We learned in daf yomi last night about a conversation between R’ Yehuda and Eliyahu Hanavi. The topic under discussion is that it was common to stay up all night chanting the Torah so as to keep the Kohen Gadol awake, and they would find other innovative methods as well to keep the Kohen awake. I do not remember the exact discussion, but R’ Yehuda said in Neharda’a (a town in Babylonia that was a bastion of Babylonian Jewry) they would also stay up all night learning Torah, despite the fact that as a result it would cause in inappropriate mix of guys and girls hanging out together which would lead to inappropriate sexual relations (no kidding, it really says that is what would happen!).

We like to harp on our generation (or our kids generation) about how bad things have gotten and how we have to make sure there is no contact between the sexes, no contact between people of different types, our kids can’t be in contact with kids from other schools even, because of the bad influence that might affect them and result in sin. We complain how things have gotten so much worse than they used to be.

“Olam K’Minhago Nohaig” – The world revolves on its axis. What goes around comes around. The world goes according to its customs. There is nothing new under the sun.

We are not that bad. People do things that are inappropriate, just like they always did and always will do. People are just human beings and nobody is infallible. That is the way of the world. But we are no worse than other previous generations. Look what they did – on Yom Kippur night they stayed up learning Torah all night, and it led to immoral sex. On Yom Kippur! Yet, they would not cancel the idea of staying up learning just because it led to such behavior.

We are sending our kids to swimming lessons again this summer. The place we send to requires every group of kids to have a parental escort in the group. The manager splits the various parents into a rotation and everybody has to go once. One of the side benefits of this is that the escorting parent gets to go swimming, at least for part of the time he is there.

Yesterday it was my turn to go with one of my boys. As well, one of my other boys was there with a different group finishing up when we got there. So I got to see how my kids have progressed in their swimming skills. While they are not yet Olympians, it was amazing to see how they are actually swimming now, whereas last year they would only swimming along the wall holding on. Now they are sitting under the water holding their breath and actually swimming..

Also, we had a lot of fun swimming together. I swam with one of them on my back and the other was showing off his new skills. It was a nice evening.

After my son finished his lesson there was a group of about 8 Chissidishe men about 20 years old (or so) who came in for their lessons. They were just beginners and were even afraid to put their faces under the water. It was interesting to watch for a few minutes. The kids were laughing that they are so big and afraid to go in the water. I told them that it is much harder for them because they were starting much later and older and kol hakavod that they are trying despite the extra effort it would require of them.

The kids have matured a lot from the last time I went with them (last year) and seemed to understand what I was saying. After that they were very impressed with these older guys trying to learn to swim..

I was waiting to post anything about the events that happened yesterday. I wanted to see how our government would react before I started throwing blame around. I wanted to give the government a chance to make good by its citizens and soldiers. After all, an incident can happen in any country in the world. The question and the test is how the government reacts and takes precautions against it happening again.

Now that I see how our government has reacted, at least initially, I have allowed myself the pleasure of venting further against this ineffective and unqualified government.

The incident is clearly extremely serious. We cleared ourselves out of the Gaza strip about 10 months ago. There were many calls from bold and courageous individuals in the defense establishment at the time to call it off, or to reconsider, to slow it down, etc. Anything to re-work the details of the disengagement. Sharon had never explained to the public in detail his plan and his plan for the future. All he would say when responding to questions about the future post-disengagement safety of Southern Israel was that any incident coming out of Gaza would draw a swift and powerful response. His claim was that now that we would be out of the disputed area, we would always be able to claim the moral high ground and if anything should happen, we would have the right and clear conscience to strike back a powerful blow.

The sad fact is that we left the Gaza area and have suffered many attacks on our sovereign land. We have never responded with the swift and powerful blow that we threatened to use. We have hardly even responded with the weak and ineffective blows, such as shooting “pagazim” into empty fields. We have suffered hundreds of Kassam rocket attacks among other attacks. Now we have suffered a kidnapping and attack on our soldiers. Yet we have still not seen any response, let alone a swift and powerful blow.

In essence the latest attack is not really worse (in the sense of the level of attack against our country) than any of the Kassams we have been attacked with. They are both full attacks on Israeli sovereignty. Yet it is more horrific. The thought of Gilad being held captive by these animals, undergoing who knows what kinds of torture is frightening.

