The latest of the pashkevilim news in Bet Shemesh is a pashkevil against delivery of free newspapers to your mailbox.It never ceases to amaze me, and boggle the mind, the level of involvement and authority the rabbonim have, in the haredi community, in the daily and mundane lives of the average guy in the community.
I mean, who gives a hoot if the paper is delivered to the mailbox or to the makolet and you have to go pick it up We are not talking about Maariv and Yediot, which I could understand their concern if such papers were the issue, but the pashkevil is about Haredi newspapers. I have no idea what is wrong with any of these newspapers, that delivering them to the house directly is considered "causing the public to sin".
Until now, Hashavua could not be delivered to the house, but could only be distributed at certain points, such as the shopping area, the makolet, etc. Now, this new edict, will affect the longtime haredi local newspaper "Chadash" as well.
While this might save them some distribution costs, it might bring down readership as well, and hurt their advertising collections. Advertising in Chadash makes up about 99% of the newspaper, and some weeks it is even hard to find articles hidden between all the advertisements! If people get the paper in their mailbox, they or their kids might bring it in and read it, but they won't necessarily go out of their way on a weekly basis to go get one from a distribution point.
When I first saw the issue raised, I wondered if this would also affect the weekly free edition of Yated Neeman, or if this would only be enforced with local newspapers. Then I saw reported on Bechadrei that Yated is in a big quandary about what to do, as not only does Rav Kupshitz plan to include Yated in his ban of delivery, but he also singled them out as a particularly bad newspaper and as one that should not be allowed into any house, as it is has articles that no ben-torah should ever be exposed to. Funny -I agree with Rav Kupshitz about Yated being particularly bad, but probably for opposite reasons...
As you can see in the pashkevil, it also warns the weekly "ad books" that come out to not publish ads that are not within "the spirit of the community", whatever that means....
there was some issue with the ad books that the charedi community tried to pressure them to not take non-charedi ads - for example shaalei Torah couldn't advertise their resigtration night.
ReplyDeletethere is actually a problem with these things coming into your mailbox if your kids read them! we tune out all this yucky political stuff, or put it in some general context - the kids just come out taking sides and expressing sinat chinam toward the other.
2 points:
ReplyDelete1) great! one thing less to schlep to the recycle receptacle.
2) I wonder if they were also concerned that when datiim would read the papers (about issues like plot 420, rbs-gimmel, mikva issues, etc) they would get riled up and make a tummult in the iriyah. that would work against the interests of the gedolei hador, shlita. (most datiim would not go out of their way to pick up these papers - they only read them because they are there).
I agree (in a way) to the ban, but for another reason. sometimes there is divrei torah in them and then they get thrown out.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone pay attention to this stuff? How far will the leaders have to go before people start ignoring everything they say?
ReplyDeleteThose guys are power-hungry megalomaniacs. The sooner you eliminate them from your lives, the better off you will be. Ignoring them isn't sufficient because it still allows them to retain a sense of power (even if only imagined).
ReplyDeleteEvery week there is something else to ban; maybe they will sensitize Israelis to a cleaner lifestyle.
ReplyDelete(not G)
ReplyDeleteFree delivery to the door of Hadash in non-Haredi neighborhoods like Sheinfeld is definitely a big aveira for all the trees that get destroyed for no other reason than to boost advertising revenues. Certainly nobody reads it and it goes straight into the recycling. I take a whole heap there myself every Friday.
I don't get it! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Chadash their own voicepiece in BS/RBS? You would think they'd be happy that every home in the city was subjected to everyone's favorite Rav waxing lyrical each week ( my personal favorite article was his recent rant on how forbidden it is to create machlokes-ironic...no?)Also remember the cute things you can do with a wonder sponge, and the Pulitzer prize winning article on why traffic circles in secular neighborhoods have nicer decorations than those in Haredi neighborhoods. I thought they produced Chadash, so why are they banning it? I'll be really upset, since we use it to line our hamster cage each week.
ReplyDeletebest headline yet!
ReplyDeleteWhat do the roshei teivos after beit shemesh stand for?
ReplyDeletehttp://somehowfrum.blogspot.com/2010/05/personal-placards.html
ReplyDeleteSee above link
Menashe,
ReplyDeleteIt should be:
Chadash R.B.S ( as opposed to the fake kind)
if you got the Chadash today in your mailbox, you have gotten your answer. The goal is to protect their own crazy newspaper, and stop the competition.
ReplyDeletesorry Rafi,
ReplyDeleteyou are wrong.
they actually managed to save their paper from the threat of becoming assur.
the real story behinf these things are never what they seem, and without knowledge from the parties invoved, nothing makes sense.
the chadash themselves were not involved at all in the letter that came out - in fact the letter was actually aimed at the chadash (with nothing to do with the yated)
I didnt say any specific paper was targeted. After the fact, supposedly (according to a report in Bechadrei) Rav Kupshitz singled out Yated as being particularly bad. Thats all I said.
ReplyDeleteThe result of the issur would affect Chadash the worst. That is also what I said, more or less.
If you have more information, please let us know.
All I know is there was an issur declared and then the main local haredi paper was excluded from the issur.
i think RNK is on Rafi's payroll to help find wierd and kooky stories to write about.
ReplyDelete