Living in today’s modern world of smart-phones and mini-everything… it’s becoming commonplace for people to lose their eyesight. As reading glasses become more necessary...and even more expensive...it’s hard not to think, what if you could just fix your vision?

it doesn't take all that much to do something good for someone else..

I am sure that the earthquake [in Italy] happened because of the UNESCO decision that the Pope really did not like, and even said publicly that Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jewish nation...

  -- MK Ayoub Kara (Likud)

needless to say, the Foreign Ministry had to issue an apology for Kara's statement. Funny that he thought he could play God's accountant while in the Pope's house..

Ivanka Trump at Florida Synagogue: My Father Called Before Jewish High Holidays and Said ‘You Better Pray Hard for Me’

  -- Algemeiner

while the first episode was fun and interesting, I think each one has gotten progressively worse. So, this aftershow would be for real fans...


Jennifer Mann and Esther Mann AKA The Navidaters share some dating advice and discuss episode three in depth with special guest Jessica Schechter.

Rav Yizchak Zilbershtein, rav of Ramat Elchonon of Bnei Braq, was asked if a parent could buy an electric bike for his/her child, or if they could allow the child to ride one.

Rav Zilbershtein responded that there is nothing to consider, and based on the number and severity of accidents involving electric bicycles, they should be treated as an item that is dangerous to the public.

Parents that have allowed their children to use electric bikes should know that they are partners to actual murder (base don a gemara about parents being accessories to a crime for not preventing it) and will be considered as murderers and be made to pay for it.

A parent under pressure to buy such a bicycle should know that an electric bike is like a gun. Giving such a bike to a child is similar to giving the child a loaded gun.
source: Kikar

MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu imploring him to not lift the ban on MKs from visiting Har Habayit.

In Gafni's letter he writes (my translation):

Temple Mount is the holiest place to the Jewish nation. That's where the servic eof the Bet Hamikdash was, the sacrifices were offered there, the Holy of Holies was located there into which the Kohen Gadol entered on Yom Kippur... Because of our sins the Temple was destroyed and there is a "chiyuv kares" for going up to Har Habayit. We now pray "our eyes should see your merciful return to Zion". Not ascending Har Habayit is the deepest proof of our connection to this holy place to which all the prayer s around the world are directed.
Recently it has been publicized that the police, under certain conditions, are recommending to allow MKs to ascend Har Habayit, and the decision is in your hand.
I hereby turn to youand request you take the decision to continue preventing the ascent to Har Habayit, both for the diplomatic reasons of how states around the world relate to this, and for the security reasons due to the incitement in the arab world, and not just there, because of this, and especially because there is no reason for [ascending] - it does not show authority. Just the opposite. It is a desecration of the holiness at the most holy place to Jews....

sources: INN, NRG

It sounds like backwards logic. Keeping us away from it shows how great our connections is. I can think of many examples in which keeping us away from something does not indicate any strong connection, though there is a certain logic, backwards as it may be, in saying that keeping the distance shows our respect for it more.  By that logic he should accept the UNESCO findings and encourage the Prime Minister to keep the Jews away from the Kotel - and our distance from the Kotel will prove our deep connection to it. That has diplomatic issues, and the security issues could be relevant in a moments notice, if the Muslims decide to rally around the UNESCO decision.

His argument does not hold much weight though, If the police are recommending to allow them back on, it means they have evaluated the situation and have decided that it poses no security threat any longer. Who is Moshe Gafni to come and say it still poses a threat?

From a halachic perspective it is also inaccurate. There was never any "chiyuv kares" to ascend Har Habayit. Even if one says that Jews should not today do so for any of a variety of reasons, one cannot just make things up. There was never a chiyuv kares for this, and nobody can create one. There is a chiyuv kares for being in the azara in a state of impurity, but not on Har Habayit.

Gafni should keep arguing his real position that the rabbonim have banned it and halacha is against it (which is debatable, but at least it is a real position to get behind) and not just make things up.

that is Lance Armstrong, the champion cyclist stripped of his titles and records for doping, visiting in Jerusalem and posing with a group of Haredi young men cyclists. Armstrong said they are the future of cycling.

