Featured Post

Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!

(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...

Oct 31, 2017

Facebook Status of the Day

sorry that it was not "shareable" so
I had to screenshot it...




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Proposed Law: The face of our money

MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) has proposed a law that would transfer the responsibility of selecting the images of people to grace the face of the variety of paper monies in our pockets from the advisory board of the Bank of Israel to the Knesset Committee of Education, Culture and Sport.

Shas's goal in this is to fight the lack of inclusion of Sephardic people gracing the faces of our money. The Knesset, elected by the people is more representative of the people and the Israeli culture comprised of a mosaic of cultures.

The proposal is being prepared to go to the Ministerial Legislative Committee and from there to the Knesset.
source: Behadrei

I am surprised the original committee was not sensitive enough to include any mizrahim. Those days should be behind us.

The only problem is that there are so few bills and they are refreshed with new images so infrequently that it is difficult to right this wrong. Meaning, even if this law passes, it won't change anything until the next time bills are redesigned, which will surely be at least a good few years. Then there will also be the issue of who is included. Again, with so few bills, when the next batch of names get selected, what happens when no Yemenite Israeli is included, or an Ethiopian Israeli, or a Russian Israeli (etc etc), leader in whatever field is being chosen from. And,  even among the Sephardim, maybe an Iraqi will be selected but Israelis of Egyptian and Moroccan and Tunisian descent will feel slighted. Not everybody can ever be satisfied, unless they print far more denominations of bills, but that might be bad for the economy..








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Quote of the Day

Israel is one of the greatest accomplishments of the 20th century, and we commend and bless her.. 

  -- British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, marking the centenary of the Balfour Declaration






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Gabe Kapler to become major league manager


The Philadelphia Phillies are hiring Gabe Kapler as their new manager.

Kapler has managed and coached mostly in the minor leagues until now and has been involved in other aspects of baseball in a variety of ways.

Gabe Kapler is a Member of the Tribe. a Jew, and has coached Israel's National Baseball Team and in 2013 was the manager of Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic.

Good luck Gabe Kapler! I won't be rooting for the Phillies, but I always like to see our brothers succeed.


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Israelis: What if Israel were established by Eastern Jews? (video)







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Q & A with Ariella! (video)

she is a brilliant violinist..






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new Israel railway station in Jerusalem (video)







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UnderDos: prisoners of hi-tech (video)








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YidLife performs Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, sort of (video)







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Oct 30, 2017

Tweet of the Day






In the sefer Elya Rabba, written by Rav Eliyahu Shapira, the head of the Mesivta of Prague, of the greatest and most important of poskim, he writes in chapter 685 paragraph 4:
I found written that whenever Rosh Chodesh Shvat falls out on a Wednesday, it will be called and there will be a lot of snow that winter. The sign for this is the letters of "Vayigash" that are an acronym for "6th Day Gimmel Shvat" - meaning, when the 3rd of Shvat falls out on Friday, so Rosh Chodesh is on Wednesday, we read the letters of Vayigash backwards which reads as "snow, rain will come down and cold". Tried and tested.


I have no idea if this actually works out and I have no intention to compare the calendar looking for every year Rosh Chodesh Shvat landed on a Wednesday and compare those winters levels of rainfall and snowfall... I also do not know what the relevance of the word Vayigash is, as that is not the parsha of the week that week. Anyways, we can sill be hopeful, as this year Rosh Chodesh Shvat is on a Wednesday.





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a game of cat and mouse in Bet Shemesh

It is a game of cat and mouse. While usually the mouse gets away and successfully avoids the cat, this time the cat caught the mice.

the police raided the extremist neighborhood of Bet Shemesh using some new tactics, and this time came away with a victory. While often the mice, the extremists, use methods that help them be informed of impending police raids and activity and they use that information to hide out or get away before the police can snatch them, the new tactics employed by the police last night allowed them to capture the thugs successfully.
sources: Actualic, Kikar

The question is what is going to happen to them now that they have been taken in? Will the police slap them on the wrists and let them go fairly quickly? Will the Haredi politicians who give some lip service to disassociating form them help get them released? Will the police and courts come down on hard on them? Maybe they should be evicted to some hilltop in Lebanon like what Yitzchak Rabin did with 400 terrorists...


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Anne Frank transporting people through Germany

This is weird.

One of the Deutsch Bahn's new Intercity Express High Speed trains (aka ICE-4) has been christened with the name "Anne Frank". Officials explain that the name Anne Frank has become symbolic of tolerance and coexistence.
Source: DerWesten (with the help of Google Translate)

Very strange.

I mean, who wants to see a German train called Anne Frank transporting people back and forth? Maybe they can put this train on the Bergen Belsen route.

It is hard to believe anyone actually thought this is a good idea...




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Hechshers and social engineering

 The areas of Geula, Mea Shearim and Shmuel Hanavi have gentrified to a certain extent and have become the home to many restaurants and eateries. They are popular hangouts at night for the Haredi community.