Clearly it is the result of the government policy of restraint in the face of attack. While the Arabs from Gaza have been intent on raising the level of escalation and conflict, Israel constantly refuses to respond. Our government is always worried about the reactions of the world, and never enough about the safety of its own citizens.

No matter what we do, we will always be condemned. Did anybody condemn the Palestinians when they rained all those rockets down on the heads of the residents of Sderot and the surrounding areas? We get condemned for what we do, yet get no credit for our restraint. We always hear that our restraint will give us more acceptance later. We have been showing much restraint for many years. We have refrained from reacting to suicide bombers, rockets, and various other attacks all to the tune of restraint. Yet whenever we might try to cash in on some of that moral high ground, we are condemned as if we never showed any of that good ol’ restraint.

Systematically the Arabs have put us into a situation where we would be vulnerable. We don’t control the arms flow into Gaza. We even supplied them with thousands of weapons. We showed our weakness in not being able to respond effectively, and now we responded with total confusion at the latest events. All we hear are the same threats we have been hearing for months and years. The government should have reacted right away and sent in troops when it was still fresh and confusion reigned.

But they did not. Instead, everybody is busy in the practice of CYA and trying to explain why the other guy was at fault for not predicting and being ready for such an incident. Shimon Peres just said last week, “Kassams, Shmassams” – he belittled the whole concept of our being attacked as something insignificant. Well, Shimon, those kassams shmassems led to this. And our inexperienced and ineffective government had no and has no idea how to respond. Their actions indicate they are waiting for someone else to come in and force them to apologize and give back Gilad, the captured soldier.

No matter what we do, we will always be condemned. Do the right thing, because in the eyes of the world we are evil and wrong no matter what we do. The ineffective and inexperienced politicians who allowed this to happen, and by lack of any meaningful response are setting the stages for future incidents with greater escalations, are at fault for this and should resign or be forced out.

Itamar Ben-Gvir is considered a well known right wing activist. He has been in prison numerous times for various illegal activities, generally associated with incitement against the government. Some say he is really a shabak plant meant to infiltrate extreme right wing organizations and get close to extremists and pass that info on to the Shabak.

Ben-Gvir filed a lawsuit against two policemen for allegedly threatening his dog at gunpoint with a loaded weapon after the dog barked at them..

Check out the story here, but briefly, Ben-Gvir won the lawsuit. He plans to treat his dog to some nice doggy treats. He is also planning to appeal the decision. He feels the 1000 NIS he was awarded is not enough and feels he can win more upon appeal..

Yesterday, Kadima signed an agreement with the Conservative movement to create a joint faction in the World Zionist Organization. I have no problem with that. That is what politics is all about. Power and money. They have joined forces to create the largest faction in WZO. That means they will control votes (power) and budgets (money). Kadima, led by Olmert, has shown itself to be a very savvy and powerful party. They know how to pull the strings and make people go along with them. I think Olmert will be stronger as a PM than Sharon was and would have continued to be. True, Olmert is not as popular as Sharon and lost much popular support that Sharon had, but I think Olmert is savvy enough and has shown that he knows everybody’s price and how to get them to tow his line.

I have two issues with the event. First of all, Ehud Olmert called the Conservative movement, in a letter sent to the factions last week, “the middle path that Maimonides praised, the 'golden path' of tradition that distances itself from extremism and all of its characteristics and prefers the path that is unified with tradition, belief and Jewish heritage." If Olmert has reasons to like the Conservative movement, beyond political expediency, I have no problem with that. He can affiliate himself with whomever he feels comfortable or with whoever provides him the best opportunity.

However, saying the path of the Conservative movement is the golden path of tradition and associating it with the Maimonides method, is wrong. Praise it for its pluralistic style, if you so please. Don’t call it what it is not. The Rambam must be rolling in his grave over that phrase. The Rambam was ultra-Orthodox (there was nothing else at the time – reform and Conservative are relatively new on the scene, back then there was (what we call now) orthodox and not religious, along with various small sects such as Shomronim and others who were always negligible) and unwavering in his stance in mitzva observance.

