.

an interesting case was brought before the beis din in Ariel, regarding a divorce and a fight over the kesuba.

The husband tried to get out of paying the kesuba, or at least to only pay a reduced rate. He made 2 claims:
1. the woman he married was evil, under the category of a wicked wife. That being the case, she should not deserve payment of her kesuba. He says that under the chuppa she followed the "minhag" of stepping on his foot, to show that she is in charge. After that, he says, she was very mean in general and did not perform what he considered her wifely duties (cooking, laundry, etc). she screamed and cursed and called his family members mean names.
2. the amount obligated in the kesuba was wrong.  He said she had requested, and he had agreed to, the sum of 26,000nis (1000 times the name of God). The rabbi mistakenly wrote 260,000nis. He says it went unnoticed because when the rabbi read the kesuba aloud, the rabbi only said "the sum as agreed to" and did not say the amount aloud. Had he heard the amount, he would have fixed it right away.

The beis din decided that the wife's behavior is reason for divorce, but not reason to prevent her from receiving her payment as obligated in the kesuba. Regarding the amount, basically the decision was that he signed the kesuba and obligated himself, and he should have paid better attention to what he was signing if he thinks it was mistaken.
source: Kikar and Haredim10

Basically, nothing new except the interesting story the claims are made on.

Kikar is reporting about a special session of the Jerusalem municipality that was due to meet in honor of Yom Yerushalayim. It was discovered he food to be served was certified as kosher under the supervision of the Beit Yosef hashgacha, which is not considered reliable enough for the UTJ representatives. The UTJ reps said they would either not participate or would participate without eating the food.

After some scrambling, the Mayor, Nir Barkat, resolved the predicament by having other food brought in for the UTJ representatives.

While I would not have reacted that way, I do appreciate that they felt they needed to, as public representatives. They did not want to, or could not, set an example or precedent, in eating the food.

What is surprising is that this happened at all. Is this the first time food is being served at a city hall function? Do they not have some sort of protocol in place to serve food that keeps all the members happy and find acceptable?

The BBC is reporting about a miracle that happened to save a life in the explosion during he terrorist attack in Manchester last week.

Surprisingly enough, perhaps, the miracle happened via a smartphone.

According to the BBC, Lisa Bridgett was using her smartphone when the attack happened. A nut from the bomb would have hit her and killed her if not for the smartphone she was using at the time. The nut went into the phone and its path was diverted or slowed down and only injured her.

While I am skeptical the smartphone was the source of the miracle, as a kosher phone could have done the same, as could have a book or  many other objects, and it was probably more something in her personal life that made her worthy of the miracle and the phone she was using was just the medium through which the miracle manifested itself, one cannot but appreciate and smile at the humor in the BBC headline, at least from an Orthodox Jewish perspective in which smartphones are not exactly considered worthy of meriting a miracle.

Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef in his weekly shiur gave some instructions to soldiers as to how they should behave in a situation where they must be present when kol isha is involved.

Rav Yosef said that soldiers in such a situation should lower their glasses, so as not to look at the women singing, and pick up a sefer and bring it close to the eyes and read from thee sefer in such a public way that everyone can see they are not listening to the female singer.

Rav Yosef pointed to himself as an example, saying he himself has done this.
source: Kikar

Rav Yosef's instructions are very well and good, except for two problems:
1. not all soldiers have glasses to publicly remove
2. most of the time soldiers are not carrying seforim, nor are they able to even if they would want to. Perhaps during downtime on the base they might have access to a sefer and be able to follow Rav Yosef's instructions in such a scenario, though I don't see such a scenario happening. If they are going to an official ceremony, which is where these problems usually happen, the soldiers will not be carrying seforim with them.

Rav Yosef should give them some more realistic, or plausible, instructions that will actually be helpful.

MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) discovered that the Electric Company has been doing repair work on one of their power stations for the past 6 weeks and that this week employees were instructed to prepare to work on Shabbos.

Maklev did what he does, and the EC agreed to cancel the work orders and chilul shabbos was avoided.
source: Behadrei

The Electric Company's only mistake was that they did not schedule this work to be done on the Shabbos right before Lag bOmer. Had they done so, nobody would have cared.

David and Sarah finally go on their first date. Jacobs explores foreign avenues for a love connection and Noa, Ben, and Z take up volunteering. 

“Soon By You” is a new comedic web series about six young Orthodox Jews living the single life in NYC. 

