During the progression of the Big Brother show, many residents of Bet Shemesh were tracking Kuti Sabag's progress. There were viewing parties, and signs of encouragement and support. Now that Sabag won, the City of Bet Shemesh has made a party to celebrate his success. A party was thrown in the ampitheater that rocked until the wee hours of the morning, with Mayor Moshe Abutbol and Deputy Mayor Meier Balaish participating.

Being that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, some people were upset, for different reasons.

Some were upset questioning why the city had to spend money on such a party. Big Brother seems to be generally considered a low quality type of entertainment, and doesn't Bet Shemesh have better things to spend its money on. That along with why should the City make a party for a private citizens success.

Others were upset for the opposite reasons - this is what a haredi mayor is involved in?

Mayor Abutbol celebrating Kuti's victory

To the first I say that people are often not happy with things any city spends its money on. My values are not the same as my neighbors values, and while he thinks more money should be spent on, for example, community centers and less on, for example, concerts and jugglers over the holiday, my other neighbor with kids and teens thinks its more important for the city to keep the kids entertained on their vacation and spend money on jugglers and performers and less on street cleaning, while a third neighbor says the city should spend all its money only on building yeshivot and shuls, and a fourth says only yeshivat hesder and street cleaning while everything else is a waste, and a fifth says money should only be distributed to help the poor get through the holidays.

The city, any city, has diverse populations with diverse needs. Just because you don't think spending on any specific item is important, you must recognize that other people find that more important than what you consider important.

And especially in bet Shemesh we should be happy that the old-timers have what to be proud of and celebrate the city, as I understand this Kuti guy made a big deal about being from Bet Shemesh. For a while now all they have had are complaints. It is good for them to enjoy as well.

From the other perspective, is this what a haredi mayor has to get involved in? Yes. I see nothing wrong with it. There is a large population that is happy for their guy who became a celebrity and won a big prize. To them that is important, and there is nothing wrong with the mayor recognizing that and participating in the celebrations.

Interestingly, Kikar spoke to Moshe Abutbol about his participation in the celebration. This is what Abutbol had to say "As mayor, I must be the mayor of everybody. I also go to Yom HaAtzmaut celebrations and need to realize that you cannot just ignore a certain slice of the city, in this instance the slice of youth.... The party was not for the haredi public, but from my perspective I also must respect the other populations. I wish Kuti success and that he should open up a new and happy future, now he has the means to consider new things. I am in good contact with his parents and in the coming days I will meet with Kuti. Kuti and I both came from "amcha" (among the people) and I definitely identify with him. I will tell you more that that - there is an avreich that is in good contact with me and he told me that he hangs and learns with Kuti and Kuti goes often to daven. I would not be surprised in Kuti does teshuva and becomes an avreich."

I don't know why he has to have an agenda and jump so far ahead and talk about Kuti possibly becoming frum and not just frum but sitting in kollel.. Just be happy for the guy. Celebrate now and move on.

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