According to this article on INN, people have been asking Machon Tzomet to deal with a tough situation. Eilat is a popular holiday destination for vacationers during Hanukkah. Yet, people going to Eilat on Hanukkah and staying in the hotels there do not really have an appropriate place to light the menora.

The hotels don't allow guests to light a menora at the entrance to the hotel or in the dining room, and definitely not in the bedrooms, where there are windows to the outside. They sometimes put a table in the lobby for menora lighting, but that is not good enough as there is no window nearby, it is not a central part of the "house", and lighting there with many other menoras does not make it clear who is lighting the menora..

Rabbi Pearl has asked the hotels of Eilat to designate a place in the dining room for menora lighting, which would be acceptable.

Alternatively, if the hotels do not allow it (hotels have this extreme fear of fires), Rabbi pearl has instructed people to light a flashlight in their rooms, or electric candlesticks, and they can say a bracha over such a lighting. Rabbi Pearl quoted Rav Elyashiv and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach who would instruct soldiers to connect an electric menora to a vehicle's battery, when necessary.

I have refrained from commenting on the various rumors about the coalition negotiations in Bet Shemesh until now. One point in a new article about this implores me to comment.

Kikar is reporting about the first official meeting between Mayor of Bet Shemesh Dr Aliza Bloch and representatives from Degel Hatorah to negotiate their entry into her coalition. I am going to continue to ignore the bulk of the topic, but there is one comment I want to make.

According to the article, city councilman Moshe Montag has said that they have sent to Bloch a list of their requests and conditions for entering the coalition - among them, "protecting yiddishkeit" in various issues. Montag says they have not received a response to that list, so they are assuming Bloch is not interested in them joining.

I don't know what she is interested in regarding Degel and what she is not interested. I also don't know what she thinks of their list of requests and how it fits with what other potential members have requested. Building a coalition and meshing the requests and demands of various parties can be complicated.

I do hope that when they meet this evening and Degel asks about her response to their requests/demands that Bloch will say something like that she did not even read their list of what and how they want her to commit to "protect yiddishkeit on various issues". She should say she is religious herself and cares about yiddishkeit as much as they do and she does not need to take orders from them on protecting yiddishkeit and they should not think they are in charge of everyone's yiddishkeit.

The passuk, in Devarim 20:19, says "For a man is like the tree of the field". This comparison has led to the minhag based on kabbala of not cutting a young boy's hair until he is 3 years old and then cutting the hair but leaving the peyos. This is because man is like a tree, and orla cannot be eaten for the first 3 years of the tree's life, so a boy's hair cannot (or should not) be cut for the first three year's of the child's life.

The connection is actually deeper than that, as evidenced by a recent incident with Rav Chaim Kanievsky.

Actualic is reporting on an elderly man that came to Rav Chaim Kanievsky relating that he himself had only had one child, a son, that was born to him and his wife after many years of waiting..the son married at a bit of an older age, but now he too has been waiting a few years without child.

The elderly man related that while trying to figure out what they might have done to deserve such troubles and difficulties in this specific issue, he remembered that recently in a shiur he learned about a gemara that says that someone who does not observe the laws of orla in chutz laaretz will not have grandchildren. The man says he realized that and was shocked because it seems to be speaking to him directly. The man recalled an incident in which many years prior a non-religious relative abroad had asked him about eating the fruits of the tree he was growing, and he had told this fellow that the need to wait 3 years for orla only applies in Israel so he would be able to eat it right away without waiting. Now he realizes that this was a mistake and perhaps this had caused his punishment of no grandchildren and such difficulty in conceiving...

He asked Rav Chaim what he could do, if anything, to make up for it and not be liable as per the gemara's discussion.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky responded that he is right that that had been a mistake and is a problem, but tshuva is always an option. Rav Chaim told him that if he does tshuva, with God's help he will have grandchildren...

He obviously already regrets his error, and now that he knows orla applies abroad he probably wont make that mistake again, if it would ever even come up again, so perhaps his tshuva has already been done. I wonder if he has to do something more specific in this case. Anyways, I wish him well and hope he will be blessed with wonderful grandchildren.

According to reports, the IDF will now be drafting female soldiers into the Rabbinic division of the army to serve as kashrut supervisors in IDF kitchens. The decision was actually made in 2004, but change is slow, as is bureaucracy, and between that and the opposition of the IDF Rabbinate, it has not been implemented until now. Despite their opposition, they have now been ordered to proceed with drafting women for this purpose.

The drafted female recruits will be trained in the relevant tasks as kashrut supervisors and will then be attached to various units and divisions to keep things kosher.