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, a day known as “Yom Yerushalayim.” Even while the US president arrives to pray and support, Jews in Israel are still under global pressure to forget, to give up, to leave... even disappear. Angry protesters spread ignorance and resentful neighbors won’t leave us alone.

In a statement of pride, producer/performer Gershon Veroba’s new Ani Yisrael album shows him at his best, fusing many musical styles in one place, similar to how Israel unifies all Jews. 

In the album’s first video, we’re assured that all Jews are considered Israelis. This time, “Let Me Be” is Gershon’s more serious protest anthem that reminds the world that we are wasting time and lives. It reiterates our unbreakable connection with Jerusalem and simply says “enough is enough.”

As before, filming was done on location in and around Jerusalem, including the beautiful Castel Museum, where Gershon drove home the importance of history with a 157 year-old grand piano.

“Let Me Be” is dedicated to producer & musical genius Larry Gates, Gershon’s friend and the only one he chose to collaborate with on his own two songs from the album. Larry completed his work on the album in the final months of his heroic 7-year battle with cancer, passing away a week after release. 

Now in Israel , the wondrous miracle of life continues, but we’d like to live that life in peace. 
“Let Me Be” highlights that life and struggle... a struggle we will carry into the future if we must. 

Behadrei has an interview with Deputy Defense Minister Rav Eli Ben Dahan about the upcoming elections for chief rabbis of a number of cities, including Bet Shemesh and Tel Aviv, among others.

Ben Dahan is running the campaign on behalf of Habayit Hayehudi to position religious zionist rabbis in [some of] the relevant cities.

The interview focuses on the possibility of deals to be made with Shas to divide up the cities and grant a religious zionist rabbi the position in Tel Aviv while granting a Shas-affiliated rabbi the position in Bet Shemesh (and other cities would be considered as well for discussion).

Regardless of who gets what, who grants who what, which city gets which rabbi, and what, if any, agreement, the two political parties arrive at, in my opinion this is, once again,, a sad situation. And I have said it before.

Instead of the best candidate being chosen or elected; the rabbi with the best qualifications, the best match for the city residents, the most dynamic or knowledgeable or capable... the positions will be filled by political considerations, with or without a deal (i.e. shas would appoint shas-affiliated rabbis and habayit hayehudi would appoint DL-affiliated rabbis, or they'll make a deal to do that with agreement), and itt does not make a difference to them if the rabbi is good for the city and its residents. They would each elect the rabbi they wan to advance based on foreign considerations.

The rabbinate appointments are good for the politicians. If they happen to be good for the residents, that is a side issue. This is because there is too much politics in the rabbinate, and why the rabbinate must be removed and separated from the politics.

Great to be able to daven shacharit (morning prayer) at the Western Wall ahead of my meetings today. pic.twitter.com/EzO2EunRpA

— Jason D. Greenblatt (@JasonDovEsq) May 25, 2017

According to reports, Satmar in NY will be supporting and encouraging the fights of the Peleg Yerushalmi in Israel and paying anybody forced to sit in jail for being  deserter from the IDF to the tune of $100 per day.

Two heroes have already been granted the first awards; Zvi Dov Friedman from Bet Shemesh was awarded $7400 for sitting 74 days in jail, and Yisrael Toledano was awarded $6300 for sitting 63 days in jail. Each was granted the money upon their recent release from jail.
source: Ynet, Srugim, INN, Walla News

This is significantly more money than what kollel brings in, so I think a significant percentage of people in the relevant groups might consider this a strong incentive.

BH there is a lot of money in the Jewish community, enough for everyone to support the causes dear to their hearts. At least the recipients of this award will be just a few less people they will be knocking on our doors to support. Unless you give your donations to Satmar who will need to fundraise to pay the awards...

There is a lot of talk about President Trump having gone to the Kotel, the first ever such visit by a sitting US President. It is historic, and presidents who were very friendly to Israel, such as Bill Clinton and George Bush, made sure to not visit the Kotel when president. They did not want to be perceived as taking sides or hurting the US position as an honest broker of sorts.

So why Trump? Why break the longstanding US position and set a new precedent?

I think Trump just does not care about history and unwritten rules. He does things his way, and if it might possibly help him accomplish what he is trying to accomplish he'll go ahead and do whatever it might be, no matter what the previous presidents thought of it or how they acted in similar situations.

