece of paper they needed. I guess they realized how bad press this could be, and how damaging for future Maccabiahs or other international events...

Unfortunately, some of the athletes are upset and disturbed by what happened.. and even said:

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at the opening ceremony imploring the world's top Jewish athletes to move to Israel, and the very next day the police storm a field to break up a softball game over some bureaucratic bull***t," exclaimed Israel team member Michael Hochman.

"How does that play well for anybody?"

Even more painful to hear, from an enraged foreign softball player who was one of hundreds to shell out thousands of dollars for the opportunity to represent their countries at the Maccabiah in the Jewish homeland:

"I will NOT be making aliya. After four years of training, this nonsense has made my decision very easy. It was easy for the Maccabiah to take our money, and now they have housed us an hour away, and much worse, they did not make sure to be well organized. What a shame. We are totally disgusted and many people1s plans have been ruined...This really hurts," said the player who did not want to give her name.

Why did all this have to go down like this?

Indeed, the timing of the legal enforcement by the municipality - in the middle of an Israel-Mexico game during an event that is widely-viewed as the perfect opportunity to extol Israel's virtues to visitors from abroad rather than expose them to its murky administrative underbelly - seems peculiar at best, even suspicious.

However, those in charge of the decision maintained that there is no evil agenda at play and there was ample warning given that games would be halted if a business license wasn't1t secured.

"The Maccabiah and the Baptist Village were well aware of what had to be completed," explained Petah Tikva spokesperson Hezi Hakak.

"They just chose not take care of things in a timely matter."

Asked why this licensing issue never became an issue before at the Baptist Village, which has hosted a pair of previous Maccabiahs as well as 2007's professional Israel Baseball League, Hakak stated, "you cannot ask why we didn't enforce things properly in the past. There are very good and well-established reasons for requiring venues with a certain amount of people in attendance to have a business license to operate. This is not a new law and the blame for the games being canceled cannot be shifted to the municipality of Petah Tikva."

Regardless of what happened and who is to blame, fortunately the snafu has been corrected in time to accommodate the entire softball schedule.

Play Ball!

Picture of the Day (potd)

caption?

An era has passed

There will no longer be a Sears Tower in Chicago. they are not tearing it down, but they have sold the rights to the name.

Corporate America has spoken (though the original name was also corporate America, just it became "the name" and stayed even after Sears left) and the rights to the buildings name have been sold. The new name of the tower will be Willis Tower, as Willis Holdings Group purchased the right to the name as part of their deal to lease space and move offices in to the tower.

An era has passed, and the Sears Tower is no longer.

Quote of the Day (qotd)

[Shai] Dromi shot my son in order to kill him. Dromi waited for him and his friend, and set an ambush for them, when all they went to the area for was to trap rabbits.

------ Ahmed Al-Atresh (father of robber shot by Shai Dromi)

is it anti-haredism or not?

I don't know if the woman at the center of the recent headlines and the source for the latest riots in Jerusalem is innocent or guilty.

The truth is I don't even know all the details of the story -it did not interest me that much. Sick mother, sick kid, mother allegedly tries to starve kid, mother arrested. End of story, no interest to me. There are sick people everywhere, in every community, in every society. If they don't take care of themselves, if the community does not take care of them, they will harm themselves or others.

Why people have to riot in her defense is beyond me. Some people think she was only arrested because she is Haredi - they are calling it a modern day blood libel. This is despite the video footage showing what she did (though from what I understand there is room to interpret it differently), and testimony from the doctors. I am not saying the video means she is guilty - I am just saying the video means it is unlikely to be a blood libel, and unlikely to be "just because she is haredi". In the eyes of the law, they have evidence of her abusing and starving her child. Prove them wrong, get them to let the mother out on bail into medical care, whatever legal means are at their disposal, but riots?

Monday night, the night this all began, I was driving back from an engagement party in Bnei Brak. On the radio was Yisrael Eichler talking about the situation and the riots on her behalf. Eichler, who usually will defend the haredim 100% and just about always claims the secular do what they do just with pure intent to hurt the haredim, did not understand the riots. His big question was what this has to do with him - if she is sick and hurt her kid, why do we have to protest on her behalf, if on the other hand she is innocent and it is prely anti-haredism, then it is understandable. But which is it? Being that the actual story did not seem to lean obviously to saying it was anti-haredism, Eichler remained unclear in whether or not he should support the rioting.