According to Actualic, many such places in the area have received letters from a group calling themselves the "Vaad Ichlus" informing them that they must close their restaurants no later than 11:30pm every night, beginning November 5, 2017. The letter explains that they, the vaad, are fighting against this new culture of late night food and eating in these areas. threats include causing the eateries to lose their hechsher and legal action to force the shops to shut down completely. The issue is one of safeguarding the holiness of the area as these late night situations become hangouts and attractive to young people not desirable to the neighbors.

Business owners who have received these letters say that the demand is unreasonable and will detsroy them.

I don't know what their business licenses allow, but if they are only allowed to be open until 11pm, the neighbors who feel disturbed should simply call the police at 11:01pm and complain about the noise and the disturbance. If they are allowed to remain open later, good for them. Such threats, if acted upon, will only drive all these young people, the desirables and the undesirables, to other areas where the nightlife continues. But at least it won't be in "my backyard".

the hechsher should be about kashrut and not about social engineering. I get that it is always about more than kashrut, as it always takes into other issues such as shabbat observance and atmosphere/entertainment of the restaurant, but I think the social engineering of when to close, when to fold up tables and all that is wrong for a hechsher to be involved in. The only good that can come of it is if the owners stand up to them and agree to get rid of those hechshers and take on other hechshers, and the patrons continue to eat there knowing what caused the change and that nothing really changed. Take away the power form the hechshers.




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Ethnicities of Israel: Bulgaria (video)







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One on One with Alan Dershowitz - Oct. 26, 2017 (video)








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Israeli Frenemies - Oct. 27, 2017 (video)







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IT'S COLD! (video)

lol





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Todah תודה - Music Video by Tzvi Silberstein (video)

New music from Tzvi Silberstein singing Todah, featuring @FlatbushGirl. A funny little video about thanking Hashem always, no matter how crazy your day is going.





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Oct 29, 2017

Quote of the Day

They look like us, but they are simply not us and we are not them

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), explaining to the Knesset Honor Guard about the Peleg violent protest last week by the Knesset in which they attacked members of the Guard.



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where do Shas voters go?

I don't normally relate to polls, especially mid-term polls, because they are pointless and almost meaningless. If polls get the electoral results so wrong around election time, how much more wrong they must be when it is not elections season, in my opinion.

Despite that, there is a poll being bandied about now that is indicating that if elections were to be held today, Shas would not achieve the minimum threshold and would not make it back into the Knesset.

Again, this is a meaningless poll. There is no campaigning going on and presumably, if there were, Shas would dredge up the memory of Rav Ovadia and get some more votes from that. In addition, just by the nature of campaigning they would wake up at least some of their more complacent voters and get a boost from that. And of course the call of the rabbis to vote Shas would draw in a bunch more.

I really do not think they are prone to disappearing right now, though it is possible they might continue to shrink.

That being said, I do wonder where all these Shas voters are going. When Shas was formed, they took a lot of their voters from the Likud, some from Mafdal, and then a bit from a few other parties. Likud is not growing in the polls but might get a few former Shas supporters. Habayit Hayehudi might get some. UTJ will get a bunch of the more yeshivish Shas voters. Maybe the new small parties that crop up and disappear will pick some up. I don't know but these polls make me wonder where they are all going if they are no longer supporting Shas.




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Rabbi Dov Halbertal and Rabbi Seth Farber on the Supreme Court Shabbos ruling (video)







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Ido Kanner interviews people at a Peleg protest (video)

this is pretty funny


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Geography Now! ISRAEL (video)

not bad at all..

Well. This is it. North Korea is going to be a breeze after this. I talked to a lot of Israeli and Palestinian Geograpeeps for help with this video and I tried my best to cover it in a well-rounded format that addresses the controversy head on from each perspective. No matter what, people will get mad, but there's no escaping or avoiding this episode. Here we go. Israel.




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Synagogues of New York (video)







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Yonina- Hakol Letova (video)







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Oct 26, 2017

Jerusalem expansion opposition

A law proposal is on the docket to expand the municipal borders of Jerusalem. The issues involved are complicated with the various towns affected not losing their local influence while becoming  part of Greater Jerusalem - voting for local leadership and for city leadership. Budgets and I am sure many other issues will be affected and have to be worked out.

Or maybe not.

The heads of the Haredi parties have expressed their dissatisfaction with this proposal and have said they would oppose it when it comes up. (source: Kikar)

Why?

Because they are concerned that with all these new areas being included to expand Jerusalem, many more secular and dati residents will be added to the city registrar and will make it that much more difficult for a Haredi to be elected as mayor at some as of now unknown point in the future.

The original proposal might have been based on gerrymandering, and it might not have. I did not hear any such claim, in favor or in opposition, about the proposal. The opposition to it is definitely dabbling in gerrymandering.

Chazal say that in the days of Mashiach Jerusalem's borders will expand - some say they will encompass everything known today as Israel (and Israel will expand further), while others say different measurements, including the distance a horse can run in half a day. Basically, I guess this shows we are not yet in the days of Mashiach...






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Proposed Law: Limiting sales

In general the free market is the best and most efficient system. It generally finds its own failures and weaknesses and naturally corrects itself relatively quickly.

It seems the Knesset has discovered a weakness in the retail market and does not believe the free market can correct itself, so it wants to regulate the market instead.

