Litzman fluoridates the water to the chagrin of Yael Gherman

Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has made the decision to fluoridate the water, as was done until recently. Yael Gherman, the previous Minister of Health, stopped the fluoridation, claiming medicine should not be forced on people, as well as possible links between fluoridized water and health issues.

I'm no expert on the various studies, but when I grew up it was generally considered to be healthy to have fluoride in the water. I know some people claim links to cancer or other issues, but my impression, formulated obviously by what I heard growing up, is that fluoride is a positive thing. it is also the basic recommendation of the Ministry of Health.

I am fine with bringing back fluoridation, and in my opinion it is probably a good thing.

The only thing I find funny about this is, like many other law changes we saw negotiated in the recent coalition negotiations, the ease by which laws can be made and then changed. One year the government wants one thing, they make a law. Next year they want the opposite, change the law.

There is no stability, no continuity. Whoever happens to be in charge gets to change the law or policy to whatever he or she wants. Gherman got to change it when she was in power, and now Litzman gets to change it as he is in power. And it is the same in all the other offices in government.

Seems like a silly system to me.

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new RBS protests against work on shmitta

When RBS was a new neighborhood, there were fairly regular protests against various things in the neighborhood - schools, shuls, concerts, groups, whatever - you name it, a group of local swould protest it, often with a shofar in hand.

It has bene a very long time since I remember seeing such a local protest - one in which some local rabbonim got a bunch of local avreichim together and went out and said tehillim (and/or blew shofar) outside the target of their protest.

Today there was such a group on the corner of Ayalon-Kishon, where the construction is taking place. After that they went across the street to the Iryah's engineering offices and said some tehillim there as well and registered their protest.

I asked somebody what was being protested. I was told that they along that corner they are laying sand and dirt and eventually grass and trees, but are not following the laws of shmitta. They are ignoring possible allowed methods for doing this during shmitta, and are simply doing it the normal way. Also, supposedly there are other areas around that are planned to have similar work done, and allowing it to continue at this location as it is now will mean the same transgressions will happen in the other areas as well.

This was particularly surprising. Considering that the mayor of Bet Shemesh is a Haredi fellow, and he has a majority in city council that is Haredi, I don't understand why they cannot just send their askanim and contacts to the mayor and other city council members and insist that the work be done properly. And if they did that, why are they not being listened to? I would assume the city has some say and can register some official protest, even if it is Misrad Hashikun doing the work.

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Picture of the Day

from the recent bris of Shimon Chaim, the first child of Haya Shachar and her husband, Shmuel. They have been married for 46 years and both are in their mid-60s!

One cannot help but marvel at the miracle of modern medicine that made this possible, whether or not you think it is a good idea (personally I see nothing wrong with it).

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The Jewish (owned) Pharoah that might take it all

Horse Racing is not a sport that normally interests me much, but when a horse is on the verge of the elusive Triple Crown, ones interest gets piqued.. and of course if that horse is owned by Orthodox Jews, as American Pharoah is, it gets piqued a bit more...

From The Jewish Standard:

It took American Pharoah barely more than two minutes and two seconds to win the 2015 Kentucky Derby.For Joanne Zayat of Teaneck, whose husband, Ahmed, owns American Pharoah (and yes, that is how it is spelled), those two minutes and barely more than two seconds stretched out and then blurred and bore little relation to regular time as it usually passes.There she was — really, there they were, Ahmed and Joanne Zayat, their four children — all Orthodox Jews — and a small crowd of friends and relatives, in one of the owners’ boxes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, on a glorious flowering spring Shabbat, watching as their horse won America’s most iconic horse race.How did they get there?It’s an unusual story.Although most Jews in Egypt left the country in the 1950s — when its ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser, made it clear that their lives were likely to be longer, healthier, and happier were they to live them elsewhere — “some affluent Jews stayed, for various reasons,” Joanne Zayat said. That group included Ahmed Zayat’s family.Mr. Zayat, born in 1962, grew up in Maadi in suburban Cairo. “It was a very mixed neighborhood, with a lot of ex-pats,” Ms. Zayat said. “It looked a lot like here.” To foreshadow a bit — among his pastimes was riding horses at his country club.When he was 18, Mr. Zayat came to the United States; he went to Harvard, graduated from Yeshiva University, and then earned a joint master’s degree with Harvard and Boston University. A natural entrepreneur, he worked in a number of fields. Among his companies was Al Ahram Beverages, which eventually he sold to Heineken. He did very well.

Ahmed Zayat and jockey Victor Espinosa celebrate.

