So there is a reasonable suspicion that the incident in which Michael Malkieli, the Shas rep in the Jerusalem City Council who abruptly left a city council meeting right before a vote regarding the extension of approval for the First Station to operate on Shabbos is connected to the investigation into Aryeh Deri. It is suspected that Deri needed Malkieli to not vote against the operation on Shabbos of First Station, so that Aryeh Deri's brother could complete some real estate deal elsewher ein Jerusalem.

However the deal worked, I have no idea, A kablan, the mayor, the Deri family, and Deri's reps in government, all seem to be involved in the deal somehow.

Either way, it is funny to think that Aryeh Deri represents the community's needs when he really just puts his needs first. Instead of having a good chance to stop a large amount of chilul shabbos (which one could debate if it is a good idea or not to stop secular Jews from doing what they want on Shabbos, but the Haredi community largely believes it should be stopped as much as possible), Deri very possibly thwarted it so his brother could get a good real estate deal.

Will the Haredi community continue to defend him valiantly and treat him as a martyr if and when it is discovered and proven that he was throwing them under the bus for his own benefit all this time?

There has been a lot of talk about Deri being corrupt over the past two days. It turns out some more details have been revealed, and the case is about some of the property he owns. The question is how he could afford so many properties, some of them being luxury homes, considering his salary as a public officer. There might be more than that, but so far that is what has been publicized.

The radio announcers on Kol Hai have been bending over backwards to defend Deri and say it is not a big deal, every Haredi busy homes for their kids that they cannot afford and takes mortgages and whatnot, plus some of that happened in the period in which he was not in politics, so maybe he made some money elsewhere, etc.

I have said it before, and I will say it again.

As a freelancer, I am obligated to submit to the tax authorities every few years a declaration of wealth. In Hebrew this is called a "hatzharat hon". They require it of freelancers because they know that there is room to hide some money, and a declaration of wealth and assets on record will give them the ability to compare my lifestyle with my declared assets and earnings, and let them know if there is anything suspicious going on.

All politicians should be required to submit a declaration of wealth and assets. There should be no surprises. If a politician owns 10 houses, we should know how he is able to afford it. If he owns a yacht and a palace and a Rolls Royce, it should be made clear to the authorities that it is within his means in whatever way.

There is no reason not to, and it will keep them above suspicion when they aren't doing anything wrong.

When Silvan Shalom was pushed to resign with a scandal and investigation brewing, I assumed that was the end of the movement to turn Sundays in Israel into a long weekend. While Silvan Shalom was not the first one to think of the idea, he was the main person in the Knesset that actually pushed it to the point where it was relatively close to being considered seriously. When he went away, I assumed this would too. I did not think it had enough gravitas on its own, he had not gotten it enough momentum to carry on without him, and nobody was spotted taking the gauntlet from him.

Sure enough, today we are greeted with surprising news..

MK Eli Cohen (Kulanu) has announced the initiative to turn Sundays into a vacation day, a long weekend. Not every Sunday, at least not initially, but once a month.

According to Cohen this would work in the following fashion. Each person would be granted an additional 12 vacation days above and beyond what he or she already gets. In exchange for those 12 days, the workday will be extended by an additional 15-20 minutes to make up that work time.

Cohen explains the importance of this to help improve the quality of life here and all the usual flexibility it will give to us - sports, tiyulim, time with family, religion, etc. And, it will knock Israel more into line with the long weekends found in much of the world.

Cohen says that while in the past the labor unions opposed the idea, they are now coming to an agreement and says the differences between them are small and it is possible that in 2017 this will already go into effect.
source: Channel 2 News

If this comes to be, part of the stipulation of those additional 12 vacation should be that they can only be used on Sundays once a month. Otherwise people will simply use them on their vacations to Europe or wherever and then the purpose will have been lost.