The Knesset Economics Committee headed by MK Eitan Cabel (Hamachane Hatzioni) is preparing a law proposal for its final readings in Knesset.The law would regulate the use of the words "sale", "Mivtza"and the like in retail stores offering their wares for discounted prices. The problem, it seems, is that shops put up big signs declaring massive sales and discounts, yet it remains unclear if the price is even discounted or if the customer is going to get the stated benefits.

Cable called it "fake mivtza", borrowing the expression made popular by US President Donald Trump. Cable says the goal is not to regulate an industry like this but the Knesset wants to ensure that a sale is really a sale and not just a deception by the store owner..

The law would require stores offering items for sale, to first sell the item at the "regular" price for [at least] 30 days prior to the sale, and the sale must be in effect for [at least] 45 days.
source: Kol Hai News

There seems to be a lot missing here. I don't see how this can work. A store has to sell an item for 45 days at the discounted price in order to offer a sale? that makes no sense. 45 days? Why can't a store offer a sale for a limited time, such as a week or 3 days or a month? 45 days seems crazy.

I like the idea of the store having to keep the regular price for at least 30 days prior to the sale. This would prevent them from raising the price and then offering a sale, or simply writing on the sign a higher price than it actually sells for and then a discounted price that might not be such a discount, if at all.




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Divorce over hot peppers

Sort of, but not really. The divorce was not over hot peppers, but over violence, Th ehot peppers were just one method of the violence, and perhaps the final blow.

According to Behadrei, a wife filed, and was granted, for divorce. The husband requested the demand be rejected and they sent to Shlom Bayit counseling, but she insisted on divorce and the beis din ruled in her favor.

According to the report, husband acted violently with the kids, regularly, but not with wife. At some point she decided she couldn't take it any longer. She refers to a time where the husband forced her to get involved and participate in the violence. He had her put Yemenite schug, very hot pasty condiment made from mashed hot peppers, into their mouths as a punishment.

The beis din decided to obligate husband to grant wife a divorce, in light of his behavior and how it caused her to despise him. Husband pained her by his actions and the children as well.

Parents used to put soap in a kids mouth, usually if the kid was caught telling lies or saying swear-words. If not soap, maybe pepper or mustard. Schug seems much worse, especially if this couple is ahskenazi and not used to the spicier foods of the sefardi and yemenite menus. are we just less open to abuse now and we used to be more accepting of it or is there a difference in the actual act that makes schug abusive and soap not? Society is obviously more rejecting of abuse today than it used to be




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Interesting Psak: no selling house to Peleg people

It used to be smartphones, now it is association with the Peleg Yerushalmi.

According to this report on Actualic, Rav Chaim Kanievsky has instructed adherents who were trying to sell their apartment in Bnei Braq and had received an offer from a couple associated with the Peleg to not sell to them. They followed his instructions and pulled out of the deal.

Does this mean nobody should sell apartments to Peleg-associated people? Should they live on the streets? Is it only in Bnei Braq? Maybe in a Peleg area it is ok but in a mainstream Haredi area that is not associated with the Peleg it is a problem? So many questions, but it looks like the beginning of a cherem of sorts...!




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Special Wine made by people with special needs (video)

Kishorit, a winery in northern Israel, is empowering those with special needs to be their best selves. The winery which is was founded in 1994, employs those with special needs who are involved in the production of the wine from beginning to end. Kishorit which comes from the word connect in Hebrew, connects the more than 160 adults who live at Kishorit with the land, community, and meaningful work. "Kishorit gives me a good feeling, it gives me fun,it gives me satisfaction, it gives me enjoyment. I'm very connected to the land. When people come and buy wine from the vineyard, it makes me feel like wow, I participated in this process."






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MK Stav Shafir's pickle speech in response

on the Left side of the Knesset they are consistently reactive and not proactive..






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Moshe Feiglin on Rivlins speech against the pickles of Netanyahu (video)








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10 Hidden Gems in Haifa (video)







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In the Blood - Naftali Blumenthal (video)








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Oct 25, 2017

Epic Bar Mitzvah of the Century! With US Navy Seal. Sea, Air and Land (video)








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In The News: Women in Orthodoxy (video)

with Rabbi Avi Shafran..





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Synagogues of New York (video)










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R' Mordechai Gottlieb - Ki Heim Chayeinu (video)







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Oct 24, 2017

go to the doctor for a parsha discussion

I had to take my son to the doctor this afternoon regarding a torn ligament.

This doctor, wearing a כיפה שקופה as they say - a transparent kippa (meaning, no kippa), started to put the information in and look at the situation. He stopped and asked my son a question on the parsha. A good question, not just what was so and so's name or who did this or that.

Then, when hearing that the injury had happened right before shabbos, he asked if it was already Shabbos when it happened or if it was before Shabbos. When he heard it was before Shabbos, he breathed a sigh of relief and said that is good because Shabbos protects us, so that would be a problem if it happened on Shabbos.

When he splinted it and explained how that will help it heal, my son asked if it will heal on its own, and the doctor said of course not - Hakadosh Baruch Hu will heal it.