Trump does not feel beholden to the unwritten rules or to history. He thinks he can succeed by doing things his way, so no need to feel weighed down by other people's limitations and issues.

My question is what will happen in 4 or 8 years, if nothing has changed by then and peace will not yet have been achieved? Will the next US president go back to the old rules of not visiting the Kotel and other such things, or will the precedent have already been set by Trump and now future US presidents can, and even be expected to, visit the Kotel?

The Har Habayit organizations had set a very ambitious goal to have 1000 people ascend Har Habayit on Yom Yerushalayim. This was very ambitious because it was going to be more than double the numbers from the previous year, and it is close to ten times the daily number of visitors. When I heard the number they were shooting for I was skeptical.

According to the reports and numbers published, 968 Jews ascended, with another 130 being turned away by the police for a variety of reasons.

That is an amazing accomplishment by the organizations promoting the aliyah, and a tremendous zchus for them and for the people who went up, and hopefully for eretz yisrael.

this ad is funny..

great historic visit - first ever visit to the Kotel by a sitting US president (not just by a presidential candidate, a president elect or a former president).

Fabulous.

So, what do you think Trump wrote on the note he stuck into the crevice of the wall?

Was it:
1. for divine intervention in the investigations against him back home?
2. for divine intervention in all the extreme opposition to him back home?
3. something more personal, such as request for good health, financial success, family members, etc?
4. something like, I have to make crevices for notes in the Mexican wall as well? do the crevices go on the Mexican side or the US side or both? Can I charge for putting notes into the wall?

anything else?

with everyone so high on Donald Trump's visit to Israel, now might be the time to ask for a smaller gesture than moving the embassy...

the embassy is a big move, and it brings with it a lot of problems, including that even some of the Israelis aren't sure they want it done. It would also take a long time and just physically be  ahumongous project. Something smaller can be done that would show his friendship and recognition of Israel and would affect less.

I would say to ask Trump to add just a few characters on his communications - the ", Israel".

That is, at least on communications regarding West Jerusalem, if not also East Jerusalem, it should say "Jerusalem, Israel" instead of just "Jerusalem".

The , Israel only adds 8 more characters to his Twitter postings, and it won't add much anywhere else either - in press statements, on passports, etc.

That little comma Israel can be a big gesture that would threaten less bloodshed than moving the embassy.

Rav Mazuz called on the Haredi MKs to fight to the end against the Kotel deal that is meant to grant a space for prayer to the Reform groups. He told them not to worry, even if necessary to bring down the government for this..

That much I get and can appreciate.

The part I find confusing is when he says in wonderment how they are "charging" on Jerusalem, as if it interests them when it never did before and they considered it an "old grandmother that should be given an honorable burial. Rav Mazuz says that they should leave Jerusalem alone and make for themselves a Kotel in Tel Aviv and they can do there whatever they want..
source: Haredim10

Really? The Haredi MKs are instructed to let them do whatever they want in Tel Aviv? They can have their buses on Shabbos and build their temples and the Haredi MKs will leave them be?

I was not aware that this is the Haredi position, or maybe Rav Mazuz is simply disagreeing on that with all the other rabbonim telling the Haredi MKs what to do about the fights in Tel Aviv..

According to an interview with the new broadcasting agency Kaan, Rabbi Metzger seems to really be enjoying hsi time in prison.

Metzger is in what is considered the "VIP" ward of Maasiyahu prison and says he is living the good life and as happy as can be.

According to his responses in the interview, Rabbi Metzger says conditions there are better than in a dormitory and far better than conditions on reserve duty. He has an air conditioned beis medrash to learn in with comfy furniture and nobody bothering him. Everybody gets along, comes to davening, eats together, cooks together.... and the food is amazing and there are chefs there making food that even at home he has nothing like.
source: Haredim10

I hope his wife is not insulted by how he happy he is in prison, especially with the food but also with all the other conditions he is so impressed with.

Maybe he is just being positive and trying to make the best of a bad situation. Or maybe prison really isn't that bad - at least not in the VIP ward.

according to COL Live:
9-year-old Chaim Brikman of Crown Heights enjoys a 4-gallon Slurpee at 7-Eleven's "bring your own cup day"

how can anybody even drink that much, let alone before it all melts? and if he can possibly drink it fast enough before it melts, that would probably cause the worst brain freeze ever!

Today, Hatzala Beit Shemesh needs your support, so Hatzala’s Heroes can be ready anytime the unthinkable happens and at all times.