About 10 years ago, Mr. Zayat retired — or so he said. “He decided he needed to stop traveling,” his wife said. “He wanted to be home with my kids.“But everyone who knows my husband knows that he can’t be retired for more than 15 seconds. So he decided to take his passion and turn it into a business.”What did he love? Horses!“There is a phrase — if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life,” Ms. Zayat said.“So he decided to go into the horse business.”Because her husband is a “very zero-to-180 kind of person, he is either not in it or in it to win it,” she said. “So he decided he would go buy some horses.”Mr. Zayat decided that he would go into the thoroughbred part of the horse business. “When he needs to know something, he becomes engulfed in research,” Ms. Zayat said. “So he learned about it.”When he began, nine years ago, “he knew a little about horses, but not enough to say at that point, ‘I am a horse maven,’” she continued. “So he started learning about the industry — what it means to buy a horse, at what age to buy a horse, what are the great pedigrees. You want to make sure that your investment is a smart investment.“He is a very good businessman.”Looking at the world of thoroughbred racing, Mr. Zayat noticed some things right away. “It is a very old business,” Ms. Zayat said. “It is known as the sport of kings. Many of the families in it are old-time families, like the Vanderbilts.” It’s a high- stakes world.In some ways, Mr. Zayat’s approach to this old world was new. He uses computer analytics to study all sorts of aspects of breeding, buying, training, and racing horses. He also decided to develop a more broadly based business than most of his competitors. “There are many different elements,” Ms. Zayat said. “There are people who only race horses, who only breed them, people who have only broodmares, people who have only stallions, people who only have babies, or buy babies and sell them.“He decided that he would have a much more eclectic stable. We have every end — we have broodmares, racing horses, stallions, and babies.”Thus Zayat Stables was born.Experts at their stables — and there are many, each specializing in a different part of the same world — decide which horses to keep and which to sell, which to train for turf and which for grass, and which to pair with which trainer. “Each racehorse — every horse — has a personality,” she added. “We have to know what kind of personality it is.”The stable, only eight years old, started big and has stayed big.“We bought 25 horses the first time,” Ms. Zayat said. “We probably have one of the biggest stables in North America. We keep the babies — anywhere from 20 to 25 of them — in a stable in Florida, and then they go to the trainers to learn how to become a racehorse.”Note her use of the word “we.” It is a family business; the Zayats’ oldest child, Justin, 23, “has worked in the business more or less since he was in 10th grade.” He is now graduating from New York University, and “he is our stallion and racing manager. He and my husband work hand-in-hand as far as doing financial analysis and race analysis.” Ms. Zayat works in the business as well.The next oldest child, Ashley, who is married to Glenn Weiss, owns a costume jewelry business called Point Ashley — named after her family’s first winner, a horse also named Point Ashley, after her. Benjamin is a sophomore at the Frisch School, and Emma is an eighth-grader at Yavneh.Not only has computerized data analysis changed horse racing, Ms. Zayat said, but so has social media.Zayat Stables has owned a remarkable number of winners in the nine years since it opened, including three Kentucky Derby runners-up. (It is a mean feat to get a horse into the Derby — they must qualify by winning enough of the right races. It is not a berth that can be bought. “There are probably 30,000 three-year-olds across the world, and only 20 horses make it to the race,” Ms. Zayat said. “It is an honor even to get your horse into the Derby.”) It also has developed and nurtured a strong fan base.“My husband and Justin are very aware of the fan base,” Ms. Zayat said. “You have to keep them apprised of what’s going on.“People follow our horses on Twitter and Facebook.“A couple of years ago, we had a horse named Paynter. He was a wonderful horse, but he got sick after a big race one summer, and we had to take him home and out of racing all summer. We put a tremendous amount of time and energy and finances into him, because we wanted to do right by the horse.“If you do right by a horse, the horse will do right by you. A horse is not a machine.”Paynter had many fans, and his illness worried them.“Our fans were concerned, so we decided that we would keep them apprised,” Ms. Zayat said. “And then Paynter became like a cult. They would send him pictures and letters. It became like Paynter was a person. A group went to visit him, and took pictures of him.”Paynter came back the next summer, and his fans were overjoyed. “It was like he was the comeback kid. It was a crazy feeling; after the race, people would say to us, ‘You don’t know what Paynter means to me.’“He really caught the hearts of so many people,” she said.It’s okay. This story has a happy ending. Paynter is now a stallion at the family’s Winstar Farms in Kentucky, happily siring the new generation of aspiring racehorses.The Zayats try to give their horses names that have some meaning, “something to do with our lives or our friends,” Ms. Zayat said. “Justin decided that he wanted to do a contest with the fans. They could submit names, and we would pick one.“A woman from Arkansas submitted American Pharoah.” He’s named in homage to Ahmed Zayat, who was Eyptian to start with and is American now.This woman, the anonymous horse-namer, clearly was very good with history and allusion, but spelling seems not to have been her strong point. She misspelled Pharaoh, putting the o in front of the a. After the family chose it, “Justin cut and pasted the name from her email, and sent it to the Jockey Club.” (The club vets the names, and rejects those that are already taken or considered somehow offensive.)“We never thought about it — and now people ask if there is a reason for that spelling,” Ms. Zayat said. “But it was just cut and pasted!”American Pharoah was particularly dear to the Zayats even before he won the Derby, because he is the stable’s first second-generation winner. “American Pharoah’s dad, Pioneer of the Nile, was our very first home-bred winner, and he was the runner-up in the Kentucky Derby,” Ms. Zayat said. “He was nipped at the wire” –in other words, his victory was snatched from him. “We bred him with Little Princess Emma” — named after the family’s younger daughter — “and American Pharoah got revenge for his father.”What is it like being Orthodox Jews at the Kentucky Derby? “There is no conflict,” Ms. Zayat said. “Most of our big races are on Saturdays, so we walk to the track.”They stay at a hotel in Louisville, which is an easy walk on race day, and get kosher meals, including full Shabbat dinners, from a caterer, “but for the Preakness and the Belmont we can’t walk from any hotel, so we rent a trailer.” It’s not just a regular old RV; “It is 45 feet long, has two bathrooms, has a full kitchen and dining area, and sleeps six to eight people.“Shabbes is still Shabbes. You are still getting gefilte fish for dinner,” she said.“I think that when you are true to yourself, and you have a strong value system, people respect it.“This is a free country, and people get that.”As exciting as she finds horse racing in general, Ms. Zayat considers the Kentucky Derby to be particularly thrilling. “It attracts such a diverse and interesting group of people,” she said. “There are Derby groupies, who spend all year making their hats and getting their outfits together. There are men in floral suits, and women in crazy outfits. There are people who are there either because they are in the industry or because they are Kentuckians, and this is what Kentuckians do.“Hank Aaron is there, and Bill and Hillary Clinton have been there, and Michael Phelps, and Hugh Hefner. It goes from the president of Visa to Ogden Phipps to people who own stallion farms to racing families to the loved ones of people in the industry.“We like that it is a family thing for us. We all travel together for all the big races. We go together as much as we can. It is not just a business. We are close to our trainers and their families. That’s part of what makes it nice.“Yes, it’s big business, but it’s also a humanistic thing. We all know each other’s kids. We have watched each other’s kids grow up.”“Being in the Derby is the dream of a lifetime,” Ms. Zayat said, but for her, it is a recurring dream. Zayat Stables has had at least one horse in the Derby almost every year since its second year in the business.May 2, Derby day, “was business as usual,” Ms. Zayat said. They were not the only group to walk from the hotel — traffic and parking both are nightmares, so many people avoid it. “It was a beautiful day. We walked down the street toward Churchill. It’s a pretty stadium. Everyone was trying to sell souvenirs, and security was checking bags, blocking off streets.”Once they reached the stadium, the Zayats and their guests peeled off from the spectators. “We sit in certain dining rooms. We have viewing boxes. Churchchill is a huge track, and it is very well organized.”The day goes by. There are 12 races on Derby day, and the Derby itself is the 11th to be run. (It helps with crowd control to have another race after the big one, so not everyone tries to leave at once, Ms. Zayat hypothesizes.) “As the day progresses, there is more time in between each race,” she said. Tension builds.After the 10th race, “most of the owners go to the barns,” where the staff would have taken the horses out “and start to prep them for the race, to freshen them up,” she said. “They take the horses out, the trainer and the assistant trainers and the grooms and the owners, and you walk with them on the track if you choose to.“We always walk our horses from the barns all the way around the track to the paddock, where they are saddled.” (“We,” at this race, was “me, my husband, all four children, and our guests, maybe 20, 25, 30 people.”)“The crowds are roaring as you are passing by. People are yelling ‘Go, American Pharoah, we love you!’ They are trying to pat you. They wave at you. You talk to them. They are screaming and hooting. There are zillions of TV cameras.“It is fun. It is exciting. It is exhilarating. It is show time.“Everyone dresses up. I wore a pink suit with a hat. I don’t wear heels, but a lot of people do.“You go to the paddock, and every owner is in front of his horse. It is jam packed. The horses go into the carrel to be saddled. The jockey, Victor Espinoza, is a great guy. I said, ‘Come on, I promise you a home-cooked meal if you bring this home to me.’ And he said, ‘Mrs. Zayat, just sit back and watch the show.’”The race finally started. “It is only two minutes — but it is the most exciting two minutes in sports history every year,” Ms. Zayat said.“They are coming down the stretch, and I see Firing Line and Dortmund coming down, and I see American Pharoah coming, and he’s behind them, and then they are neck and neck, and I say that I can’t. I can’t do this again. I can’t come in second again. The other times we lost at the wire. And I become hysterical. And I start to cry, this emotion of ohmigod.“And then the next thing I know, I hear that American Pharoah and Victor Espinosa have won the Kentucky Derby.“And then you go in five seconds from despair to elation. It was an out-of-body experience. It was crazy. And then they hustle you off to get your trophies.“You don’t know how much time has passed. It could have been a long time. It could have been a short time. I don’t know. They brought us to the podium, they brought us to a cocktail party.“This is ours. This is a real Zayat horse. There is something really special about it. It’s still surreal now.”When you look at horses, Ms. Zayat said, there is a lot of science; “numbers, anatomy, genetics,” and much more. But there is also the emotional component. “The objective and the subjective have to meld together.“And I know that this is the horse.”