So Eichler brought on to his show Shmuel Chaim Peppenheim. The "spokesperson" for the Eida, the guy who regularly defends haredi rioting, the guy who can easily clear things up and prove that it is all anti-haredism and there is nothing of substance to the arrest.

Peppenheim spoke, describing hos it is a false arrest, she is such a devoted mother, she would never do this, it is all anti-haredism, etc. yet he had nothing solid to say, and no explanation for her actions.

Eichler asked a few times what this has to do with us and why is rioting on her behalf ok. Even if the response of the police to arrest her was exaggerated and perhaps they should have taken her to a mental facility or somewhere she would get care and be watched, that is not a reason for rioting. Peppenheim had nothing clear to say other than his basic claims that it is all anti-haredism, and he had nothing clear in his words to explain and show that that was really so.

Peppenheim ws very unconvincing, and even Eichler was unconvinced and closed off the interview still asking his main question.

Furthermore, if she or the kid were so sick, if the doctors are making false claims, why have the great haredi medical askanim not been brought in to tell us what really happened or could have happened or should have happened? Fort even the most minor of surgeries, almost every haredi person will call the organizations of either Rav Benny Fisher, Rav Elimelech Firer or others to ask and get clarity on what should be done. We have done so on a number of occasions. Why were these haredi experts not brought in in this situation to defend the mother?

And even if the "Eida" claims are 100% correct, that she should not have been arrested but at most taken to medical care but not put in jail with murderers and dangerous people, why does that give anyone a right to riot and destroy jerusalem? Take legal means to get her out. It can't be that hard to get her out under medical care and observation, even if it means being kept away from the kids for a while.

Why must they riot over every little thing they don't like? Why must we all look bad because of them?

Maintenance notice

I have been told by a few people that Life in Israel crashes when being viewed in Internet explorer 8.

My first response was that this is just another reason to not use Internet Explorer but to switch to Firefox or to Chrome (or to a Mac).

But some people won't do that, so I tried to find out what was casing it to crash. I found that Blogger has a bug with their "Followers" widget that causes pages to crash in IE8. I only added the Followers widget when I installed my new template, which is when it started crashing for people.

So, assuming that is the cause of the problem, I have removed the Followers widget. If you use IE8, please let me know if it is still crashing or if that solved the problem. Maybe when Blogger fixes the bug I'll put the Followers widget back.

Interesting Posts #43

1. There is an interesting discussion going on over at DovBear on a guest post by Hadassah Sabo Milner. The topic is a single mother having a child by sperm donation.

2. Mimi, at the Israeli Kitchen, walked through Jerusalem noting the ancient and the new.

3. Frozen Politics comments on how the Palestinian News Agency recently reported on the major car accident outside of Bet Shemesh.

4. At Shearim, Miriam Woelke discusses how Baalei Teshuva should accomplish fitting in to the society they are trying to integrate into, and should not think they know everything after just a short period of learning..

5. Food is always important to Jews, so welcome the Kosher Kook to the blogosphere, even though his first post is on eggplant....

6. Parshablog points out a Ran that argues on a midrash, which would render himself an apikores according to an earlier opinion of the Ran himself. interesting discussion to consider.

Interesting Psak from Rav Cherlow: Blind Dates

Rav Yuval Cherlow was asked if a blind man is allowed to touch his female date (touch/feel her face) to "see what she looks like".

Rav Cherlow responded that in this situation he is allowed to feel her face, and perhaps even obligated to. His reasoning, in brief is:

1. this touching has no sexual meaning. it is purely for the sake of "seeing" her. As such, it overrides the rabbinic prohibition of negiah.
2. Sometimes there are reasons to push away a prohibition, which is what a rav posek is for. For example, it is normally prohibited to look at a woman. But chazal allowed it for the purpose of seeing the woman you are considering marrying.
3. Perhaps he is obligated to, as chazal required a man to see his wife before marrying her, for "v'ahavta l'rei'acha kamocha". This is the only way the blind man can acocmplish this in this situation.
   