I know some employers are against the idea. Some say extending the workday is not beneficial, as the workday is already long and studies show efficiency goes down with that extra time, so the employers might get some more time out of their employees per day but that time will largely be wasted. I also suspect that they already benefit, often but not always, from employees who stay far longer than their required work hours, and rarely have to actually pay overtime (because of global contracts and the like), so adding 15 or 20 minutes to each day does nothing for them, as so many employees are already working at that time anyway, and one day a month will be deducted instead.

Personally I look forward to this coming to fruition.

this is a very simple post. Jean Claude Van Damme simply posted a picture of himself outside of the Old City of Jerusalem and stated hello from Jerusalem.  He did not even use any controversial hashtags.
Yet in the comments this became a big fight between his pro-Palestinian fans and his pro-Israekli fans...

I am not sure what the significance is but I enjoyed seeing their faces drop and not know what to do when they hear Rav Shteinman's answer to the question... Rav Shteinman is asked about emunas chachomim and he says there is no such thing nowadays and emunas chachomim is for the chachomim of the gemara and of the rishonim, not of today's chachomim...

it is really the Middle-West, not Middle-East, but ok...

Kikar has the summary of a discussion between Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Baruch Ganot about various aspects regarding the Pesach holday.

Because it is interesting, I will summarize the summary...

They discussed three topics (maybe they talked about more, but three topics are discussed in the article):
1. helping one's wife clean for Pesach
2. selling chametz to a non-Jew in apartheid states
3. a non-Jew who claimed the chametz he had bought from the Jew
4. is the hagadda counted as enough for the mitzva of sippur yetziat mitzrayim?

1. Rav Ganot commented about how seemingly in the past many gedolim did not help much in the cleaning before Pesach, whereas today it is common for men to help their wives with the cleaning. Rav Ganot asked if the change is because the women of today are not as righteous as the women of yesteryear or is it because the men are not as dedicated and focused in learning as they used to be?

Rav Kanievsky answered that both are correct, but he then corrected Rav Ganot and said that the truth is that the gedolim did help with the cleaning when it was necessary.

My only comment would be that Rav Ganot's initial comment and question compared gedolim and average avreichim, which is not a fair comparison. He commented on the gedolim not helping, and asked about avreichim helping a lot. Your average avreich is not a gadol, and if the gedolim have a valid excuse for not doing most of the Pesach cleaning, that excuse might very well not apply to the average avreich.

2. Rav Ganot asked about a situation of apartheid, such as in South Africa where black folks could not live on the same streets as white folks. Would it be allowed to sell chametz to a black non-Jew, considering he would not be allowed to live on that street.
Rav Kanievsky's answer is that it is ok because the black would presumably be allowed to own the house, just not live in it.

Perosnally, I don't understand that. When one sells his chametz he is not selling his house, but the chametz in it. Even without being allowed to live on the street, who says he cannot own chametz on the street?

And, it is a big presumption to decide that they were not allowed to live on the street but were allowed to own homes. I don't know the apartheid laws of South Africa from back then, but I would find it perfectly logical to assume blacks were not allowed to own homes in certain areas.

This was not mentioned, but it seems to me this could be very relevant in places where non-Jews are not allowed to live in Israel (such as in closed kibbutzim, moshavim and the like that have acceptance committees)...

3. Rav Kanievsky related the story of a non-Jew who bought the beer facyory fo a Jew. After Pesach he came and paid the rest of the money and took the business, and thus took away the Jew's source of parnassa.. The Jew did not know what to do, so he went to the rav to ask. The rav said the beer factory was sold and there is nothing to do about that. However, the rav instructed all the people in the community to not buy any beer from this non-Jewish fellow. Nobody bought beer from him, and he ended up selling the brewery back to the original Jewish owner. (I do not know why the non-Jewish customers listened and refused to buy from him, but that's the story as related)

Rav Ganot asked about this possibly invalidating the sale, as had the goy known that he would be blacklisted like that he never would have bought it in the first place. Rav Kanievsky said it is not a problem because it is only a rare occurrence and not common, and the mishna brura says that another Jew cannot buy chametz off a goy after pesach that had originally been sold to him by  Jew for the purpose of Pesach, and if a different Jew did buy it.he would have to return it to the original owner.

fascinating story.