Hatzlacha Rabba in the upcoming Belmont Stakes!!

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Natalie Portman Harvard Commencement Speech | Harvard Commencement 2015 (video)

great speech by Israeli and Harvard alumnus Natalie Portman

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You Will Never Look at Israel the Same Again (video)

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Hadassah Lieberman Wants You to See Israel Through Her Eyes (video)

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Jewish Comedy Chug (video)

I think it is great that someone is training kids to be funny

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Hakol Haba - S1E11 (video)

round 2 has begun!

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Proposed Law: Arabic in school

According to INN, MK Oren hazan (Likud) has proposed a law that would make it obligatory for schools to teach Arabic language from first grade all the way to 12th grade.

His logic is obvious. We live together, work together, ride buses together, we should be able to converse and understand each other.

It makes sense to me. The entire region of nations we live in speaks Arabic. It would behoove us to have some knowledge in that language and culture. Whether to help make peace, to do business, sports, or whatever else, we should be familiar with our neighbors. Kind of like the way Spanish is so popular, and even has status as an official language, in much of America.

By that token, we might also want to include Chinese - not because we are together so much, but so much of our commerce is centered in China, it makes sense to have our future business-people know the language.

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Feiglin: I'm not going home (video)

the Right-wing of Israeli politics are experts at forming new parties and dividing itself, wasting votes...

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Herzog election campaign, part 2 (video)

I must say, this documentary on the Herzog election campaign is about as boring as Herzog himself

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cooking in the car, with Chaim Cohen (video)

wow! what a sharp message delivery

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Kids decide between helping the Homeless or Ice Cream (video)

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Shlomi Bracha and hard of hearing kids sing (video)

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Interesting Psak: throw hetter mechira produce in the garbage

Rav Shteinman is being quoted as having said something that is supposedly unique (otherwise why is it of interest) regarding hetter mechira.