4. Halacha treats blind people differently. For example, turning a light on on shabbos for a blind woman giving birth is allowed, even though it does not help her see. but it calms her down. Even though this fellow cannot see his wife, knowing how she looks is still important to him.

Sounds a bit farfetched to me. Who can't think of all sorts of problems this would lead to.. such as where he touches (by "mistake" obviously), considering he can't see, along with people posing blind to take advantage of this and other problems...

Classic Israeli bureacracy at the Maccabiah

The Maccabiah used to be a fun event, on a small scale, where Jewish athletes could compete against each other. The Maccabiah was small, and interest in it could be found mostly among the non-native Israelis - all the people who have made aliyah finally got to see some of their favorite sports played in Israel. Israelis pretty much knew nothing about the Maccabiah.

This year the Israelis and the Maccabiah board did a tremendous job of marketing. they made it into a real large scale event, to the point that one could really consider it a small-scale Olympics, as it was originally intended to be. The Opening Ceremony was reminiscent of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies, the games are played to greater fanfare, the news is disseminated to the public, etc.

I even heard last night on the radio a broadcaster talking about how she, and the guy sitting talking with her concurred, had never before heard of the Maccabiah and had no idea what it was when they started to make the news regularly a short while ago. She called in a "Sports expert" to explain it all on the show. 10% of the country tuned in to watch the Opening Ceremony. The exposure the Maccabiah is experiencing is unprecedented.

All because of some smart marketing.

The funniest thing, especially considering how much effort they put in to marketing the Maccabiah this year and making it a success is an incident that happened yesterday.

This incident is classic Israeli bureaucracy - it seems there was a problem with Yarkon Field not having applied for a business license. Instead of helping to get it done, or letting the games be played and deal with it afterwards (leagues play there all year round for a few years already, including the short-lived Israel baseball League 2 years ago and the Israel Softball Association), the police raided the field in the middle of a softball game and put an end to play.

they raided the field as if they were raiding the meeting point of the biggest mafia dons in the country. The biggest problem the police have to deal with is an illegal softball game, putting everything they worked for to make the Maccabiah a success into jeopardy?

On Tuesday morning, just as the second inning of an Israel-Mexico contest was about to begin, members of the Petah Tikva Police suddenly turned up and put an immediate stop to the game, as well as canceling the remainder of the Maccabiah softball schedule until further notice.

Evidently, the police were enforcing a stoppage order issued by the Petah Tikva Municipality following a decision late Monday to deny the application for a business license for the Baptist Village.

While the tournament organizers were aware that the venue lacked the license, they were under the impression that it was just a matter of formality in processing the application and that the license, or at least a temporary respite to allow the games to go on as scheduled, would be issued.

"This is not a case where we did not prepare properly," Maccabiah public relations director Yaron Michaeli told The Jerusalem Post.

[...]

Ami Baran, executive director of the Israel Softball Association - and manager of the Israeli men's Maccabiah squad - said the situation could turn into a real debacle if the entire softball event is scrapped, especially with 10 teams from abroad having traveled to Israel specifically for the tournament, and the average foreign player paying in excess of $5,000 to participate.

"The real shame is that we've had four years to prepare for this, and it could all be ruined by a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense. It is doubly strange because the Baptist Village has hosted two previous Maccabiahs, plus [it] was one of the main venues for the Israel Baseball League in 2007 - all without requiring any sort of business license," he said. "I really hope this can get fixed before it is too late."

Hopefully that will get resolved quickly, and they can move on to play the games....

In better news, Israel is offering special packages to encourage athletes in the Maccabiah to make aliyah.

Picture of the Day (potd)

(credit: מבט)

Maccabiah observances #1

The Maccabiah USA baseball team must be pretty good. The other day they beat the Mexican team 29-5, and then went on yesterday to pound on the Israeli team and beat them 29-1...

The Maccabiah website, for all your sports results, updates, news and more....

another level of detachment

If you thought the gedolim were too disconnected from the people already, and controlled [to a certain extent] by askanim you will love the latest idea.