Olmert’s description of the Maimonides being the middle path and the “golden path” of tradition is clearly a bastardization of what the Rambam writes in his works entitled, “The Eight Chapters” (Shmone Prakim La’Rambam) and in other philosophical works. He writes that in all character traits, it is the middle path that is the golden path, and a person should always strive to be in the middle. He discusses with this the various traits, such as anger, humility, charity, etc. and explains how to achieve the middle path and to avoid being extreme.

I am not now defending Orthodoxy and saying they are the middle path. Nor am I criticizing Conservative saying they are evil. That is not my point. My point is to call a spade a spade. The Conservative movement is not what the Rambam meant to as a middle ground. By middle ground he did not mean, what is in between Reform and Orthodox. He meant within the realm of mitzva observance the character traits of a person should be developed in the middle and not to the extreme.

My second issue with the agreement, and maybe it deserves a separate post, rather than included here, but I don’t feel like separating it and it is my blog so I can do what I want, is peripheral. Nothing to do with the agreement itself, I am going to take the opportunity to extend the debate to the Orthodox parties in government.

Shas is part of the coalition led by Olmert. UTJ is desperately doing everything it can to negotiate for itself a way into the government coalition. Shas ignored issues it used in the campaign and joined anyway to get funding for its school system. Olmert had insisted that any coalition partner agree in advance to support his future disengagements. Shas negotiated for itself from a position of strength (because Olmert could not have had a majority without them) to not necessarily be agreeing to disengagements. They had used their previous votes against the disengagement in their campaign as a way of attracting right wing voters who were disillusioned with Likud and Mafdal for their support of the disengagement (Mafdal only pulled out very late in the game and allowed Sharon’s government to survive when it might have fallen in early stages of planning the disengagement). Shas gives the excuse that in no way is the future disengagement definite, etc. Yet Olmert is spending all his time and energy drumming up support for it and despite the promises that he will try to negotiate first and only disengage if he sees he has no partner, he is not trying in any way to negotiate or to create a situation in which negotiations will happen in good faith.

So it is clear Olmert is hell bent on disengaging (or whatever he is calling it today) and Shas is turning a blind eye to the reality of what Olmert is trying to accomplish. Olmert has even been quoted as saying that the disengagement is happening and there is no way to stop it. True, maybe it could be voted down when it comes to a vote, but by allowing Olmert the platform to push it, in the media and around the world to foreign governments, Shas is complicit in creating the atmosphere that will allow the disengagement to happen. If Shas was a disengagement supporter I would have no problem with that. My problem is that Shas claimed to be against the disengagement and still claim to be against it, yet allow the disengagement train to continue rumbling on so they can collect some extra funding. Now they are abandoning another “belief” and ideology to continue sitting in government.

Shas and UTJ representatives have refused to sit with Conservative and Reform rabbis in all forums of government until now. They always claim the moral high ground saying that if they sit with them it gives them legitimacy. Yet Shas is now sitting in government with Kadima, who is essentially aligning himself with the Conservative movement. UTJ is trying to sit in government with them. All for a little money (it is not even that much when you look at the details of the agreements).

Where are the ideals these parties claim to represent? Where are the ideals these parties have always stood for in the past? True, Kadima said in the elections that they are a party with no ideology, but did somehow that force the religious parties to devolve themselves of their ideologies as well? These parties should immediately announce that they will not sit in government with representatives of the Conservative movement, and stay true to their constituents and ideologies. If you think that is a wrong ideology, don’t vote UTJ or Shas, but their constituents do believe in that, and they should stay true to their ideologies.

PM Olmert and FM Hirschson have decided to sign off on lowering the V.A.T. Tax from 16.5% to 15.5% right away. No need for haggling with other ministers and no need for voting. They just did it.

I am all for doing anything that lowers my bill at the supermarket. I will now save money when I buy anything, right? I hope so, but I am not optimistic. I am waiting to actually see the prices go down before I get too excited. Stores and service providers have the uncanny ability to raise prices when necessary, yet we rarely see them lowering prices.