Bechadrei says that Rav Shteinman was recently asked if hetter mechira produce can be used to feed the poor. Supposedly Rav Shteinman's answer was that the hetter mechira produce must be thrown out into the garbage and not be used even to feed the poor.

I get that plenty of people hold hetter mechira produce cannot be eaten. It makes sense to me that if you hold that so strongly, even to the point where it is not just a chumra to avoid hetter mechira produce but you say the sale has no actual effectiveness, then you hold that hetter mechira produce cannot be eaten under any circumstances. Even to feed the poor.

That part of it is all fine by me, according to the opinion of Rav Shteinman. His position is consistent.

My question is that if you hold the hetter mechira does nothing, the sale is totally irrelevant and ineffective, then you must hold that the produce has kedusha - holiness of shmitta produce. It cannot be eaten, but it has kedusha. How could Rav Shteinman say the food cannot be eaten because the mechira was invalid while at the same time instructing the questioner to throw the produce in the garbage? Maybe he meant to wrap it in bags and dispose of it properly for kedusha produce?

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Dov Lipman on Voice of Israel: Renouncing his American citizenship (video)

the last word gets cut off! did it feel wonderful or did it feel extremely frustrating and lousy???

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Yemenite synagogue restored in Shiloach (video)

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Dov Halbertal on bus separation

Dov Halbertal often writes like a jerk, but I pretty much agree with his latest article.

To sum up what Halbertal writes : We have suffered enough in history as the conquered people. We were discriminated against. We were separated, removed from public bus lines, discriminated against in universities and removed from academia, forced to wear unique clothes or items to easily identify us, spat upon, publicly beaten.

At this point, after his first paragraph, I thought he was going to criticize his own Haredi community for the way they treat non-Haredim who live near them - women on buses, women held back in the public arena, non-haredim living near haredi communities, soldiers - especially haredi soldiers, etc.

But no. Halbertal goes on to explain that we who suffered so much throughout history should be so much more sensitive to how we do such things to others. The Nationality Bill. Attempts to separate Palestinians from our buses, people who hit and spit on Palestinians and Christian clerics in Jerusalem, and the like.

Sure, we can explain each idea. We can justify it. We can show why it is necessary.

But shouldn't we have learned from our own history?

I happen to mostly agree with what he says. I also think what he says applies to the way the Haredi community treats others, and he does not go that far, but I do agree with his point regarding the bus separation that was recently briefly attempted in Judea and Samaria.

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Facebook Status of the Day

אם אכן הרבנות הראשית תנצל את כוחה שלא כהלכה (כעת ביחס לרב ריסקין, ובעוד עניינים ציבוריים) אצטרף לאלה הפועלים לביטולה בניגוד לעשייתי עד היום.
Posted by ‎הרב יובל שרלו Rabbi Yuval Cherlow‎ on Monday, May 25, 2015

Translation:
If it is true that the Rabbanut is taking advantage of is power inappropriately (right now against Rav Riskin, and in other public matters), I will join with those who are working to its dismantlement, against my position until today..

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don't change who you are, but come together as you are (video)

beautiful message

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Akiva Tor & Sheikh Usama Hasan Discuss the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism (video)

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Dep. FM Tzipi Hotovely (video)

as Deputy Foreign Minister with no Minister above her (at this point), I think Hotoveli should take some English lessons to polish up her control of the language. She isn't bad here, even pretty decent, but it got a bit painful to hear her. Her English is good enough that she could make it a bit more fluid.

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Bennet upon entering Education Ministry (video)

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Foodography - A Unique Israeli Adventure Combining Food & Photography (video)

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Rabbanut might fire Rav Riskin

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, rav of Efrat, is not quite my cup of tea, but the world, and our religion and people, is made up of all types of people.

Rabbi Riskin is headed for a confrontation with the Rabbanut, and his job might be in jeopardy. The Rabbanut has decided to not automatically extend his term for another 5 years, but are inviting him in for a frontal meeting to discuss his views and how he fits in with the Rabbanut. The idea seems to be a step in pushing him out entirely, due to his liberal views - specifically on matters of conversion.
source: kipa

Whether they should do such a thing or not just because they do not agree with his views, is one thing. If they fire him, this will end up in court and will probably be reversed, and if not it will be at least a long protracted fight.

The thing I noticed is that when the conversion reforms were on the table, specifically to allow any city rabbi to form a beis din and perform a conversion, the Rabbanut fought it claiming that any liberal rabbi will form a beis din and do what he wants, and nobody will be able to stop him.

My question, at the time, was that all these city rabbis are certified and appointed by the Rabbanut, and the Rabbanut knows exactly who they are and what their views are, and has some sort of control over them.

If they are able to do this with a long-serving rabbi like Rav Riskin, it seems I was right and their protests then were for show only. The Rabbanut can take any liberal rabbi they do not like and threaten them, make life difficult for them, and probably ultimately relieve them of their duties. So even under the conversion reform the Rabbanut really retains ultimate power.

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Regev moving ministry upsets Hamas

One of the first things Minster Miri Regev did after her appointment was to announce that she would be moving her Ministry's offices to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

I was surprised to see that this was such a significant decision that it required an official statement from Hamas!

According to NRG, Hamas released an official statement in response to Regev's decision. The statement to the media said that "they can move their government offices to Jerusalem, but at the end of the day they will lose and Jerusalem will remain as it was always Palestinan - clean of Jews. The attempts to Judaize Jerusalem will fail... it is an expression of fear and desperation of the Zionists regarding their future..."