Kupat Ha'Ir, the lovely tzedaka organization from Bnei Brak that frequently is pushing segulahs on potential donors, along with creating hopes of salvation for the mere act of giving with the inability to live a normal life unless one gives to them, along with having images of gedolim supermodels dropping their dimes in the pushke as fundraisers, has come up with a great new fundraising idea.

The new idea is that instead of waiting in line at the rav's house - everybody knows how long the line is to get into Rav Kanievsky's room to ask a question - you can now (if they implement the idea) make a donation of 350NIS (minimum) to Kupat Ha'Ir, and they will ask the question for you. An answer is gauranteed within 48 hours.

I don't know how they will be able to give over all the details and nuances necessary to ask the question properly so the rav understands the question and the petitioner, but I guess that is not important.

So now the average Joe and the little connection he already has to the gedolim is going to be encouraged to give that up and go through more middlemen and askanim... Kol Hakavod!

Interesting Posts #42

1. Joe Settler, posting at the Muqata, calls for a retaliatory boycott of all Scotch Whiskeys produced in the UK. I have no problem with this, as I think bourbons are better drinks anyway than scotch whiskeys.

2. In an article appropriate for the "Three Weeks", Rabbi Ari Enkin discusses some of the customs of mourning and Zecher L'Churban.

3. New blog Tzedek-Tzedek describes some of the obligations you have to your household help.

4. A Simple Jew talks about accepting compliments..

5. Treppenwitz discusses the provocation of praying at holy sites, as per the four Breslavers who snuck into the grave of Yehoshua bin Nun last night and got attacked....

Jewish Sports (video)

In honor of the start of the Maccabiah Games yesterday....

Has Rav Elyashiv changed his position on the use of the Heter Mechira?

The Israel Lands Authority is preparing to reform its systems in an effort to free up lands for construction, and to make land development much cheaper for buyers. A major component of the land reform is privatizing a lot of land - instead of the continued use of the 99 year lease that has been in effect until now, land will be released and sold to private hands.

The plan has led to opposition by some people for various reasons. Some are concerned that just like prime real estate in the US has been bought up by foreign concerns, in Israel the same might happen. We might be witness to Arabs buying up large tracts of Israeli land, changing the dynamics of the State of Israel. Another concern, is that the Land of Israel is nobody's to sell to private hands, but belongs to all the Jewish people. Another concern, held by a number of prominent rabbonim, is that this is in direct opposition to the Torah statement that says the Land cannot be sold forever, as well as the prohibition of selling land - Lo T'chaneim.

According to this article on the Haredim news site, Arial Attias, the Minister for Housing and Construction who is leading the implementation of the reforms went to rav Ovadiah Yosef to get direction on the halachic issues, and Moshe Gafni went to Rav Elyashiv to get his direction. Both, after researching the issue, paskened, supposedly, that nowadays there is no problem with selling the land. They each said that today the land has no holiness today because we do not observe the Jubilee any longer. That gives the status of the holiness of Eretz Yisrael the same as the status of Chutz La'Aretz.

Far be it from me to argue on these great poskim, but I have hard time believing this was really what they said. Today the land has no kedusha? They argue on the accepted psak that the holiness was never voided? How can Rav Elyashiv possibly be so vehemently against keeping the heter mechira during the shmitta year, even as a b'dieved (for example, he paskened one must kasher pots that were used to cook heter mechira produce), if he also holds the land has no holiness and can be sold to whomever wants to buy it? One of the major reasons for opposing the land sale during shmitta is because of the prohibition of Lo T'chaneim, but now he is saying that there is no prohibition against selling land.

There were other reasons as well to oppose the heter mechira, such as the idea that the sellers really had no intention to treat the sale as a real sale. Perhaps the land reforms will render those oppositions meaningless as well, as now, if this goes through, land in Israel can and will be sold like anything else.

Rav Ovadiah is at least more consistent, if this is really what he holds. Rav Ovadiah paskened during shmitta that heter mechira is acceptable. So this is not in complete opposition to his other decisions as it is with Rav Elyashiv.

So either the article got it wrong, or the psak does not make much sense on the surface of it. At worst, next shmitta year I would expect Rav Elyashiv to be a major supporter of the use of the heter mechira.