4. Rav Kanievsky said that reading the entire hagadda is already more than enough to fulfill the mitzva of retelling the story of the Exodus from Egypt, and one need not add to it. However, we have the ocncept of the more one talks about the exodus the more praiseworthy it is, though there is no obligation to add. The mitzva is already fulfilled by stating the three things - pesach, matza and marror, and beyond that is extra.

The Knesset yesterday passed a law proposal in its first reading. The proposal would ban and prohibit any futuristic method of human cloning not yet invented.

It sounds funny, but they felt the need to ban things they do not even know about today, just in case.

The current law prohibits cloning via “transferring and inserting a nucleus.” , but does not ban any other method someone might come up with tomorrow. If this law passes, even if you devise a new method for human cloning, it will be banned.

This law will be valid for three years, at which time the Knesset will have to decide whether or not to extend it.

Coalition members joked that the purpose of this law is to prevent Netanyahu from cloning himself and remaining Prime Minister forever.
source: JPost

Another way to avoid having Netanyahu as Prime Minister forever is to not support him come election time... and specifically for Likudniks, to support a different candidate come primaries time...

The organization promoting increased access of Jews to Har Habayit has submitted a request to PM Netanyahu, Ministers Erdan, Regev and Shaked, the mayor of Jerusalem, and the heads of various security services, to give access to the Jews under the freedom of religious worship and allow the fulfillment of the mitzva of korban pesach on Har Habayit on Erev Pesach.
source: Behadrei

In the letter, they go into some detail about how from a halachic perspective it would be allowed today, along with the importance of the korban pesach and our obligation to sacrifice it.

More interestingly is the complaint about how until today only the religious rights of the Muslims have been protected while the government has failed to ensure freedom of worship for Jews.

The organization has to continue doing its work, no matter the chances of success of any particular action, as each particular battle, won or lost, is a stage in the larger war. So even if they continue to lose battles, each battle raises awareness and gets us a little closer to winning the war.

So, while the authorities continue to prohibit even the slightest prayer, or even the slightest appearance of prayer, and they continue to prohibit any expression of Zionist fervor or Jewish fervor, and they even do not let Jewish visitors to drink water and recite a blessing over the drink, it is almost absurd to request the right to sacrifice a korban pesach. But, good for them that they raised the issue. Let it become part of the public discourse. Let the nation talk about the issues of Har Habayit and the issues of the renewal of the korban pesach.



The letter is below for your perusal:

According to a report on Fox News, states in the US are moving to put back requirements that in order to qualify for welfare all able-bodied adults would have to work in order to still qualify.

The requirements were suspended by President Obama when the USA was in a time of recession, but now those requirements are being implemented again.

Besides for the effect it will have on the general community and on the unemployed and unemployable, if New Jersey implements this it would be disastrous for much of the Lakewood community that works the welfare system to the max (legally). If it gets to that point, I am sure the askanim will lobby hard to make sure New Jersey does not implement this.

In a spacious compound at the Tel-Aviv-Jaffa Port, facing the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, women initiate and build startups. 

WMN is a social initiative founded by Merav Oren, a serial and multidisciplinary entrepreneur. Its goal is to encourage more women to develop startups, and along the way bridge the gender gap in the startup world.

seems a little out of season to release this now... a week or two ago it might have been a hit..

There is an investigation going on now of "serious" corruption involving a senior politician.

All details of the ongoing investigation are under a gag order, so we have no idea what the story is about, but after a brief amount of time the gag order was eased a tiny bit to allow the name of the senior politician to be publicized, and it is Aryeh Deri.

Unless the investigation is regarding an old story, I would have a hard time believing that Aryeh Deri is guilty of serious corruption. Not because he is religious, but because "been there, done that". Deri knows everyone is looking at him, everyone is waiting to catch him with his hand in the till. Deri would have to be a real idiot to get involved in serious corruption at this stage in his political career, and Deri is no idiot.