Then, he asked about the Hebrew names of the fingers and explained why the middle one is called the "ama" and how it would have affected Noah building the Ark had he not had his middle finger and not been able to measure an ama, after also explaining that Noah would have worn his tefillin on this finger and because he was a tazaddik he must have kept the Torah's mitzvos, as the Torah preceded Noah because Hashem created the world after looking in the Torah so he already knew about tefillin.

Go to the doctor, a seemingly secular doctor, and get all that Torah and mussar! You can never tell by appearances...


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Shetach Hefker: Investigative Report into Rabbanut kashrut (video)

will eating Rabbanut ensure you eat kosher?



Kosharot put out a response to this report on its FB page saying basically that the people speaking in the video are anonymous and pixeled out and no mention of who they are, what positions they hold and what type of knowledge they have regarding the issues of kashrut of which they speak. Also, many of the business owners involved have been defrauded by fake hechshers and they do not know the difference...

הערב פורסם תחקיר מגמתי כחלק מסדרת כתבות שמגיעות לאחר החלטת בג"ץ לדחות את העתירה כנגד חוק איסור הונאה בכשרות הנועד להגן על הצרכנים הרוצים לאכול כשר. במרבית התחקיר רואים צלליות ואנשים עם טשטוש. לא צויין מה תפקידם ומה הידע שלהם בהלכות כשרות בכלל ובהלכות שחיטה בפרט. לכן נשאר ספק גדול על מהימנות ואמינות התחקיר. בנוסף פורסם סיור עם מר רפאל חי ביטון שנמצא ע"י יחידת ההונאה מזייף את חתימת הרב הראשי ואת תעודת הסמכה האישית שלו כמשגיח. לצערנו גם בעלי העסקים שלא בידיעתם נופלים להונאות כשרות כאשר גופים בעלי אינטרסים שונים מחלקים תעודות כשרות בגוונים שונים ובמחירים שונים לכל דורש.
אנחנו ממליצים לציבור הרחב לשמור על החוק ועל ההלכה וכתנאי מינימום תמיד לבדוק אם יש תעודת כשרות של הרבנות המקומית ולשוחח עם המשגיח במקום וככל שמוצאים כשלים בעבודת ההשגחה יש לפנות אלינו או לממונים ברבנות המקומית או ברבנות הראשית



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MK Eichler recommends installing Chief Justice in position of PM (video)

lol





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PM Netanyahu opens Knesset session talking about pickle season (video)








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Israeli Makes Major Breakthrough Against ALS (video)







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MORDECHAI SHAPIRO - B'Yachad (Official Music Video)






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Oct 23, 2017

Quote of the Day

the initiative to lower the minimum threshold is a dangerous move that could lead to allowing extremist groups into the Knesset who only serve small groups and don't take into account the good of all Israeli citizens and the character of the State

  -- MK Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas), upon Netanyahu's decision to shelve plans to lower the electoral threshold

1. is this the kettle calling the pot black? It is ok for Shas or UTJ or Habayit Hayehudi or Meretz or UAL to worry about limited groups of constituents and not the entire State and its character, but it is not ok for others to do so?
2. the threshold was 2% until recently. Extremist groups did not really make it in on a regular basis. The threshold was raised for other reasons, but there is no reason to assume lowering it back to the original level will open the door to extremist groups.
3. this seems undemocratic. Who is to say which group is too small, who worries about the character of the State and who worries about his own constituents or the general public?
4. There are reasons to keep it high, and in my opinion even raise it higher. And that is mostly stability of government and efficiency of governance. I think lowering it is bad, because it makes the government less stable. I don't think the reason to keep certain people out is a good enough reason. And if it is, maybe we should rethink which other parties we want in or out and raise it above those levels as well. Why does one party (Shas has been the only party vocal in opposition to this proposal) get to decide which other parties are worthy and which are not?




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Picture of the Day


We don't have control over other people and can't stop them from being violent in the streets and making a chilul hashem whenever they want to, but people can do good things all on their own and make a kiddush hashem and show the public that not everyone is like those in the streets. And while normally, buying ice cream for some soldiers might not be quite a kiddush hashem, as beautiful an act as it might be, I think relative to what is currently in the news this definitely is.

This frum couple was having ice cream in Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem when they saw nearby a tour of a group of 50 soldiers. They immediately invited them all in and bought them all ice cream.
source: Yediot FB






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Police find and arrest pashkevil distributors

During the Peleg protests in the streets, the police arrested a secular man who distributed flyers with inappropriate and hurtful materials on them at the protest. The offender tossed the flyers around and then left the scene.

Police investigated and picked someone up for the crime and will hold him accountable.
source: Actualic

I wish they would show equal competency and professionalism in finding the authors and distributors of the pashkevilim in the "chardak" campaign and holding them accountable.




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PM Netanyahu lowering the threshold

Reportedly, PM Netanyahu is beginning to work on a plan to lower the minimum electoral threshold back to the 2% it used to be. This seems to be some form of gerrymandering as just a couple of years as he led the efforts to raise the minimum threshold to the current 3.25% (which translates to about 4 mandates).

The Likud will definitely pass the minimum threshold, so he isn't doing this for the Likud. The question is what Netanyahu's goal is - one day raising it and another day lowering it.