The IDF spokesperson has responded to queries saying that the IDF is committed to integrating women with equality and according to the needs of the system.

We all know women can be mashgichot, even if it is not common, so this is not a big deal.

The article does not say if they are drafting religious women for this task or if the role will be open to all recruits regardless of religious affiliation. Drafting not religious young women into this role could be a problem, as they would have to have halachic trustworthiness to be effective, and someone who himself (or herself) does not keep kosher would not have that level of trustworthiness for kashrut issues. If, however, they are going to be drafting specifically religious women into this role, that should be fine.

Satmar Rebbe “Our School system is over 70 years in NYS our Schools are not producing Drug Dealers, Murderers or violent criminals versus Public Schools whose graduates are filling up Jails with Criminals & our graduates are creating large businesses boosting economic development pic.twitter.com/uOqV2VMFsz

— Satmar Headquarters (@HQSatmar) November 29, 2018

doesn't look relevant at first, but watch to the end.. wait for it...



you never know... you never know how something you do will have such a powerful effect on others, for good or for bad.... She gave bread out to hungry people for years - a tremendous act of chessed and kindness. Surely she had no idea that years later, decades later, her kindness would be broadcast to millions of people... little old Jewish lady indeed!

Kol Hai News is reporting that the City of Bet Shemesh has order the removal of a school building caravabs really) that was illegally built on public property not zoned for a school and with no permission. It seems they have been given four days to be out. While they have the right to appeal, they still have to leave the premises and get rid of the building even while the appeal process is taking place.

I would note that residents in the area of this school have been complaining since day 1. They just came down one day and plopped caravans down blocking a walkway and just taking over. No notices, no permits, no nothing.

This has been how things get done around here. People just put shuls and schools down, in caravans, wherever they want. Then, when the city warns them to remove it, as has been done before on occasion, they scream about it being a shul, or a yeshiva, and the city has no right to remove it.

It looks like there is a new sheriff in town.

I am impressed with how fast Aliza Bloch is getting to work and making changes, implementing her policies, as the new mayor of Bet Shemesh. In the Kol Hai article they even quote an anonymous senior Haredi member of the local government as saying she clearly wants to show she is ruling with an iron fist and she is right for doing so, but things also should be discussed and she must communicate with all sectors.

I do hope that she will  help the kids and families find alternate solutions for schooling - either another location or other schools to be placed in - just as quickly as she ordered the building to be removed from the location.

Nobody argues that the threat to the Israeli home front in the coming war will be very challenging...there is a possibility of fronts starting in both the North and the South, as we know of attempts to coordinate. In coming events there will not be a situation of fighting a war in either the north or in Gaza while people in Tel Aviv are sitting around drinking coffee.  

  -- head of the IDF Home Front, General Tamir Yadai

nice diss..

According to Channel 10 News, The power station of Hadera has decided to open a visitors center so people can view the sharks that tend to hang out in the sea waters just off the power station. In recent years, the sharks have been hanging out there in the winter to enjoy the warmer waters from the power stations water runoff into the sea.

Sadly this visitors center will only be open on Saturdays. Sadly, because of: 1. Shabbos and 2. it means I cant go check them out.

Perhaps they are doing this because during the week the visitors center would be disruptive to the functioning of the power station and on Shabbos they have less work to do so they can deal with the visitors.. still, Jewish state and all.. where are the religious and Haredi MKs and leaders when we really need them to throw a protest and threaten the government? This is far more important than work on the train lines or stuff like that.

The sharks who run the power station will probably be charging an arm and a leg to view the sharks...hopefully the sharks in the water won't get any arms and legs...

בית שמש היא המודל למה שיהיה כאן, במדינת ישראל כולה, בעוד מספר עשורים. אסור להסתכל על זה כאתגר שלילי. זה העושר המדהים של קיבוץ הגלויות ושל החברה הישראלית על כל שונותיה. שונות שמרכיבה יחד חברה בריאה וטובה יותר! pic.twitter.com/1YsmV5RcNK

— עליזה בלוך (@aliza_bloch) November 27, 2018

According to Kikar, the Satmar community in Israel has petitioned the Supreme Court to have automatic exemptions from IDF service granted to the entire Satmar community.

In the petition to the Supreme Court they explain that they do not see themselves as part of the State - not just in the form of not recognizing it but actively opposing it and believing the existence of the State is causing the delay in the coming of Mashiach. To that end the Satmar community isolates itself in every way possible from the State and its symbols and institutions.

Additionally, Satmar is opposed to any and all army service, as any war declared by any body other than the Sanhedrin is not valid and is simply murder.