Even if all Regev's decision could do was upset Hamas like that, and not accomplish anything else,  dayeinu.

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Headline of the Day

Pot-Enhanced Art Classes at Aspen Jewish Center Canceled

  -- the algemeiner

(the original actually said "at Chabad in Aspen" before it was changed)

hmmmmm.. maybe it is time to take up art

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Dov Lipman interviews Rabbi Karmi Gross about haredi hesder yeshiva (video)

and another semi-relevant clip abotu Haredi employment..

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the Herzog election campaign (video)

this is a documentary made about Herzog and his campaign.. looks like he was all media puff and not really appropriate as a candidate from the start..

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Thank You Hashem - A Day In Life (video)

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Celebrating Differences with Meg Zucker (video)

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A Jew in Cairo (video)

I wouldn't have expected otherwise..

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Litvishe are ok leaving out women, while the sefardim are problematic

this morning I heard the weekly program of Benny Rabinovitch and Moshe Osditcher on Radio Kol Hai, reviewing the weeks events.

They made an interesting distinction, when discussing the haredi papers form of publication of the picture of the new government with female ministers this past week.

They said that Yated and Hamodia are fine - they simply chose not to print the picture. They did not want to print the picture of the women, so they left it out entirely. Shas, on the other hand, in its paper, they said, photoshopped the picture. Shas had the women taken out of the picture, moved people over to fill in the space, and even put someone else into the picture that wasn't originally.

They support the non-printing of women in newspapers, but in the fashion of the Yated and Hamodia, where they are simply left out. Not in the fashion of Shas papers where the picture is published but with the women photoshopped out.

That, they said, is going too far.

I found that an interesting distinction.

They are both accomplishing the same ultimate goal - not printing women. Yated and Hamodia are doing it by omission, while the Shas paper (yom l'yom) are doing it by active sheker.

I disagree with the whole idea in the first place, but find it interesting to:
a. hear them criticize others for the way they left out the women and
b. hear how they distinguish and won't go as far as actual sheker and distortion.

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more Jewish or less Jewish?

I had a thought when reading Jeffrey Goldberg's write-up of his interview with President Barak Obama.

In the interview, Obama explained that he loves Israel and he criticizes it so much because he holds it to a higher standard than he does other countries. He will criticize Israel when it does not live up to her standards that she was founded upon, and when she does not live up to the values and teachings of Judaism.

SUddenly the thought struck me. Whenever Israel has tried to pass or discuss a law promoting Judaism at a higher level of standing in the country than it currently has - giving it priority in certain matter, such as nationality, such as in Hebrew law as becoming the foundation for the legal system, or in other manifestations, we get criticized for making, or trying to make, Israel too Jewish and less democratic.

So, on the one hand, if we are too Jewish it is bad, on the other hand, if we do not live up to the high Jewish standards it is bad.

Which is it? do you want us more Jewish or less Jewish?

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Erdan exempts sukkot from exemptions

The ministers of the new government each held a ceremony a couple of days ago, each in his or her respective office. the ceremony was a transfer of the baton from the previous minister to the new minister.

Right before the transfer of authority, Gilad Erdan, formerly the Minister of Interior, signed a directive that would ease the construction of the sukka, without requiring a permit.

Some recent directives require the request for an exemption from requesting a permit for building certain temporary structures. Sukka is not in the list, but it is in the descriptive imagery of the directive. A sukka that is larger than 50 square meters or higher than 3 meters, would need official exemptions, while smaller or lower would not.

Erdan decided that with most sukkot placed on porches and rooftops, with them only being used for a week, he decided to ease the burden from those who keep mitzvot and all this is not necessary - they will not need to request exemptions - since it is not included in the law, but only in the explanation of the law, he felt he has that leeway..
source: Kikar

It reminds me of the joke of the policeman who received a complaint about someone's sukka. He went down to see it, and asked to see the permits for building a structure like that. The owner tried to explain that he has no permits, but it is only temporary.. The police did not want to hear any of it, once he heard the fellow has no permit. He slapped on a warning with an edict that the sukka must be dismantled and removed within 14 days.

Erdan is a good guy who works hard. It is a shame he has not yet been brought into the new government with a satisfactory level of responsibility..

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Quote of the Day

I was never in Norway. I have already said: I do not recognize the Norwegian law, I am not going to resign for the benefit of Yaakov Asher.

  -- Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman

I like how they keep bickering and trying to find a way to get Yaakov Asher back into the Knesset.

I don't even think Litzman could help out, even if he wanted to. As far as I know, the Norwegian law only applies to ministers and not to deputy ministers. If it applied to deputy ministers as well, they should ask Porush who is also a deputy minister. And if not, then maybe Moshe Gafni should have also taken a ministerial position, or a deputy minister position if it applies to DMs as well, so he could resign for the benefit of Yaakov Asher. In the meantime, they are trying to get Litzman, a member of the Aguda faction, to resign for the benefit of Asher who is a member of the Degel faction. Good luck with that.

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News go for the boring pictures of blurred faces

All the news sites have been making a big deal about how the Haredi papers have not included pictures of Ayelet Shaked , Miri Regev and Gila Gamliel (and Tzippi Hotoveli when relevant) in its review of the new government, either as individual pictures, or in the group picture with their faces fuzzed out.

I am impressed that they are all surprised by this. It is nothing new (at least in the perspective of recent history). Erasing women from pictures or blurring their faces is done on a daily basis. The most famous was probably removing Hillary Clinton from a picture of Barak Obama and his staff monitoring the rain on Osama bin Laden's compound. Angela Merkel was also wiped out.

It happens every day.