The story goes that yesterday, on the Shmini Atzeres/Simchas Torah holiday, some Muslims from Turkey decided to take advantage of the fact that there would be no religious Jews in the airport and they went to pray in the Ben Gurion synagogue. They used tallitot from the shul as their prayer mats to kneel on.

A secular Jew happened to spot them (and record the video below) and told them that it was not appropriate. They apologized and left.



This incident has caused a bit of a ruckus. It was passed around in a few groups I am a member of, accompanied with criticism and comparisons as to what would happen if a Jew would have done something similar in a mosque.

I am a bit torn.

On the one hand, we are more tolerant, for better or worse, and while Arabs would probably murder Jews, or at least riot and turn it into an international incident, that did this in a mosque, we let it slide with just some words of criticism by the people. We are not a violent people, and we don't turn every minor, and often even major, incident into an excuse for violent actions.

On the other hand, maybe we should be more protective of our honor and of our religious sites. After all, they would be, so why aren't we? Do we respect our sites less?

On the third hand, is it really a big deal? Are other people really not allowed to pray in our shuls?  Obviously not, when dealing with anything classified as avoda zara, but what's wrong with prayers that are not involving avoda zara? In the Beis Hamikdash non-Jews were allowed to pray and offer sacrifices, so why not in a shul?

The rabbonim of Mattesdorf have gotten together to ban, or prohibit, the use of bimbos on Shabbos in the streets of the neighborhood.



it seems using bimbos in the streets during the week is ok, as is using bimbos in private on Shabbos - just not in the street on Shabbos.

I do not know how many women in Mattesdorf are considered bimbos, but looks like things are going to be changing out there for them...

just joking, but that is what happens when a sign is written and they do not check it for spelling. They were one letter off, but it changed bimba to bimbo.

So, don't use your bimbas or your bimbos in public on Shabbos, just in case. We have to assume the "ksiv" and the "kree"..

best movie for sukkos. enjoy!

it took me a minute to realize what was going on... cute clip

cute

This is funny. And Sad.

Someone is upset that Eli Beer, the director of Ichud Hatzala, went to speak in a Reform synagogue and raise money for his organization there from Reform Jews.

As if no other frum institution accepts donations from Reform Jews...

According to Kikar, an interesting, and weird, incident happened at a Kapparos location in Jerusalem.

A family went to do their annual kapparos with a chicken ceremony. When performing the ceremony over the 1.5 year old son, immediately after saying the phrase "this rooster will go to its death", the rooster died in their hands.

The father freaked out a bit, as anybody would, and went and replaced it with a different rooster. Upon performing the ceremony again the same thing happened a second time - the rooster died in their hands immediately after saying the phrase "this rooster will go to its death".

As they say, third time is a charm. The third set worked and the rooster did not die until they killed it.

Afterwards the father went to his rav to ask what it all signifies, if they must be concerned. The rav's answer was very rational and instead of saying he has to do tshuva for something or it shows someone was meant to die, God forbid, but received forgiveness, or anything like that, he railed against the kapparos ceremony as performed today saying it is prohibited to do kapparos in the street, the chickens are left in the heat and not given water to drink, they are left outside in the heat for 15 hours, cages on cages... it is tzaar baalei chaim..

Either way, it would freak anyone out...

Netanyahu says Dimona nuclear reactor to be named for Peres

  -- Times of Israel

Wait - what nuclear reactor? The nuclear reactor we never admitted to having?

Rivlin always had a great sense of humor and ability to laugh, and as president he is workign to be a force of acceptance and unity among sectors..

next video in the documentary series is about Rav Ovadia..

new cute and poignant video from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

beautiful song taken from slichos...

Two events in Jerusalem are coming under fire, almost  in the same way the selichos event in Tel Aviv came under fire last week to the point that the organizers decided to throw in the towel and just cancel it (as an aside, see this post in TOI in which the author calls such secular activists "Secular Charedim").

The first event is a series of selichos events with chazzanim and paytanim in neighborhoods and cultural centers around Jerusalem. In Gilo, a largely secular neighborhood with sizable religious and Haredi communities, someone realized that the event was going to have many people performing yet none of them, not a single one, would be female. This activist decided to get involved, considering a ruling of the Supreme Court requiring city-sponsored events to be inclusive of women as well, and pressured the Iryah to the point that the Iryah added a female singer to the list of performers in the Gilo event.