They want to be exempted not just from service, but also from any paperwork and medical exams related to the service. They don't want to even have to go file for an exemption, as that would be recognizing the validity of the State.

The Supreme Court has ordered the State to write a response to the petition made by Satmar.

While essentially I can accept such an arrangement, similarly to the way the State automatically exempts most Arabs, for example, I do not know how it can be employed. How does the State determine who is Satmar and who is not? How does the State know to exempt one person and not the other? Will Satmar submit lists? Will anyone else not wanting to serve be able to find a way to be considered Satmar?

Ironically, Satmar petitioning the Supreme Court seems to be some sort of recognition of the State that they say they don't recognize and isolate themselves from its institutions.

Will the common form of marriage proposals be coming to an end in the religious Jewish community?

While a marriage proposal is really just one person asking another if he or she will agree to marry, the proposal is often performed in an emotional, and often romantic setting and with all sorts of accompanying scenes. It also commonly includes the potential groom taking out a ring and asking the potential bride "will you marry me?", and then giving her the ring, or even putting it on her finger. Nowdays it is even common to do this in front of friends, with the friends documenting the event on video and sometimes assisting in setting the tone for the proposal.

In recent months a number of rabbis have brought questions about this to the Chief Rabbi, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, asking if this is ok as it seems to be an actual wedding - will you marry me with the giving of a ring and often witnesses seems an awful lot like an actual wedding.

Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef responded that this is completely prohibited and effects a possibility of issurim of "eishes ish" - a married woman. Rav Yosef called for this bad custom and behavior to be stopped. In addition to the problem of potential eishes ish, it is a breach of tzniyus and a break from the way things were traditionally done in previous generations.
source: Kikar

If this effects an actual marriage, even though that is not the intention and everyone knows it, if they decide to split up they would require a gett. Without a gett but with a breakup, when she marries someone else that might violate the serious erva of eishes ish.

This is not an unreasonable psak and is logical, especially considering how the proposals are often done. In the religious community the ring is often given later and not at the proposal, so that might mitigate the problem in such situations. When the ring is given at the proposal, that might be an actual problem, but people have been doing it this way for so long even if it was not done that way in Poland and Morocco 150 years ago so this is not a new problem and yet the public has continued to do this and the rabbonim have not intervened.

I do not know why it is allowed - perhaps due to the known intentions of it being an engagement and not a wedding. I know some rabbis say it is not a problem, some prefer you propose without a ring and only give the ring later, some say even with a ring is ok but say explicitly it is a gift and not for marriage, and some say if done without witnesses it is no problem...

Anyways, if Rav Yosef's psak takes off, it would be major..

Mayor of Bet Shemesh Aliza Bloch is putting together her coalition (I have no information about the progress on this other than the little bit that has been leaked to the press - such as it looks like Shas and Agudat Yisrael will be in the coalition, along with Likud, Habayit Hayehudi and Bloch's party, while Degel Hatorah might be out - nothing is final or real until the final coalition is actually announced and then even after that things can change - as they aren't yet getting the jobs or commitments they are demanding).

In the meantime, there is already some news of dramatic changes being made by Bloch in Bet Shemesh.

Bloch announced that in her meetings yesterday in the Knesset with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and the Minister of Housing (Yoav Galant of Kulanu), among others, it was decided and agreed upon that changes would be made in the agreement with Bet Shemesh for future construction that the Sheves Law will not be applied. The Attorney General of Bet Shemesh, Miki Gastwirth, has already informed kablanim and developers of this change.

The Sheves Law allows kablanim to take the originally approved plans for a neighborhood and using the same meterage make changes by building smaller apartments and up to 30% more of them, without going through bureaucracy and needing to obtain new permits and submitting new plans. Meaning, for the sake of an example, if initial approved plans allowed for buildings of 10 apartments each being 100 square meters, the kablanim using the Sheves Law can build 13 apartments of 77 square meters each (or whatever the actual numbers are).

The Sheves Law gives the kablanim the ability to make more money off the same meterage, by selling more smaller apartments, thus giving them encouragement and more reason to build there. The entire RBS D is planned to be built like this.

With Bloch announcing that RBS D will not have the Sheves Law applied to it, people are in a tizzy. They think this will put a stop to future construction of Haredi neighborhoods, as the kablanim will decide it isn't worth building in Bet Shemesh without the Sheves law. Bloch is making significant changes fast.

I heard Bloch on the radio and she explained that in RBS C (aka Gimmel), for example, many [Haredi] residents are complaining that the neighborhood was built with many people stuffed into small areas, and inadequate infrastructure. She was elected to change that. Instead of building future neighborhoods for more people than approved with less than adequate infrastructure, they will build, and RBS D will still be built for the Haredi community, for the right amount of people for the infrastructure, and the infrastructure (eg shuls, mikvaot, yeshivas, parks, etc) will be built while the neighborhood is being built rather than years after residents move in - as what happened in RBS C (Gimmel).