(thanks to Jameel for pointing me to the article)

good luck charm for the Cleveland Cavaliers

Big HatTip to reader Lebron James (not that Lebron) for pointing me to this article. I was looking for this article a short while ago as verification to what I had read in an Israeli paper, but could not find the source at the time.

Former Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball star Anthony Parker has been re-signed by an NBA team. This time the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Parker selected to wear the number 18 on his jersey, after his experience playing ball in Israel. In Parker's own words, the reason for choosing that number:

I went over there obviously with the intention of trying to get back to the NBA as soon as possible," Parker said. "But once I got over there, it was a great experience. I had great support in Israel and it really gave me the opportunity to develop as a player."

Parker will wear No. 18 with Cleveland out of respect to his time in Israel, where 18 is a symbol associated with life and success in the Jewish faith.

Maybe Parker and his good luck charm jersey will be the final link that will take the Cavs to the finals...

Interesting Posts #41

1. Lost in Kollel talks about learning during vacation, and how it indicates a kollel guys real attitude toward learning.

2. Rabbi Landesman writes a piece for Cross-Currents about a group who have basically taken the ultra-orthodox world hostage and is forcing their hashkafas on the community.

3. Coffee and Chemo says there are two types of people in the world....

4. Going Home to Yerushalayim talks about a quote from Rav Elya Svei ztl that this year should be the year of Mashiach.

5. I really like the Go Visit Israel site, and the more I look at it the more interesting things I find there. There is also a blog on the site where people can write about the interesting things they have done or places they have gone, and you cab get ideas for your trips...

Jerusalem or Yerushalayim

Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz has grandiose plans to Hebraize the road signs across Israel, creating a standard for the spellings of city names. (source: Ynet)

it can get confusing as you drive and notice that each sign directing you to a city might have the name of the city spelled differently. Sometimes it is no big deal, but other times it can cause you to be unsure of whether or not you are going in the right direction.

By Hebraizing the spellings, as long as he remains consistent in the spelling, it will solve all those problems. Even with Hebraizing the names, if he would just establish a standard it would also solve the problem. But Hebraizing at the same time is killing two birds with one stone. There is no reason the State of Israel needs to remain with the same crazy spellings from the days of the Turkish rule and British rule. It is about time Israel put its footprint on the roads.

True, it might cause some havoc for an interim period. All the GPS units, along with maps, will need to be updated, along with possible general confusion. But in the long run I think it is a great idea.

Quote of the Day (qotd)

The proposed law is not directed at Shaul Mofaz. I do not know who will break off and who will not. We want to establish norms. This rule would apply to everyone. It is appropriate that MKs should stay in their own parties and not receive prizes for abandoning it. If we want to return trust to the public in politics, one should act responsibly.

---------MK Shlomo Mula (Kadima)

This is regarding a proposed law to counter the proposed "Mofaz law" allowing lower numbers of MKs to split from a party. The proposed law would disallow an MK who split from a party from becoming a minister immediately.

Funny that an MK in Kadima is saying that MKs who abandon their original party should not be allowed to become ministers.

Anna Kournikova is NOT Jewish

I don't know if there is any significance to this (don't know why there would be), and I had not previously heard rumors that she was, but Anna Kournikova, former Russian tennis star, has stated clearly that she is not Jewish.

The Washington Times reports that a photographer said "Mazel tov" to Kournikova, after she supposedly got engaged. Kournikova responded immediately that she is not Jewish and pointed out that she is wearing a cross.

When freelance photographer Carrie Devorah congratulated Miss Kournikova with the common Hebrew/Yiddish expression "mazel tov," the Russian beauty asked what that meant. When the photog explained it means congratulations and good luck, Miss K, according to Ms. Devorah, snapped, "I am not Jewish - can't you see my cross?"

When apprised of the tennis player's retort, a worried-looking Mark Ein, owner of the Kastles, declined to comment, saying he hadn't heard the reported exchange.

I guess her name has to be removed from the shidduch lists... (both because she is now engaged and because she is not Jewish).

Israelis harvesting alternative energy source

Israeli scientists have been studying the possiblility of harvesting energy from the cars driving on roads, and using that harvested energy instead of fossil fuels.

I will be surprised if it will not be too expensive to implement:

Making his dream come true are hundreds of rugged metallic crystals. When put under pressure they generate electricity.