The story might be old, and then maybe he is involved. I would be surprised though if the story is from recent years and involving Deri.

This is what smartphones must have been created for..

get the app, Shomrei Brit Kodesh, from the Google Play Store.

This is an app designed to help you hear shiurim and divrei chizzuk, and testimony from people helped by this organization, along with stories and miracles, and get into a support group if necessary to help you stop looking at women for 40 days, in the quest to help you stop being motzi zera l'vatala (aka masturbating).

The app, which I installed and so far only briefly looked at, is also connected to the organization's website, Facebook page and Whatsapp group.

Go for it. you know you are curious.

A young Algerian tells us Jews should be kicked out of "Palestine", like they were Algeria.

We met this guy in Hyde Park London and asked him what his views were on Israel/Palestine.

The Interior Committee of the Knesset approved a law proposal in the system to be moved to the Knesset plenum for second and third sets of voting for passage this week. The law it approved is the law meant to minimize the number of plastic bags in use by the public.

The law proposed initially was meant to do away completely with plastic bags by forcing supermarkets to charge a lot of money per bag. The proposal was adjusted and now will force supermarkets to charge just 10 agorot per plastic bag. As well, the law will only apply to large supermarket chains and not to local neighborhood small shops. These changes will effect the minimization of the use of plastic bag use, and not become a burden to the public.

Also, supposedly the use of plastic bags cost the supermarket chains about 88 million nis per year. The public pays for that through higher prices on the items bought in the stores. Supposedly, saving most of that money for the supermarket chains will allow them to lower prices.
sources: Ch10 and Ladaat

Ha ha ha. I can't wait to see if a single supermarket lowers prices after this law is completed.

I am not much of an environmentalist. I use plastic bags, though I try to reuse them as much as possible. I recycle, but only when it is not overly difficult,... so I don't really have much of a problem with plastic bags and the entire issue. If they ban it, fine, if not - not.  What I don't get is this contradictory position - we want to get rid of them but not make it too difficult for people so we will let them continue using them. Either get rid of them or leave us alone.

In the past we have already seen the issue raised and discussed of Sefardic roshei yeshiva requiring his sefardi talmidim to act like ashkenazim, even to the point of requiring them to perform halacha like ashkenazim rather than according to their own natural psak, such as requiring them to have a yichud room at their weddings, and criticism was levied by other sefardi rabbis against such pronouncements.

So, the fact that the Chief Rabbi, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, has criticized such pronouncements again is not all that exciting or new.

What is interesting is the way he criticized the sefardi roshei yeshiva.

Rav Yosef said that the rosh yeshiva who says such a thing should not be listened to. The rosh yeshiva has authority over running his own yeshiva, and anything to do with behavior in the yeshiva and what to learn, the rosh yeshiva must be listened to. However, in halacha it is a different story - one must tell the rosh yeshiva "who is greater, you or the Knesset Hagedola? you or the Beit Yosef?"

Rav Yosef said that in halacha there is no such thing as a Mara D'Atra. Presumably he means that Mara D'Atra has authority only over behavior but not over psak halacha.

I am not sure how many talmidim have the confidence within them, or the chutzpah, to tell the rosh yeshiva what Rav Yosef says to say.

I think the more effective solution might be telling boys to not be afraid and to leave the yeshiva before the wedding and to find a new kollel for after (as many will anyway, as many yeshivot do not support kollels along with the fact that often a new kollel will be looked for that is closer to where the young couple lives) the wedding.

It means the chosson might not have many of his friends at the wedding, nor his rosh yeshiva, as presumably the rosh yeshiva will carry out his threat, but I think after a few of these instances the Rosh Yeshiva will start suffering the loss of talmidim and will change his attitude and approach in most cases.

Either way, the main point was nto to figure out how to solve the problem but to point out Rav Yosef's approach regarding halacha, mara d'atra and authority of psak...