For example, in my city of Bet Shemesh there is a very useful road that had been opened connecting RBS to Gush Etzion and the other side to the main entrance to the city through the Industrial Zone. The road was beneficial to RBS residents in that we no longer had to use the circuitous main highway #38 with all its traffic jams, but could drive on a nice, new, wide road and get to the entrance to the city faster, along with the train station and other locations on that side of town. A taxi to RBS from the train station cost 20 NIS. Lo and Behold the city had to close the road for reasons unknown for an undisclosed amount of time. The taxi companies got together and raised the price of a ride to RBS. It is now 25 NIS. They claim it is necessary because they have a longer drive now because they have to take the 38 road. OK, I guess that is reasonable. Sure enough, eventually the new road was re-opened for traffic. Yet the price of the taxi ride remains at 25 NIS. When confronted the taxi drivers are very blunt and straightforward that prices never come down so fast.

So, will the prices in the supermarket come down now that taxes have been lowered or will the supermarkets owners (and all other stores and service providers) pocket the extra 1% as additional profit? We will soon see. It goes into effect July 1.

I brought my baby sister to the airport last night to see her off. She has completed her year in Israel and is now on her way back to the USA to start college and whatever else she will be doing.

She had a good year in Israel. I am a bit envious of her. She went on a program with none of her friends from back home. Her friends who came to Israel went to the standard seminary and yeshivot programs. While they experienced Israel to a certain extent and probably grew in their textual learning of Judaism and Tanach and other Judaic studies, they could have done the same back home in seminary in Chicago or New York or wherever they come from. Many of them hardly experience Israel. They are in school in a protected environment. For understandable reasons they are often not let out on their own. They only go away for shabbos occasionally to anybody other than immediate relatives. Often they are set up in pre-selected places that only allow them a very specific and limiting view of religious Judaism. When they go away as a group, they go to specific places that allow them to see a very limited view of Israel and Judaism. Basically they gain little from actually being in Israel.

True, I would not tell them not to come. Some do develop the love for Israel on their own. Some do go out on there own and see and experience Israel, and not just what the seminary wants them to see. Some grow not just in the book sense that can be done anywhere in the world, but also in the life experience sense. They are more adventurous and figure out how to get around and go back to America with a heightened sense of self and their position in the Jewish world and how to relate to Israel. However, the majority of the young men and women who come to study for the year in the yeshiva/seminary system do not experience this. The vast majority spend the year as I described above. A lot of classes that could be taken in a classroom anywhere in the world and limited and controlled experiences exposing them to a very select set of views.

My sister had the good fortune of ending up in an unusual program. It was not her first choice and I do not think she even knew about it originally, but that is where she ended up. The program was run by Bnei Akiva. Despite the fact that Bnei Akiva programs have been losing popularity among the American students and some of their programs have not been run well in recent years, this program, ,which was really more geared for Europeans, was very successful. The kids spent time on a religious kibbutz working. They worked in a development town with underprivileged kids. They spent time in the army and in Magen David Adom. They spent time traveling around the country on tiyulim. They spent shabbos in Mea Shearim for a different viewpoint. They experienced Israel in a way that most kids from America do not. They developed themselves as adults and people, not just as students in a rigid system.

I am envious because she experienced Israel in a way I never got to. Yes, I was one of those more adventurous types. I volunteered in Mishmar Ezrachi when I was in yeshiva and I traveled the country on tiyulim. Yes, I went around the country to people for shabbos and made my own arrangements. Yes, I worked on a kibbutz for part of one of my vacations from yeshiva. Yet, I see from my sister that doing all of that in an organized way can really enhance your experience. It is a shame that more programs like that do not exist and it is a shame that American students come to Israel for the year and do not really experience Israel.

Ynet is reporting that the Chevra Kadisha of Tel Aviv is offering a new service. A person being buried can have his funeral broadcast via the Internet. That will allow people who are unable to attend to still watch and sort of participate in the funeral.

Now nobody has to see you cry at the funeral. You can sit at home and cry in the privacy of your computer room!

I apologize to all my readers. I tried to post a number of times yesterday, but every time I did, Blogger crashed and I lost the post.

I am trying something new right now. I am posting from Word 2007 Beta edition. Microsoft put a new feature into Word and that is you can publish to a blog directly from Word. It could be a great feature, if it works well. Blogger has been very unreliable the past week and I have lost a number of posts. At least with Word, even if Blogger does not take the post and crashes, I can continue to save the post in Word and re-publish it at a later time when Blogger is ok.

Here goes. My first attempt at posting from Word!!