Please donate at: www.unidy.org/hbs

Hatzala Beit Shemesh (HBS) is an independent, nonprofit emergency medical organization certified by the Ministry of Health (Misrad Habriut).

A dedicated and fully trained group of sixty dedicated volunteers, serve the residents of Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph & Gimmel (RBS A & C) with the best emergency medical care available free of charge. With the nearest hospital nearly forty-five minutes away, HBS provides a critical lifesaving service every day and night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year

Being that Steven Tyler is not Jewish, he would have to either convert (with a Rabbanut approved Rabbi) or get some sort of special dispensation like some athletes get in order to be able to play in Israel..

looks like Rav Shmuel Auerbach is making changes to the extreme, and not just regarding appearing before the IDF draft board.

Rav Auerbach instructed a boys school under his authority to relieve all female nursery school teachers (ganenet/ganenot) from their duties and replace them with male rebbes instead.

The surprised parents complained to the principal who went back to Rav Auerbach for clarification. He asked Rav Auerbach to clarify as the situation is one of very young children, even prior to learning "aleph beis" and it not being a situation of women teaching torah but just relating stories form the parsha, and the women are God-fearing..

Rav Auerbach answered definitively that they must be replaced with male rebbes as having female teachers for boys is a new reality that was never before acceptable and the influence even at such a tender young age is immeasurable.

It is a matter of hashkafa and not specific to this or that teacher, as fine as they might be.
source: Haredim10

I would hope his girl schools do not have male principals or teachers, as the influence of inter-gender teaching and  mingling goes both ways...

(as an aside, I would like to see his history books to see what else is considered new and never before acceptable)

I am not one to normally comment on women's fashion, but this is something I have to mention and offer my respect.

Minister Miri Regev decided to honor the 50th anniversary of the recapturing of Jerusalem at the Cannes Festival with a dress specially designed with the images of Jerusalem on it.


Regev also called for masses of people to go to Har Habayit, in honor of Yom Yerushalayim.

Respect.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem...

definite caption contest!

1/12 | In the first video of the mini-series, find out about the early steps that led to the 1967 Six Day War - a war that changed the future of Israel. Surrounded by enemy neighbors and only nine miles wide at its narrowest point, Israel was vulnerable. 

In May of 1967, the state of Israel was only 19 years old. At its inception in 1948, five Arab armies had coordinated a military invasion to prevent the creation of the small Jewish country. But Israel’s War of Independence succeeded in repelling the forces bent on Israel’s destruction. Israel reclaimed sovereignty over the ancient Jewish homeland, making way for the establishment of a Jewish country after 2,000 years of statelessness and periods of persecution.

Yet despite Israel’s success in creating a new country, it did not enjoy peace with its neighbors. Terrorism and frequent attacks on three borders kept Israel in a perpetual state of alert.

To the north, from the Golan Heights, Syria shelled Jewish communities below on a regular basis. In the South and East, Arab terrorists from Egyptian-controlled Gaza and the Jordanian-controlled West Bank infiltrated and perpetrated attacks on Israeli civilians, killing 400 in the 19 years since Israeli independence.

The attacks reached the point that they were condemned as “deplorable” by then-Secretary General of the United Nations U Thant.

Although the Jewish state had been welcomed into the United Nations and hailed by the international community, its Arab neighbors rejected its very right to exist, preparing to resume a war for Israel’s destruction which they had halted 19 years earlier. The Arab buildup for all-out war was very near.

In this video - the first in a 12-part mini-series - you will learn about the regional atmosphere leading up to the 1967 Six Day War, and find out about the early steps that led to the war that changed the future of Israel.

In a world that constantly tells us to get all we can, every so often it’s important to be reminded of the power of generosity.

Starting from a very young age Avi Beer has always had a passion for Jewish music and a great interest to produce his own music and songs. Avi spent almost two years in the Yeshiva Boys Choir and has since then been writing music with hopes to one day produce them all. Vihasieinu was composed by Menashe Mazurek. The lyrics are found in the Shmoneh Esray of the Moadim. It is Avi's hope that this song will uplift everyone's Yom Tov and inspire people through this beautiful song.

the following video taken by Yaakov Lederman is of a mob in RBS B being aggressive in the presence of two Haredi IDF soldiers. It turns out this was a sting operation and it was undercover police who then turned around and arrested some of the ringleaders.