I am not expressing my opinion on the gas deal - maybe it is necessary to change parts of it. In my opinion we have reached the point where the secular will also now fight against the Supreme Court. With what right does the Supreme Court mix into issues that aren't under its jurisdiction? We have become a country run by the Supreme Court... until now it was only in issues regarding religion, but Hashem has given them the wisdom to mix in now with the running of the State, and now people are realizing and understanding this regarding the courts.

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ)

With the birth of a baby boy (Theodore James) to Ivanka Trump (Kushner), I wonder - are there any issues with having a non-Jew participate in a significant way with the bris ceremony? Could Donald be the sandek or amida l'brachos?

I am pretty sure that in actual halacha there is no problem, as only the mohel would likely have any actual halachic restrictions and qualifications, but I wonder if there is some sort of halachic or spiritual preference to not having a non-Jew involved as sandek (for example) or if that does not matter at all.

I am sure this issue must have come up many times, especially, but not only, with converts to Judaism who want to honor their biological parents.

Any ideas or thoughts about this?

congratulations to Ori Sasson, though this looks like a pretty dull sport. I wonder if from here Sasson (or any of these guys) can move on to WWE wrestling...

it seems that the Carlebach shul in RBS hosted the first ever rave party in RBS...

So, the Supreme Court has cancelled the gas deal because future governments would be obligated to keep it and would have a difficult time altering parts of the deal.

Are governments no longer allowed to come to decisions? Every decision the government reaches obligates future governments. That has been so with various peace deal and treaties signed, with business deals and trade agreements signed, with laws passed, and with pretty much every other function fo government.

What is the point in holding elections and choosing a government if the government is not allowed to act because future governments will be obligated by such actions?

Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan has proposed a law that was passed today by the Ministerial Legislative Committee.

Erdan's proposal is to authorize municipal inspectors to enforce laws against crimes that endanger pedestrians, such as bicycle riding laws, electric bike laws, bike riding on sidewalks and more. As well, the municipal inspectors will be authorized to levy fines on pedestrians who walk in bike lanes. And, municipal governments will now be authorized to confiscate cars.
source: Ynet

I guess that means that if you do not pay your parking tickets, eventually they might confiscate your car... and those laws they passed a while back regulating usage of electric bikes to a minimum age, with helmets and whatever other requirements they instituted, but said at the time there is no method of enforcement - well, now there will be.

what a story!

with all the calls against the "political correct" attitude of some politicians in Israel regarding their condemnation of the soldier who shot the terrorist, it makes me wonder..

if Donald Trump were running for Prime Minister of Israel, would his slogan be Make Israel great again? Would he speak out against the political correctness approach in automatic condemnation rather than waiting for the results of an investigation?

kol isha alert

The Women of the Wall are looking to make history this Pesach, with the first ever "Birkat Kohanot" ceremony...

Fresh off their recent success at attaining the Kotel deal, they are pressing on and not just sitting pat.

In a Facebook post on the Women of the Wall Facebook page, they put out an invitation for women to join them for the ceremony and all women from kohein families to participate.

Interestingly, they claim support from Leonard and Susan Nimoy for this. Leonard Nimoy is dead, so I am not sure how he can be giving his support for it, and he died well before this first-time-ever event will have happened (though perhaps he would have if he had been alive - I don't know).

The Birkat Kohanot is going to take place in the women's section of the Kotel (unless it gets stopped) rather than in the egalitarian section of the Kotel designated specially for them.

Also interestingly -  I checked the calendar and discovered that the date of the Birkat Kohanot is going to be April 24, Sunday, the first day of Chol Hamoed Pesach. The regular Birkat Kohanim event is always on the first day of chol hamoed for "bnei chutz laaretz" - meaning on the second day of chol hamoed.