Use of fossil fuels could be ending

So lined up in special pads buried under the tarmac, they create power. It is called 'piezo' electricity. It has been around a while, but never used like this before.

One truck can generate 2,000 volts, but to create useful electricity you need a lot of amps too and that requires many pads over hundreds of metres and a high percentage of traffic, preferably moving quickly.

The team is pioneering the idea on a 30 metre strip of highway near Tel Aviv.

It could be used to power traffic lights or street lamps already, but with sufficient progress the technology may one day generate enough electricity to send power to the national grid.

but hopefully it will be reasonable and can be implemented.

Those genius Israeli minds are at it again!

new segulah for a shidduch

Rav Dovid Batzri, one of the great kabbalists of the day (however they are measured), has let us in on a the secret of a new segulah.

If a girl wants to get married, what she should do, Rav Batzri is quoted as saying, is go out on the first date with a guy and make a commitment that she will have 12 children.

My questions:
1. Why limit it to 12?
2. What happens if she does not want to marry that guy - and she dates a second guy and makes another commitment - does she have to have 24 children?

There are other interesting quotes in the article, so go read the whole thing....

Interesting Posts #40

1. How to be Israeli is hosting Haveil Havalim #224 - the Welcome New Israelis edition..

2. Open minded Torah discusses his choice to give his teenage son access to the Internet, but uses a filter.

3. The Hurwitzs have an aliyah anniversary, and post a bunch of "Only in Israel" stories - always interesting to read these...

4. Moving On Up found a new g'mach. Sometimes I think the word is abused, but I like this one!

5. Michael Sedley weighs in on the Shabbos demonstrations...

6. Lulei Demistafina offers a different perspective on the Shabbos demonstrations...

7. Jameel posts about a Facebook group calling for a ban of Cellcom because of an ad they consider racist. I don't see what they say in the ad.

Bet Shemesh tragedy

Everyone has already heard of the tragic car accident on the Highway 38 outside of Bet Shemesh on Friday just before shabbos.

The driver, supposedly at fault, was a 20 year old guy. I am told he is the son of the guy who owns the watermelon stand in Bet Shemesh (the watermelon stand) at the corner before Migdal HaMayim.

My thoughts:

1. How the heck does a guy who sells watermelon for a living afford to buy his 20 year old son a brand new BMW??? I am definitely in the wrong line of work!

2. We drove by the scene of the accident this morning on the way to the train. There was not even the slightest sign that anything had happened. No sign of any accident. They cleaned it all up right away. Amazing that something so tragic can happen and just a short while later one can go to the same place and he would never even know about it...

The "Jewish Jail"

Bernie Madoff requested to be incarcerated in Otisville Correctional Institute, which is known as the "Jewish jail" because of the high number of Jews incarcerated there.

Madoff's request was denied, because of the length of his sentence, that facility is not deemed high enough security for him.

I am simply embarrassed by the fact that there is a jail known as the "Jewish jail". Aren't you?

A Time for Change

As you can see, I changed my template. There are still things that need adjusting, so be patient.

Overall, I like the new look. Hopefully I'll get all the tweaks finalized in the next few days.

if you have any issues, complaints, requests, put 'em in the comments and I'll see how I can improve it more...

Most Palestinians have Jewish background? (video)

they keep doing it anyway

Today a 36 year old mother of 7 in the Haredi city of Elad passed away suddenly from (semeingly) heart failure. Baruch Dayan Ha'Emes.

The authorities (i.e. police) wanted to perform an autopsy. That led to the local residents going out to protest by the thousands.

I don't understand why this fight has to go on every single time there is a sudden and unexpected death (is any death not sudden or is any death expected?) in the haredi community. The authorities already know that they never do the autopsy because the haredim prevent it due to halachic restrictions, and the attempt just brings them out en masse to protest. In the end, every time, the authorities give in and release the body.

So why do they bother even trying? In the beginning, I understand. Maybe they did not know yet, maybe it was not every time. etc. But nowadays, it happens every time, and they go through the same dance - they take the body for an autopsy, the locals and others protest, the authorities agree and release the body.

So why bother? Why fight do they about it and attempt to autopsy the body when the conclusion is already known in advance?