Yet every time it happens, everyone acts all shocked and surprised, as if they expected the Haredi newspapers to print the pictures this time.

These stories are boring already. Find something else to write about. If the paper thought it had the ability to influence change on the matter, that would be one thing. But they don't. They just keep writing about the same shocking story over and over again. It seems boring news is ok as long as it is against the Haredi community.

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Israeli Ambassador serenades the UN with John Lennon's Imagine (video)

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PM Netanyahu's Meeting with FIFA President Sepp Blatter (video)

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A Bissel of Romance (video)

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Farmers' Market at Tel Aviv Port (video)

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Facebook Status of the Day

לכל מאן דבעי: אתמול בישיבת מועצת עיריית תל אביב ואריתריאה אושרה בהצבעה ההצעה לתת לכל ילדי המסתננים גן חינם הכל כולל - עד...
Posted by May Golan on Tuesday, May 19, 2015

May Golan, an activist in Tel Aviv, writes:
For anybody interested,
Yesterday in the meeting of the City Council of Tel Aviv and Eritrea, a resolution was passed by vote to give all the children of the migrants free nursery school until the age of 3 years old. Not to the children of struggling Israelis, not to needy families - no. Only to the illegal infiltrators from Eritrea and Sudan and their high percentage of children - yes!

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Picture of the Day

Photo credit: Jorge Novominsky - taken from WoW FB page

I am sorry, but as often as I see pictures of women in tefillin, it still looks strange to me.

She is wearing the tefillin to low on her forehead, but maybe it slipped down as she leaned over to look. The other problem is the headband under her tefillin.


The point of this picture is the new padlock placed on the mechitza by Rav Rabinovitch, rav of the Kotel, to prevent the opening of the mechitza for passage of a Torah scroll to the women, as happened last month.

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Kahlon wants to control the private rental market

I am no economist, but it seems to me that Kahlon's plan that will meddle with the free market is a bad idea and will backfire.

Kahlon announced his first law proposal being the "Fair Rent Law". Kahlon is focusing on trying to bring housing costs down, and with this bill he is focusing on rental prices.

The idea of Kahlon's proposal is that rental prices would be standardized, and landlords would be limited in their ability to raise rent - once a renter signs on an apartment, the landlord will not be allowed to raise the rent for a period of three to five years, though the rent could increase as it would be tied so some housing market index, or a flat 2% per year.

It seems to me, in my non-expert opinion, that this is meddling in the free market. If landlords cannot charge the rent they want, and cannot raise rents when values go up, when supply is down and when demand is high, they won't invest in real estate.

Perhaps landlords will decide to sell their apartments, with their rental income limited, and that will flood the housing market and bring prices down. Maybe that is really behind Kahlon's plan.

I think the market should dictate what landlords can charge. If a landlord charges too much, he wont find a renter.

I have no problem with his ideas of taxing rental income from the first shekel. I don't see why I need to pay taxes on my income from the first shekel but landlords do not need to. So I am fine with that. They should pay taxes on their income like everybody else. That is not meddling i the market.

Telling landlords they cannot raise the prices, despite an apartment increasing in value due to local market forces seems unfair to the landlord.

Kahlon should increase the number of public housing units available where the government can establish rent control. I don't think he should meddle and control rental prices in the private market.

what do you think?

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PSA: Ladies Bake Sale and Men's Auction for Mesivta Bet Shemesh

REMINDER; This is TONIGHT!!!

The annual pre-Shavuos bake sale benefitting the Mesivta of Bet Shemesh is on this week, and you are encouraged to attend, for both a great time and to get some great cakes for Shavuos (or to eat pre-Shavuos)..

and this year they have added an event for men as well, after the bake sale! an auction and an event that I am told will have cool stuff for men like a variety of herrings, boxed and ready to go complete shabbos for two from Weissmandl, Matt Bornstein's famous drizzled popcorn and the nicest of the fancy cakes. Plus they will be serving sushi!

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Headline of the Day

New York - Several Reportedly Ill After “Halakhic” Dinner Serving Kosher Locusts, Veal Hearts, Ox Tail And Goat

  -- VIN

only several?
are they surprised? just reading it and seeing the picture of the chocolate covered locust is making me ill.
I am a bit surprised this dinner was led by Rav Meir Soloveitchik (without commenting on Rav Meir Soloveitchik himself, who I do not know). The Soloveitchiks as a family are such traditionalists and generally avoid reviving lost traditions. I am surprised one from the Soloveitchik family would be involved in reviving lost kashrus traditions like this. It seems, to me, to be so uncharacteristic.

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ceremony for the Moskowitz Prizes for Zionism (video)

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a look at Itzhak Perlman and the Israeli philharmonic (video)

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Don Greenberg - Commencement Speech (Introduction)

How Don Greenberg, a college graduate selected as the student speaker, solved the problem of having to speak on Shabbos..




and if you want the rest of his peech...

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Hamas: don't be a soldier (video)

hot off the success of their first music video, bo tasseh piguim, Hamas has released another music video targeting an Israeli audience. This one tells Israelis not to serve in the IDF. Personally, I don't think this clip will repeat the viral success of the first...

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Hanan Ben Ari: Izun (audio)

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Interesting Psak: don't live in Tiberias

Rav Dov Kook, a rav and mekubal in Tiberias, has issued a psak to his followers. Rav Kook announced that religious people should not live in Tiberias.

The background to this psak is a conflict between the ancient cemetery located in Tiberias, and the beach and  water park across the street. The Haredi commuity has been requesting from the administration of Guy Beach and its water park to install something that would block the visibility from the cemetery into the beach and water park. Currently, people praying by the graves of the tzaddikim buried in the cemetery are able to see the immodest images in the beach and water park.