There are lots of theories out there. Initially it was publicized that the goal is to help ensure Shas pass the minimum threshold in upcoming elections, considering the recent polls that show it at just about that line. Aryeh Deri took umbrage at that saying he does not need the help of the Likud and the changing of the minimum threshold to pass, as they will definitely pass and even grow instead of shrink. He seems insulted when he says that and says they will not support this initiative.

Personally, being a big fan of irony, I would now love it if the idea gets scrapped (which it should anyway) and Shas fails to reach the threshold. I highly doubt that will happen, but it would be wonderful irony if it does.

Other theories floated:
   - this is to help Eli Yishai's Yachad party get in and waste less votes, avoiding what happened in the previous election. Deri might be opposed to it for this reason as well

   - lowering the threshold would likely cause the Arab parties to split up into separate parties as they used  to be and would lessen their political power. Possible, but being that they never join coalitions, they don't really have much power anyway. And there is no guarantee they will split up.

   - saving votes on the right in general. There are a number of right-wing parties that might either split off from other parties or join the electoral fray as new parties, and not passing the minimum threshold could hurt the right wing bloc by wasting hundreds of thousands of votes. The right always refuses to learn its lesson and new right wing parties cause many wasted votes in every election - Netanyahu might be trying to preserve at least some of those votes by helping at least some of those parties succeed.

   - Eli Yishai. I have no idea why Netanyahu would want to help him, considering what that means to Deri who has been so supportive of Netanyahu, but there is a theory that this is to help him get in to the Knesset. Maybe just to avoid wasting his votes, maybe for other reasons. Maybe Netanyahu is planning for a possible indictment of Deri that would force his resignation and hurt Shas - without Deri, bringing in Yachad is less problematic, and there are the polls so this might be a backup plan.

   - Bibi will always do anything possible to hurt Bennet and Habyayit Hayehudi. This might weaken aHabayit Hayehudi by allowing more, smaller, right wing parties in, thus diluting Bennet's electorate and influence.

   - Another possibility is the Ashkenazi Haredi parties might split. It seems unlikely but each of the factions making up UTJ threaten each other every now and then with splitting off. Possibly lowering the bar could help them in the event of such a split.

I don't know what else it might be. Personally, I would prefer the threshold get raised more instead of lowered, but politicians rarely look out for the benefit of the country and are more interested in what benefits themselves.

The bigger question might be if this indicates elections are on the horizon...


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One on One with Alan Dershowitz - Oct. 19, 2017 (video)







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Israelis: What is right wing and left wing in Israel? (video)







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Kehillas Shivtei Yeshurun (KSY) Ramat Beit Shemesh: Entering our new home. Hoshana Rabba 5778 (video)

mazel tov!

After years in planning, on Hoshana Rabba 5778 KSY finally moved to their new home. With great emotion and happiness we danced the Sifrei Torah from our old premises to our new one. It has since been full with men, women, and children from all parts of the community. The new building still has to be finished and we are working hard to acquire the funding needed to complete this remarkable achievement.





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Happy Hatzalah Bar/Bat Mitzva project! (video)







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Avremi Roth Kumzitz (video)







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Oct 22, 2017

Another Chabad booth gets closed down

Once again a Chabad tefillin-stand in a secular neighborhood has been dismantled and removed by local authorities.

It happened recently in Herzliya, and the mayor was "Jew-shamed" into condemning the removal and allowed them to put it back into action. Now it happened in Ramat Aviv Gimmel. City supervisors forced the closure of a tefillin-stand while the Chabadnik was putting tefillin on people. I don't know about the booth in Herzliya, but the one in Ramat Aviv has supposedly been active for upwards of 20 years and only now has been dismantled.

The argument offered is that it is incomprehensible that in the Jewish State, in the first Jewish city (i.e. Tel Aviv), they cannot operate something Jewish like helping people lay tefillin and hand out parsha sheets.
source: Actualic

I am obviously not against Chabad helping people put on tefillin, but I don't think the argument holds water. You can't just do anything you want anywhere you want just because you are doing something Jewish and are in the Jewish State. You want to put tefillin on people and don't want to pay the relevant fees for the necessary permits, do it without a booth. I see plenty of Chabadniks on the trains and walking around malls and wherever else without a booth and putting tefillin just fine on plenty of people. If you want a booth and want to put it in a place that doing so would require a permit, go get the permit. If it requires paying a fee, pay the fee or request an exemption from the fee based on being a non-profit or whatever. Or


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Proposed Law: no funding for anti-State yeshivot

With the Knesset back in action tomorrow after some long vacation periods, Yisrael Beyteynu has announced it will immediately be proposing a new law that would revoke any government funding of yeshivot whose rosh yeshiva calls for evasion from the army in any capacity.

According to MK Oded Forer, who submitted the proposal, anyone who wants to isolate itself form the State, should isolate itself from State funding as well.
source: Actualic, Kikar

The expectation seems to be that the Haredi parties in Knesset will oppose this law, despite it specifically targeting the Peleg-affiliated yeshivot, those responsible for the recent riots, protests, and violence, and being those within the broader Haredi community that call publicly for draft-refusal (including not even signing the papers for exemptions or deferments). The "mainstream" Haredi community along with its yeshivot and its rabbonim oppose the Peleg and have been fighting with them in many ways and arenas. Despite that, the mainstream haredi leadership will oppose this law as they will not allow any law designed to hurt yeshivot, even yeshivot of extremists they oppose. As well, they ask why does the law target only "torah institutions" and not "academic institutions" that call for army evasion and at times, not infrequently, incite against the IDF?