We have "gotten used to" these types of mobs. I don't mean we find them normal and acceptable, but we are not surprised by them any more.

As I was watching the video, it struck me that what bothered me more than the harassing of Haredi soldiers, as bad as that is, and more than the violence (only verbal in this video and not physical, though that happens as well on occasion) is that children have been trained to be disrespectful to adults. With no sense of perspective there are children boldly telling adults how to live their lives and what is right and what is wrong.

For that I grieve.

very interesting discussion

Next week there will be elections for the position of chairman of the Histadrut labor union.

The current chairman of the Histadrut, Avi Nissenkorn, running for re-election, is frustrated that Shas made a deal with one of his opponents, Shely Yachimovitz.

According to Nissenkorn, Shas should have made a professional decision, a decision based on values and gratitude, to support him, but instead they made a political decision. Nissenkorn says he helped the haredi community a lot in his position as chairman, and he lists many examples. According to Nissenkorn, Shas made their deal with Yachimovitz, because however much he had promised Shas and done for them in the past, Yachimovitz promised more for their support.

Good morning, Mr. Nissenkorn. Shas, a political party, made a decision to support a candidate based on political issues and on who would promise them more. Does Mr Nissenkorn not know how the system works - how any political party works, let alone Shas (as a reminder, 10 years ago I coined the term "Shastitutes")?

Steven Tyler, of Aerosmith, in Israel for a concert on their world tour, bumps into new US Ambassador David Friedman at the Kotel. Tyler is not Jewish, Friedman is.

This deserves a caption contest.

I admit to not being an expert on the nuances of Satmar, but this statement put out by one of the Satmar Rebbes (Rebbe Zalman) is surprising to me..

The Rebbe said that it is obvious that one is allowed to go to the draft board in order to get his exemption from the IDF. He also said that the Divrei Yoel (Rav Yoel Teitelbaum) also said the same, and it is too much mesirus nefesh to not go at all and it would be very difficult to say going to the board is prohibited.
source: Haredim10

What is more interesting about this than the little item and understanding about Satmar is the revelation that the Peleg Hayerushalmi people led by Rav Shmuel Auerbach are seemingly being even more extreme than Satmar on this issue

We’re a bit tired, but we wanted to come straight to the holiest place in the entire Jewish world, the ‘Kotel Hama’aravi,’ the Western Wall, so we straight came here.

  -- US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman

I am assuming the "straight came" was a typo and he actually said "came straight"

It seems the Trump administration has become part of the #fakenews industry, as the Western Wall is not "the holiest place in the entire Jewish world", but Har Habayit, and more precisely the makom hamikdash, is..

Actually, David Friedman seems the type to go to Har Habayit. Maybe someone can plant the seed and maybe he'll eventually actually go to the holiest place in the Jewish world!

riveting talk

היום מצויין יום השנה ה-69 לנכבה.
לגברת הזו היה בית עם דלת רב בריח כמעט 30 שנה לפני שרב בריח נוסדה. pic.twitter.com/dDWawMy8UV

— Middle East News (@arab_il) May 15, 2017

Today the Palestinians are marking the 69th anniversary of "Nakba Day". This woman is holding a key to the house she says was taken from her. Somehow she has a key to a Rav Bariach door from 30 years before Rav Bariach was founded.

Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, rav of Tzfat, had an interesting perspective on the discussion of the chilul shabbos in the preparations for the Lag bOmer bonfires in Meron.

Rav Eliyahu said that what the police do is not chilul shabbos. Their preparations are necessary to protect the masses of people, and therefore are really a big mitzva. That being the case, the celebrants are not causing chilul shabbos. While it would be better to delay the bonfires so as to avoid causing the police to travel on Shabbos, the actual travel being done is not considered chilul shabbos. If we would consider it a probelem, Rav Eliyahu says, one would not be allowed to go to Mearat Hamachpela on Shabbos, and definitely not on Shabbos Chayei Sara. As well, one would not be allowed to live in places like Bet El, or actually anywhere in Eretz Yisrael.
source: Kipa

That is an interesting perspective.

The debate has been looking at the increased chilul shabbos caused by the bonfires happening after shabbos. The police actions were never in question, as far as I can tell, but the causing of those actions was. According to Rav Eliyahu such considerations are not relevant because nobody would ever be allowed to do anything in Eretz Yisrael on Shabbos or after Shabbos anywhere. The fact that it is a mass event makes no difference. If you are causing chilul shabbos of a few police or soldiers, it is the same as causing the chilul shabbos of thousands of police and soldiers. And it isnt chilul shabbos anyway.