With the apartments being built to the sizes they were originally planned, that will mean slightly larger apartments at slightly higher prices. That will likely mean not as many newly married young couples, while purchasers will likely be a little bit older, with kids already, and with income and a slightly higher socioeconomic status.

Degel Hatorah is very upset at this and is threatening to thwart the plans to make this change, as such a change must be approved by the City Council. The thing is, even if Degel stays out of the coalition for now, as it looks like might happen, if Shas and Agudat Yisrael join the coalition Degel won't have the blocking majority they were hoping for and this change should get approved easily.

I don't know if this change is good or bad overall. I don't understand the logic of the Sheves Law in the first place. it seems to be a convenient way to pull a fast one on people, planning a neighborhood to look like x and then letting the kablanim change it to y so they can profit a little more. The Sheves Law looks bad to me, but I don't know enough about it. It does seem to me that building for the right amount of people based on local infrastructure seems like a good idea rather than crowding people in with inadequate resources and letting them complain a few years later. The other option would be to extend the Sheves law and have it say that if the kablan increases the numbers of apartments, the infrastructure must be increased proportionally, but then there go their extra profits, so it might still not be attractive...

Rabbi Leff explains in his own words why he attended the game, why attending sports events is different in Chutz Laaretz and in Israel, and whether it is a kiddush hashem or chilul hashem...


Rav Leff Explaining The Soccer Game from YWN on Vimeo.

a great performance by this young fellow...he says some surprising things... I have commented this before, but will do so again.. whenever a religious/Haredi person performs on one of these shows, the discussion revolves around religion, halacha, and social norms and not about music...

Shachar Edui intro:


Shachar Edui performing Wikipedia, original by Hanan Ben Ari:



As an aside, a search on Youtube for other clips by Shachar only found me this:

Ricka Razel (Van Leuwen), sister of Ahron and Yonatan Razel, is going back to making music. This music video was produced by her brother Ahron, keeping it in the family... Ricka performs here with her daughter Michal..

We all go on streaks of periods with a good run of luck and sometimes, unfortunately, streaks of periods with a bad run of luck.

El Al is going through the latter right now...

The news today announced that a senior security officer of El Al has been Arrested for being involved in drug smuggling (specifically cocaine), and using the El Al planes and flights in the process. The alleged involved are Rami Yogev and his son Shalom along with two more El Al employees.
sources: Ynet and Haredim10

As if they didn't have enough bad headlines right now...

To put some humor into a tough situation, perhaps the real reason they stopped in Athens 10 days ago on the now infamous flight 002 was to drop off, or pick up, some drugs. Perhaps the missing luggage with all the Shabbos clothes also had some sort of drug involvement...

More humor - they have not said it yet, but we are all waiting for the El Al press release blaming the Haredi passengers for the drug smuggling...

To be fair, sometimes you make your own bad luck...

It seems Rabbi Sorotzkin accepted the "apology" and compensation as adequate because shortly after declaring a boycott and cutting up his El Al Platinum card, and saying he canceled his flight for today, he made his way quickly back to El Al for the flight...

Eli Bitan's comment/caption on this picture was the best: I'm Not Your Toy

UPDATE: There was an interesting interview with Rav Sorotzkin in the Mishpacha magazine (Hebrew edition) that past week. Mostly it was about his relationship with Rav Shteinman, but they touched on this issue. I think it is only fair for me to mention his response here.

They asked him about the apology and his flying El Al right away and if it was all just a show... Sorotzkin responded that the fight with El Al was only about the accusation that Haredim were violent on the plane. Nothing else. He said that he does not have time for long drawn out battles. He has responsibilities and has to run his yeshivas and kollels. As soon as El Al put out that letter that they never said the Haredim were violent, that was good enough for him and he had to get back to work. If other people want to continue fighting because this letter was not adequate, that is up to them and he does not tell anybody else what to do.

El Al published an "apology" letter in an effort to placate the upset and maligned passengers from flight 002 and to try to fix their public image a bit.



Translation:
El Al finds it necessary to clarify, as it has already done in a statement to the press on November 19, that it put no guilt or blame upon the secular, religious or haredi communities in the incident that was reported.
Any publicity was done without any El Al knowledge.
El Al does not distinguish between passengers by sector or race or nationality in any way.
The administration of El Al backs up and values the air crew and the ground crew of the relevant flight for the work they did that was שגצןרשנךקץ
El Al has decided to grant a two-way ticket to Europe to each of the400 passengers due to the inconvenience caused to the company's clientele.