The administration of the beach has so far refused.

Rav Kook said that a terrible tragedy will happen in Tiberias as a result of this, if it is not rectified. And, until it is, religious people cannot live in Tiberias.

In their defense, the beach administration says they are no different than any of the other beaches along the strip, and they are being singled out for no reason known to them (other than for being directly across the street). He also said that they get along just fine with the neighbors - their noise doesnt disturb the neighboring residents of the cemetery and the neighbors don't make noise disturbing them.
source: NRG

One thing I don't get is why they don't put up a barrier outside the cemetery, if it bothers them so much. Why wait for the beach people to do it on their property - do it by the cemetery. And then, they will have achieved the same results - those visiting and praying by graves of the righteous won't be able to see the depravity happening in the beach across the street.

As an aside, I wonder if there will now be a mass exodus of religious people from Tiberias. I have not heard of one yet, but I would think that at least he and his followers would leave the city he says they are not allowed to live in.

בקרב התושבים עצמם הדעות חלוקות: שמעון כהן, תושב העיר, סיפר למשל כי "אני חושב שטבריה, כעיר תיירות דתית ומסורתית, שמבקרים בה מדי שנה מאות אלפי דתיים, צריכה להתחשב ברגשותיהם. מה כבר התבקשו בעלי החוף לעשות? להקים מחיצה מברזנט יפה, כדי שאנשים מבחוץ לא יראו מה מתרחש בפנים? אם בכביש החוף בנו קירות נגד רעשים בהשקעה של מיליוני שקלים כדי לא להפריע לתושבים, מדוע שפה לא יקימו מחיצה כדי לא לפגוע ברגשות הדתיים?" הוא הוסיף ותהה: "למה להביא את המראות האלה עד לקבר של רבי מאיר בעל הנס?" 


הרבנית לאה קוק, רעייתו של הרב, הסבירה ל'מקור ראשון' כי החשש הגדול של הקהילה הוא ש"הצדיקים בשמיים מתרעמים על המצב, וחס ושלום עומד להתרחש משהו רע. צריך להתחנן בפניהם בדברי נועם ובאהבה. אנשים נוסעים להתפלל, ורואים אנשים על המגלשות בלי בגדים. זה עושה סכין בלב". קוק סיפרה כי בני הזוג שקלו לעזוב את הקהילה שלהם בעיר בשל המציאות בחוף הים: "הרב אמר לי, 'אשתי, בואי נברח מכאן, אין לי כוח לאסונות או לצרות. בואי נברח מכאן'

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Proposed Law: pregnant women in handicapped spots

MK Danny Atar (Hamachane Hatzioni) is proposing a new law to help pregnant women.

According to Atar's proposal, pregnant women in their third trimester would be allowed to park in handicapped parking spots. Women would get a parking tag that would allow them to park in the handicapped spot, and it would begin from the beginning of the third trimester and last until a month after the expected date of birth.

I know in some places in the USA there is pregnancy parking, but I do not know if it is mandated by law like handicapped parking is or if it is just something businesses and institutions do in consideration of pregnant women.

Maariv reports that Atar has proposed this law as a result of his parliamentary assistant being pregnant and having trouble with her parking issues.

I think this is mostly a great idea.

What would need to be worked out is to keep the bureaucracy in the application to a minimum - we would not want these women applying for the tags and only receiving them 3 months later.

Also, I feel bad for the handicapped people. They might ave a hard time finding parking, with far more people now being allowed to park in the few spots available to them. In a religious neighborhood, with a high percentage of pregnant women at any given time, might make it impossible for handicapped people, and probably wouldn't even provide much relief for most pregnant women, as there would not be nearly enough spots available for the high number of pregnant women wanting to use them.

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beis din uses "Jewish appearance" to decide someone's Jewishness

The other day we learned of a case in which the Rabbanut discovered a marriage candidate was not actually Jewish as the conversion of her mother many years prior had been performed by an unauthorized beis din. As a result, 50 family members had to convert immediately.

The part of the story that was made public left a lot of unanswered questions, but that's the story as we know it.

And today we have another interesting conversion story. The beis din in Yerushalayim had to evaluate the Jewish status of a middle-aged woman who made aliya from the Russian states (the article says "Soviet Union, which no longer actually exists, so I am not sure where she made aliya from). She made aliya with her husband and two children.

This woman's original birth certificate has her parents marked as Jews, but when she left Russia they replaced her original with a different document in which it says nothing under her nationality and religion , and only calls her Russian. Upon investigation, it was discovered her father is Jewish and her mother is "Chernogorit" from Montenegro.

She explained that her mother was Jewish but when she had tried to get accepted into medical school, because she would not get in as a Jew with two Jewish parents, she obtained a copy of the document that calls her Russian rather than jewish and states where her mother was from rather than that she was Jewish.

The woman brought pictures of her and her family from her youth, which the beis din used to come to a decision. They decided based on her Jewish appearance in the pictures that she must have been Jewish, as her Jewish father could ot have possibly intermarried back then with a "chornegorit".

The beis din, based on her "Jewish appearance" declared her and her brother Jewish.
source: Kipa

So, the beis din won't accept the conversion of another beis din, but they will accept as Jewish someone based on some vague and undefined "Jewish appearance". I really would like to understand better how these batei din come to their decisions in these cases...

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Chief Rabbinate angling to get more involved in affairs of State

The Rabbanut seems to want to expand its role, while the government has been trying recently to limit the Rabbanut's role and responsibilities.