Once again we see the Haredi MKs giving lip service against the extremists but when push comes to shove they continue to give them protection and cover for them.




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Picture of the Day


this is a picture from the Peleg protests... I have absolutely no idea why there is a cyclist on top of the bus



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Israelis: What do you think of Israeli human rights organizations? (video)







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Israeli Frenemies - Oct. 20, 2017 (video)







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HAMAS WANTS ME DEAD (video)






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Synagogues of New York (video)









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Michoel Schnitzler - Tzohar (video)







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Oct 19, 2017

blocking traffic is a violent protest

The only thing in the news nowadays seems to be the protests of the Peleg Yerushalmi - the Jerusalem Faction - over the arrest of two young men who, following the groups opinion, refused to go to the draft board to register for their army exemption/deferral.

It isn't all that interesting, as this has been going on for a while now, though it is currently on an upswing, and they have nothing new to add to the discussion.

The only comment I have is that blocking traffic is, in my opinion, a violent crime. Protest all you want. The right to protest is a basic right in a democracy. Normally it works by making it a legal protest with police permits, but that isn't my issue. Blocking traffic is unacceptable. People have places to be, urgent matters to attend to, scheduled events and meetings and just wanting to get home or to the store or to work or wherever, and blocking traffic disrupts tens of thousands of people's lives when they did nothing to deserve that. Go hold your protest outside a government building, outside the draft board or in some other relevant location to make your point - don't hold innocent civilians hostage to your protests.

And being a violent protest, the police should have extra leeway in putting such a protest down..

As tens of people have been arrested, I do wonder how this works with their beliefs. They refuse to go to the army because it is not a place for a Torah jew to be and going to the army will supposedly hurt them spiritually. Is jail really a place for a Torah Jew to be? Does jail present no challenges to a Torah lifestyle? Why is that a good reason to avoid the army but not to avoid doing things that will get them arrested?




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Rechnitz speech makes waves

Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz is a very talented speaker. He is interesting, he has great delivery, and he keeps his speech peppered with interesting and humorous anecdotes and thoughts.

Rechnitz spoke at the Simchas Beis Hashoeva in Mir Yeshiva on Sukkos. The speech was an hour long, surely making this a real blast of a party.

Rechnitz is a wonderful person. Truly. I knew him and his brother many many years ago, and they are truly fine people. And he puts his money where his mouth is and supports organizations and causes he believes in, and he is very generous.

The Mir does not just let anyone speak, no matter how important of a topic they want to talk about. Rechnitz has been granted podiums in the highest places in the Jewish community, because of his support and influence in the community. But at the end of the day, he is just a person with his opinion, an individual with his own take on things.

Rechnitz spoke at the yeshiva event and he targeted Open Orthodoxy and liberal Jews as "fake news" and as the greatest threat to Judaism. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I don't know and I don't really care. What surprises me is that the Mir considers Open Orthodoxy a viable threat of sorts. There are probably more active students in the Mir right now, not even including the alumni,  than associated with Open Orthodoxy since it began. Yet the Mir gave its most precious moments to talk about the threat of Open orthodoxy. I really don't know what Rechnitz is so concerned about from Open Orthodoxy and why the Mir considers it an issue worth talking about - besides for just the desire to give Rechntz a platform to say whatever he wants and continue to receive his donations.

Online, in social media and in talkbacks to articles about this speech, many were very critical of Rechnitz. I would say to them, just ignore him. he is one person with his own opinion and he is entitled to say and think whatever he wants. You disagree? go give a speech or write an article expressing your opinion. You are just as entitled as he is to do so. It is just the opinion of an individual.

I would note that the biggest in-speech clapping he received was when he commented about continuing to donate money to the Torah world. Nobody cares what he has to say, as wonderful a person he might be (and is). They just want him to continue donating, so he gets the ability to express his personal opinion in public because of that.



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Rechnitz Mir speech 2017 (video)

comments coming soon..



In a passionate hour long speech delivered at the Mir yeshiva’s Simchas Beis Hashoeva in Jerusalem last week, Los Angeles philanthropist Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz took aim at the Open Orthodoxy movement while simultaneously calling for love and acceptance of all Jews as the only way to bring Moshiach.




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The Rabbi Goes West (video)








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Should the ultra-Orthodox serve in the IDF? A debate on i24 News (video)








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The Ultra Orthodox Jewish Version of 'Shark Tank' (video)







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Mr. Shabbos - Borei Nefashos - (Official Music Video)








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Oct 18, 2017

Palestinians: What questions do you want to ask Israelis? (video)








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Bennett: the deal between the PA and Hamas turns them into a terror government (video)







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A Conversation with a Yiddish Speaking Non Jew (video)

he speaks more yiddish than me...