Thinking about that for a moment I came up with two thoughts:
1. they would probably have an even better event, from the perspective of drawing attention and creating a spectacle, and even from the perspective of equality I think if they would join the regular birkat kohanim event and have their kohanot join in and give the blessings to the plaza full of people rather than to the small number of people who will come just for their own event. I wonder why they are making a separate event.
2. The regular birkat kohanim does it on the second day of chol hamoed so bnei chutz laaretz can participate. For the Women of the Wall, there is probably no such thing as second day yom tov, as Reform Jews only keep one day of yom tov, even in chutz laaretz (most Reform Jews even keep just one day of Rosh Hashana). So they too are doing their event in a way that their bnei chutz laaretz can participate. This is another indication that the agenda of the WoW is being set by the Reform, despite the claims that they are not Reform but have Reform supporters and Reform people in the group.

sorry for the clickbait title :-)

so, should he have sat down? was he a jerk? or is it all ok because something good happened next?

cute ad for Yad Eliezer (video)

as I said before, I love it when the various candidates try to outdo each other on Israel..

Cruz starts off with a dvar torah for Purim...

this is important enough to interrupt the normal flow of posts, so here goes..

A local tzedaka organization is running their Purim collection campaign this year with a theme based off the Starbucks logo and slogans.

All is good, after some initial drama that brought them some nationwide attention, and they have gone forward with the campaign. The campaign includes spreading a number of stickers around the neighborhood with a variety of slogans.

One of them is this:

Now, I get that they are referring to coffee, and not alcohol, but that is a really poor choice of a slogan to use on erev purim. It can really be misconstrued. I think Drink Then Drive is a really bad campaign slogan, when in the entire world they are encouraging people, especially on Purim, to NOT drink and drive.

Even if you are giving this organization your tzedaka money, and matanot laevyonim, please, I encourage you, DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE!!!!

as long as the candidates are all trying to outdo each other in their support of Israel I am satisfied..

cute

The Jewish Agency brought a community of 17 Jews from Yemen, leaving just one more ocmmunity of about 50 Jews in that country. For now they want to stay and enjoy protection from the government.

The Ministerial Legislative Committee approved a law proposal that would amend the flag and symbols law.

MK Naveh Boker (Likud) proposed increasing the punishment for people who burn the Israeli flag. She would have the punishment go up from 300 lirot to 50,000nis, and from one year of prison to three years.

The committee rejected the suggestion to also cancel any rights to various financial benefits such as unemployment, grants and scholarships.

The idea of this, as Boker explains, is to stop the incitement in Arab towns and on campuses, where they hold protests every few months that include flag burning, and then they quiet down and get back to their lives enjoying their benefits from the State.
source: Ch10

I find it amazing that when they switched the currency to the New Israeli Shekel they did not adjust all the laws that refer to money and amend them to reflect the new form of currency.

This will not just affect Arab Israelis, but also more extreme Haredim, though they were not mentioned in the article. We'll see how it is enforced. They already often get taken in by the police and then released shortly after due to community pressure placed on the police, so it remains to be seen if this will change that or not.

.

Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit has published his official opinion that the Mikva Law being pushed by MK Moshe Gafni is unconstitutional (even though we have no constitution), as it harms people's personal rights to freedom of religious worship.
source: Kooker, among others

I find it very interesting that it is specifically Avihai Mandelblit, the new State Attorney General who is himself a frum (Haredi, even) Jew, is the one person in the entire government that is bold enough to stand up and tell Gafni that he cannot do something.

Everybody else is worried about coalition stability and politics, and Mandelblit is the one guy saying no, and it is on a religious issue that one would think would be close to his heart and he would be pretty close to Gafni in his opinion of the matter.

I am not accusing Mandelblit of being an "Uncle Tom" or having the need to prove himself as not biased towards Haredi interests, as people worry will happen whenever a Jews runs for office in the United States. Mandelblit seems like a good, honest guy serving with integrity and I am sure he truly finds the current proposal to be bad and has the strength to stand up to it where nobody else does due to personal interests.

Rav Shriki davens nears the border and the Hamas tunnels collapse.. I don't know if his prayers are the reason for it or not, but at least somebody is being proactive!

 

this is cute