Chief Rabbi Lau has created some waves, and made some people nervous, when he called on Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to propose a law that would require the government to consult with the Chief Rabbinate on all legislation that is being considered for passage in Knesset.

Under Rabbi Lau's proposal, the government would be required to get an opinion from the Chief Rabbinate on any and every piece of legislation, just like it currently gets an opinion from the relevant ministry or authority. The Chief Rabbinate consultant would not be a single person, i.e. Rabbi Lau himself, but would be made up of some advisory board that would discuss the matter and come to an opinion from the perspective of Judaism. Rabbi Lau explains that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and while the democratic part is taken care of, The Jewish part also has what to say about all matters of legislation and should at least be involved and considered as part of the process.

Some people are taking Rabbi Lau's suggestion as a form of pushing the Rabbanut into affairs it does not belong in, which will ultimately lead to religious coercion when the Rabbanut will insist on its opinion being the influential one.

Personally, I like the idea. I don't know what the "Jewish opinion" is on many matters of State, and I would bet that most people do not, including many rabbis and halachic authorities. The Bostoner Rebbe himself recently expressed that he is grateful the religious are not yet a majority and therefore do not have to form opinions on how the state can possibly function within halachic parameters. So, I think it would be a great learning experience to have a body debating the Jewish approach to the great variety of issues the State has to deal with and formulating opinions.

Obviously, for now, the proposal does not include an insistence that the State accept the opinion, but at least such an opinion should be formed and heard, and ultimately considered..

The one thing that scares me about it is how biased or unbiased this body would be. We all know how many opinions there are on any given matter. Wouild such a consulting body be taken over by a group of people with interests? Would it become a body that is overwhelmingly machmir or meikil on every nuance, or would it be balanced?

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The Many Roles of Rivka Ravitz (video)

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Shavuot Song - "Stay Up All Night" (video)

an oldie, but a goodie, with Shavuot approaching...

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Netanyahu, in memory of Eli Cohen (video)

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IDF Major General ditches Army career to build home for the disabled (video)

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Chaim gold: who we were (video)

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Tzniyus won't save this guy!

There is a great, and hilarious, story being reported in Shtieble.net (and probably just a joke)

An El Al flight from Kennedy Airport in New York was ready for takeoff. All the passengers were in their seats and the doors were ready to be closed. A hassidic man was refusing to sit, as he was seated next to a woman dressed immodestly.

This hassidic man had already politely asked everyone in the area if they would switch seats with him, but they all had said no.

The stewardess tells this fellow that his time is up - they have to takeoff, so he has to either sit down in his seat or get off the plane. As he starts heading off the plane, a fellow with a kipa sruga jumps up and tells him that he is willing to switch seats with him.

The surprised hassid asked him why he was not willing to before but was now. The other guy responded by saying, "I know what is going to happen. If the plane should crash, you are going to go and tell everyone that you were saved because you refused to sit next to the woman. So, let me tell you something. If this plane crashes, you are going down with us!"

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Haredi Mamilla coming to Bet Shemesh

According to Walla News, construction plans for a new shopping mall, dubbed "the Haredi Mamilla",  have been approved for the southern area of Bet Shemesh - to be built in the valley between the neighborhoods of RBS A and RBS C. The prep work (roads and stuff) has been underway for a while, and from what I understand has recently been completed.

According to the report, the new mall will be spread out over 20,000 square meters, that's the same size as the Ramat Aviv Mall, and will be an outdoor strip mall of brand name stores, similar to the style of the Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem. In addition there will be another 20,000 square meters designated for parking.  Construction is expected to start in the coming weeks.

According to the developer, the mall has been designed to meet the needs and lifestyle of the Haredi community, but it will also be welcoming to the secular residents of the city.

To that end, I am told by someone involved in the project that there is a clause in the contract that says the buyer [of a store property] declares that he knows and agrees that the project will have a religious style and he commits to using his unit in a way that fits that style, with everything implied.

Seems like a vague enough clause, and I do not know who is the arbiter of deciding if something questionable fits the atmosphere or not.

I do wish them much luck and the entire city a great shopping experience. Hopefully people will continue to have enough money to support another mall, especially one of this size.

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Proposed Law: more vacation days

The new Knesset just got started in its work, and already there have been a slew of new law proposals announced to be submitted.

One of them was announced today by MK Rachel Azaria (Kulanu Kahlon) that will make employees very happy.

Azaria is proposing to increase the number of vacation days per year for every employee, even starting from the first year of employment in a job. This proposal has MKs from both the coalition and the opposition signed on to it.

Azaria proposes that employers will have to give employees 21 vacation days per year, starting from the first year of employment, and in every subsequent year that number will increase - 23 in the 2nd year, 25 in the 3rd, and then each subsequent year would add another day per year until the maximum of 28 per year is reached.. That is a big change from the 10 vacation days granted by law as of right now, with it going up only after 5 years of employment.

Azaria points to changes in the workforce with increased turnover of the employees - it used to be people would work in just one or two jobs throughout their lifetime, but now people change jobs very frequently. The workforce is more flexible and less stable.
source: NRG

I'm not quite sure what the higher turnover rate has to do with increased vacation days, but employees will be happy about it.

This reminds me of the story of Levi Eshkol (and some relate it to David Ben Gurion).. someone proposed to him to change the Israeli work week to 5 days a week, rather than 6. Eshkol supposedly responded, first let's have everyone work 1 day a week. Then we'll advance to 2, eventually 3.. and eventually we will hopefully even get to 5 days a week.

We have so many vacation days built into the system already, with all our holidays, that I cannot imagine employers being happy about this...

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