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The man behind pretzel challah (video)







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"Best of all days", The Shabbat Project 2017, Avi Kraus featuring Nissim Black! (video)








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Oct 17, 2017

peace with PAs

Good news out of Israel today. Thus morning the Health Ministry announced that they have approved official recognition of Physician Assistant as a profession. They are finishing training the first group of 33 PAs who will operate working alongside doctors, performing the initial examinations of patients before the doctor sees them and will deal with recommending further care. The goal is to shorten the waiting time and relieve the bottlenecks in hospitals.
source: Ynet

This is big news. Many immigrants, and potential immigrants, have been hampered by the lack of recognition of their certifications as PAs and left them potentially without jobs when moving to Israel. That in addition to the benefits to the medical field itself if it can be successful in shortening waiting times.

Israel has yet to make peace with the PA, but they are making peace with the PAs...




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is Avi Gabbay really Labor material?


I am watching with interest what is happening in the Labor party with Avi Gabbay as the new chairman and his recent statements, and the opposition developing because of them.

Gabbay is saying things not quite in tune with the Labor party mainstream ideas.

When he ran for chairmanship of the party it was said that he was an outsider, not really a true or classic Labor person and had even been associated with the Right and Likud at earlier stages in his life, though being new to politics there did not seem to be anything clear on his actual positions or history regarding those positions.

It turns out now that at least on nationalist issues Avi Gabbay is pretty similar to a mainstream Likudnik, or even anybody on the Right such as a member of Habayit Hayehudi or Shas.

First he talks about not forming a government coalition with the Arab parties. Then he talks about not dismantling settlements. And now he is talking about how Abraham was promised all the land of Israel and we will need other creative solutions to come to peace besides for dismantling settlements.

People on the Left are livid, and I wait to see if they try to oust him from the chairmanship of Labor or if they give him a chance to come up with a plan that can challenge the Right in a realistic way. From that perspective, what they have been trying for the past 20 years or so has not worked and they have pretty much been kept out of power, possibly because of it. Maybe they need a new approach and maybe Avi Gabbay can bring it.



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protest at the park

There were a lot of protests yesterday, in many parts of the country. Many of them were in protest of the arrest of 2 young yeshiva guys who had evaded the IDF draft registration. Those are old and boring news items by now. The more interesting and unusual protest was actually a small one in the area of Mea Shearim.

Actualic reports on a protest led by a small group of extremists (aka sikrikim). The city of Jerusalem, led by Mayor Nir Barkat and his deputies Yitzchak Pindros and Yossi Deutsch, both representing the Haredi community, inaugurated a new park on Strauss St, in the vicinity of Mea Shearim.

As an aside, interestingly, the name of the new park is "Gan Yoshke". However, the sikrikim were not protesting the name. I don't know who it is being named in honor of, but I will assume Yoshke does not refer to the person who first comes to my mind when hearing that name, and I will assume the sikrikim have no problem with that specific name.

Anyways, the sikrikim were protesting the new park because, according to them, the local community administrative body is destroying the Nation of Israel  via the children - and they warned parents that this park is the gateway to integration into the destructive army.

LOL

That's right. They claim the problem with the park is that it will lead to integration into the IDF. I am not even going to ask how the park is a gateway to the IDF.

I guess they found a way to make it interesting. Had they protested the park for any more expected reasons, such as a breach in tzniyus or whatever, the entire thing would probably have been boring and gone unnoticed. Now they might get some airwaves from it by making a ridiculous connection. It is still mostly unnoticed, probably dwarfed by the massive protests around the country blocking traffic at many intersections and also by the lack of interest into the idiocy of these people except as a weird sideshow, like the bearded lady at the circus...




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MK Meirav Michael in Australian QandA (video)

the entire session is interesting discussion, but this is posted here specifically for what Michaeli says regarding children, families and safety between about minute 13 and about minute 20 where she says that the core family is basically the least safe place for children to grow up and she presents what she claims to be better alternatives than the traditional family. This is insane and I never heard, outside of the Kibbutz, somewhat, of such a claim. The discussion is usually around whether or not alternatives can provide the same loving environment as the traditional core family or not - not that the core family is bad and we need to take kids out of that and put them in other situations.





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PM Netanyahu's Message to Iran's Foreign Minister: Delete Your Account (video)






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Israeli Food Technologies (video)



What if you could get water out of thin air? What if you could grow food in the middle of the desert? What if you could have a star-trek style capsule that makes you hot and healthy dinner in 2 minutes? These 3 Israeli companies are doing just that, as they find solutions to fight food and water scarcity around the world.





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Synagogues of New York (video)









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Kulam Sharim - Benny Friedman ft. the cast of Mitzvah Boulevard (video)







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Oct 16, 2017

LETTERS OF LOVE TO JERUSALEM: A BOOK REVIEW OF MY JERUSALEM: The Eternal City

A Guest post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

LETTERS OF LOVE TO JERUSALEM: A BOOK REVIEW OF MY JERUSALEM: The Eternal City
Ilan Greenfield, Editor
Ziv Koren, Photography
Published by Gefen Publishing House and
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations 2017/5778

Review by Dr. Harold Goldmeier, a public speaker, writer, and teaches international university students in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. His book Healthcare Insights: Better Care Better Business is available on Amazon. His Articles and Reviews appear on American Thinker, Arutz 7, Life in Israel, and in Jerusalem Post and more. He was a Research & Teaching Fellow at Harvard.