It is still coming under criticism, but now from both directions. Some still don't like the Iryah's original intent, which was the exclusion of women - and continues to be that way in events in other parts of Jerusalem. Others, even some who support the inclusion of women, are upset that the Iryah has now meddled with the professional decisions of the organizers as to which performers would participate and say it is not the Iryah's place to decide on performers and to schedule them in without consultation.
source: Kipa

The other option was to take the chance on the event getting canceled entirely.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The second event under fire is an event technically sponsored and organized by El Hamaayan, an organization affiliated with Shas, though almost entirely (90%) funded by City Hall.

the event is to take place on the upcoming Sukkos holiday in Sultan's Pool in Jerusalem at which the masses of Shas supporters are able to come and see and greet their rabbonim during the holiday.

The event, as expected, does not include any women. Activists want the Iryah to pull its funding of this event, which would almost definitely effect its cancellation.

In response to this, Minister Aryeh Deri claims, and he also points to the addition of the female performer to the selichos event described above, that people are trying to secularize the city of Jerusalem. He asks, "don't we pay arnona? do we benefit form the money used for races and other events around Jerusalem? Now they want women to lead slichos as Chazzaniyot - soon they won't allow us to daven in shul."

Shas later put out a statement that the opponents are mistaken and women are being included in the lineup of the event.
source: Kooker

While I happen to agree that events for the Haredi public should be in accordance with their rules and lifestyle, I do not know about public funding. The law is the law, and that somewhat ties City Hall's hands, but the City needs to provide services for all its residents, and it should be allowed to provide an event for the Haredi public that conforms to the rules of the community and that will be designed in a way that the residents will actually go to it rather than avoid it.

I do disagree with the logic of Aryeh Deri's argument. Residents do not get to choose where their tax money goes to and what it gets used for. The fact that the city holds events that the Haredi community does not benefit from (which is a point that is debatable in at least some of those events he refers to - e.g. there are haredim who participate in the various races, there are benefits to Haredim from concerts and other events such as via merchants that benefit, haredim who go to the events, money brought into the city that helps it improve services, etc) does not mean they have something coming to them, nor does it mean they have some sort of claim. They do have a claim as residents that need and deserve services from the local municipality - nothing more, nothing less.

A community in Jerusalem - a community of extremists, it seems - has put up a notice in its shul, Ohel Yesharim, for the High Holidays letting people know that they will not be facilitating women in fulfilling their obligations if they cover their head with a wig rather than with a "head covering".
sources: Haredim10, Kikar

1. I presume "head covering" means tichel or snood or something like that. Technically the head is covered equally when in a wig, even if you believe a wig is immodest.

2. what obligations do women need to fulfill that they are preventing? The articles (linked above) assume it refers to shofar blowing, but that is not mentioned explicitly in the sign, and, more importantly, women are not obligated to hear the shofar. Unfortunately I cannot think of another example of what it might refer to.

3. My approach would be different. In at least 2 ways:
        1. I would not consider a person a sinner and beyond the pale for doing something that I thought was wrong, if they had other valid opinions to rely on. I might not agree, but I wouldn't consider them sinners.
         2. Especially on the High Holidays, when we are asking God to ignore our sins or forgive them and continue to include us within His community of the Jewish people, my approach would to try to be more inclusive than exclusive.

4. I guess they have moved on from the smartphones as the focus of these types of exclusions.

a new documentary looking at Israel's leading rabbis of recent history, starting with Rav Mordechai Eliyahu..

(this is from the end of July but only recently went up on Youtube - or at least, only recently did I find it)

Gary Johnson could not think of a single foreign leader... until an Israeli came to mind, and then his favorite world leader was a dead Israeli...

Peres requested Avinu Malkeinu be sung at his funeral, and David D'Or knocked it out of the park singing about Our Father Our King in front of the entire world......

this was during the funeral of Shimon Peres..
the King of Spain wearing a kippa. Maybe he is descended from Marranos..

King Felipe of Spain's yarmulke just fell off. Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands picked it up and handed it to him with a smile.

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) September 30, 2016

when a kosher restaurant made the cut...