The problem is that the chilul shabbos is happening at a time before the pikuach nefesh happens, not as a result of pikuach nefesh. As well, people are knowingly putting themselves in a situation in which the situation will then become pikuach nefesh - there is discussion in halacha whether one can knowingly create a bdieved situation and then benefit from hetterim of the results.

Regardless of all that, the issue Rav Eliyahu discussed was the chilul shabbos, or not, of the police. He did not find a way to justify the work caused to the bus drivers, the organizers, and all the other people not dealing with pikuach nefesh but working on shabbos to be ready on time and to make sure plans go smoothly..

A Jordanian tourist in Israel stabbed a policeman and was then shot dead.

The Jordanians are upset and are demanding clarifications from Israel about the incident and why the Israelis shot a Jordanian.

Here is your clarification, King Hussein - because he stabbed an Israeli!

Even ignoring the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, no matter what country in the world you might be in, if you stab a policeman, the policeman, and other security responders, are going to shoot you dead. That's just the way it is. Add the element of terror in Israel and the trigger finger is even a bit quicker.

I have been to many bonfires, including Litvishe, Israeli, American,. dati, chassidic, sefardic, etc. and it seems to me that pretty much the chassidim have their tradition of what to do and everyone else just stands around looking at the bonfire, talk with their friends sings for a few minutes and then roast marshmallows. For most non-hassidic communities, the bonfire is really just a nice social event.

I have found that the only people who seem to "know what to do" around a Lag b'Omer bonfire are chassidim, and that is probably because the Lag bOmer bonfire is really a chassidishe minhag that was started, or at least made popular, by the "Arizal". We don't find any serious discussion in Chazal or halacha about the bonfire until the Ari, and even after there is very little about it.

My question is, how did what is so clearly a chassidishe minhag become so prevalent among all sectors of Judaism today?

In general I am all for more social events in the frum community. We have very few times to interact with our friends. Most shuls don't make regular kiddushes on Shabbos, except for a simcha. General social interaction is frowned upon as people are encouraged to spend their free time going to shiurim and learning torah, along with dissuading situations that are mixed gender. "Going out" in the frum community is also difficult because of limitations, such as not going to movies or kol isha at theater shows, mixed swimming and the like. So the bonfire seems to be a relatively low-key social interaction event and I think that is fine - but that is not really the intention when the shuls or communities plan such an event - it just happens that way because people don't really know what else to do, or feel uncomfortable doing it.

So, how did such a clearly chassidishe minhag become so prevalent among the non-chaasidishe communities?

someone sent this in to me from their workplace.. and it makes me wonder what it means..



so, does it mean:
1. it is not kosher. but why mention it is pareve? might people care less that it is not kosher because it is not meat or milk?
2. maybe someone might eat not kosher food but would not eat non kosher meat with non kosher milk?
3. it is kosher but maybe someone wouldn't eat it because it would baked in a non-kosher kitchen, though it was baked in a kosher way? I would think the writer should be more specific and say that it is kosher, if  it is, considering that the note-poster writes it was baked in a non-kosher kitchen. As long as it is kosher, why would the non-kosher kitchen make a difference?

are there any other options?

UPDATE:
I have been told what this is about. the cake was baked kosher, in a non kosher kitchen. it is noted as being pareve because some people are lactose intolerant.

Brief rundown of what happened:
The wife of Yisrael Cohen was riding the bus 4255 from Ohr Yehuda to Jerusalem. Opposite him was sitting, behind the driver, the Haredi fellow depicted in the picture attached to the post. At one of the stops, a soldier gets on the bus with his gun and massive duffel bag, seemingly going home for Shabbos. The driver asked him for his soldier ID, as required to let him on without payment, but he could not find it in his pockets and the documents he did have were not sufficient for the driver.

Without the "choger", the soldier ID, the driver had to ask for payment for the ride. The soldier rifled through his pockets to get his money out, but the fellow behind the driver interceded and paid the driver without saying a word. The soldier then said to the tzaddik "wait - I have money!", the tzaddik depicted said "no way - you don't need to pay for serving ... soldiers don't pay"

My apologies for nto updating the blog the past couple of days. A medical emergency in the family did not afford me the time or ability to do so