I love Chicago.  It's the city in which I lived from birth into retirement.  I can describe the skyline on Lake Michigan, with its majestic sunrise and sunset.  Every neighborhood is its own architectural marvel crowned with lush greenery.  But I will never describe Chicago or Boston or New York or Sedona as eloquently as Matthew Bronfman does in My Jerusalem: The Eternal City.  Bronfman's romance with Jerusalem is in "its breathtaking glory."  Bronfman is one of 48 contributors proffering letters of love to Jerusalem, enriching its glory with juxtaposed elegant and rich photographs.
On the dust jacketthe name Jerusalem is embossed in gold set against a night-lit orange photograph of the Tower of David (or Jerusalem Citadel).  This touch epitomizes its sobriquet, The City of Gold, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, popular in Hebrew verse and melody, the words to which appear on the first page.  It is the place, writes Shimon Peres, where "every morning, at the moment when the sun rises ... it is as if heaven and earth have met."
At first glance, I looked forward to an emotion-filled experience through a magical photographer's eye.  Ziv Koren's works of art do not fail me.  But the book is so much more.  My Jerusalem is a compendium of personal love letters assembled by Ilan Greenfield's selection of Jewish and Christian leaders to a city built by a king of the Jews.  She is a city under siege for some 2,000 years, but endowed as the holiest of holy places on Earth for three monotheistic religions.
Most contributors know her only as a city rebuilt and designated the capital of modern Israel.  But Ilan Greenfield has assembled My Jerusalem contributors spanning generations.  President Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu recall childhood memories of growing up in war-torn and divided Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967.  The P.M. describes the city divided by barbed-wire fences laden with land mines and a garbage dump "with snipers on the walls."  "[S]trangled, it was withered, it had no future" until its liberation in 1967.  Then there is a heartwarming picture of the president hiking his old pacified trails in the hills of Jerusalem.
Editor Greenfield complements the romantic without giving short shrift to the controversies Jerusalem inspires, as any beautiful maiden does among anxious suitors.  Greenfield declares in his Publisher's Note that she is mineMy Jerusalem, "the eternal capital of the Jewish people," not only an eternal city.  The book's dedication is "to the land and people of Israel with deep gratitude for a life of meaning and the privilege of being part of the wondrous Zionist enterprise."  
"Yerushalayim Shel Zahav," written by Naomi Shemer, is a wildly popular complement to Israel's national anthem.  Is it coincidence that the melody is based on a Basque lullaby, from a province of Spain, fighting for generations for independence?  Moreover, her sister province, Catalonia, is enduring armed, club-wielding, anti-freedom repressors concomitant to the release of My Jerusalem, which daily faces threats to her independence and Jewish heritage from international world bodies and foreign former oppressors of the Jews.
The introduction from Alan Dershowitz, a political raconteur, wastes little time reminding readers that Jerusalem is "one of the most divisive political hot spots in the world."  We all know that.  I might have placed a born and raised Jerusalemite like President Rivlin to introduce the book.  Rivlin gives authenticity: "The history of Jerusalem in the early years of the state is also my personal and family history."
It seems that Greenfield chooses his authors for the influence and power they wield.  So few of the authors reside in Israel, let alone Jerusalem, that several of the testimonials stir imaginations of a Disneyland experience – a place to visit, and I'll feel bad if it closes.    
Christians and Jews tell their stories, but no Arab Israeli Christians, Muslims or Haredi leaders are contributors – despite pictures, for instance, that capture their peoples' passion and love for Jerusalem.  Is there not one who loves Jerusalem intensely as Jews and Evangelicals?  Several notable photographs capture "others," like the Arab with his donkey in a mix of IDF men and women; an overhead shot of Muslim men prostrate on prayer rugs emitting such force that one can almost hear them; an Arab woman hanging laundry overlooking the rubble from neglect of municipal services; an incongruous photograph of two smiling Arab women in conversation with a Border Patrol officer complemented by a missive from Bret Stephens about the Second Intifada and Yasser Arafat; and another Arab mother children in tow sans any expression of joy, in contrast to the numerous photos of frolicking Jewish children and celebrations throughout the city.  There is a poignant photo of an honor guard on the page next to Yitzhak Rabin's statement of how Jerusalem is the depository of centuries of tears and pride.
I recommend My Jerusalem be given as a parting gift to every student who spends time studying in Israel, and to every tourist to remind him of a lover lost to another place.  It is a book of art for everyone who desires to live in Jerusalem and for those who want to understand what makes Jerusalem different.  To paraphrase Shai Agnon, Greenfield and Koren significantly add to the study of Jerusalem, and "you have done well."
Dr. Harold Goldmeier is a public speaker and writer and teaches international university students in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  His book Healthcare Insights: Better Care Better Business is available on Amazon.  His articles and reviews appear on American Thinker, Arutz 7, Life in Israel, and in the Jerusalem Post and more.  He was a research and teaching fellow at Harvard. 









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