This is not an apology letter. There is no apology within. It is dismissive of the insult and pain caused to many of the passengers. I have no idea if the compensation is fair or not and will not comment on that, but the compensation, it seems to me, was a minor aspect of the issue and conflict. The main aspect the passengers were looking for was to have their pain and insult acknowledged by El Al and addressed. And El Al did not do that. I am sure every word of the letter was analyzed by their legal team to ensure no blame is taken in anyway so as not to open El Al up to any lawsuits, and as a corporation they need to be responsible for such concerns, yet with all the defensive protecting of themselves, they totally ignored the passengers they are trying to placate.

Former city councilman, David Greenfield had strong words about lawbreakers during a panel discussion at one of the opening sessions at this year’s Agudah convention when asked to offer his thoughts on how members of the Jewish community are negatively stereotyped in the media.

this performance is amazing. Here is the Shalva Band competing, with an introductory performance of Here Comes the Sun, originally by The Beatles, to represent Israel in the upcoming Eurovision contest, to be held in Tel Aviv... they were brilliant...  Here Comes The Sun - Here Comes Eurovision!

intro:


Here Comes The Sun (Beatles) performance:

The boycott is in place until El Al apologizes..

  -- Rav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, announcing tonight a Haredi boycott of El Al until El Al apologizes for their behavior in the recent fiasco....

Rabbi Sorotzkin canceled his flight scheduled for tonight and rebooked it on a different airline, and said this boycott will remain effective until El Al apologizes.. the othe roption is that it will stay in place until the other airline's Friday flight to Israel gets delayed and is not willing to detour to another country to let him off before Shabbos but continues on to Israel with Rabbi Sorotzkin, and/or others, no the plane landing on Shabbos.. With El Al the only airline willing to divert a plane to avoid a Shabbos landing, let's see how long this lasts.. or else they will learn to avoid scheduling a flight that will land shortly before Shabbos

Ron Kobi recently celebrated his victory as mayor of Tiberias with a street party along the boardwalk on Shabbos, calling for businesses and booths to open and enjoy the party and cash in, at the expense of Shabbos. Kobi wanted it specifically on Shabbos, to set the tone for his new administration.

Some people around town got angry. Besides for vocally opposing it, and eventually turning to protests, there probably is not much they can do about it.

The local Chabad yeshiva had a better response. The local Tiberias Chabad yeshiva ran a program called "Loving Shabbat". This past Shabbos, one week after Ron Kobi's chilul shabbos party, students form the Chabad yeshiva were out distributing wine bottles and challa loaves to passerby in the boardwalk area, along with singing and dancing.
source: Actualic

That's a nice initiative. I don't think it will cause an immediate decrease in chilul shabbos, but it is a nice initiative that is a kiddush hashem and can show people a pleasant "face" and put Shabbos in a  nice light, and maybe some people will increase their own shmiras shabbos, even if just a bit.

Menachem Toker, a modern Haredi (or whatever you to call his style) radio broadcaster and "presenter", has come up with a new initiative. Toker plans to open a kollel for musicians in Bnei Braq.

This musicians kollel will not be intended to have musicians learning half a day and singing or making their albums the other half of the day, though perhaps that would be welcomed as well. The idea is this would be a kollel of avreichim learning entirely supported by the music industry - each musician, singer, etc participating would help support the kollel. According to Toker's plan, each musician participating would get his own avreich that he will support financially - and he can visit him and come to the kollel and see how things are going. The arrangement will be some sort of "Yissachar Zevulun" arrangement with the goal set at a kollel of 40 avreichim supported by 40 musicians.

Toker went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to get a bracha for the initiative. According to Behadrei, Rav Chaim Kanievsky loved the idea and commented that this would be as if each musician himself was learning Torah for half the day.

According to the article a few musicians/performers have already signed up.

They were so impressed by the initiative that not only did Toker get a bracha from Rav Chaim, he even got a tour of the house with his kids!

Yissachar Zevulun arrangements have always been a part of the Torah and tzedaka landscape and such an arrangement is blessed and the people involved should all be blessed.

While the saga continues from 9 days ago, Haredi passengers are upset once again with El Al as this weeks Thursday night flight that was due to land at 13:15 on Friday afternoon landed but without some of the luggage. Some Haredi passengers had to go home, or to wherever they are staying, and experience Shabbos without their Shabbos clothes and shtreimels.

It seems there was a technical fault that caused a delay with one of the machines loading luggage on to the airplane, and instead of delaying takeoff, they decided to just takeoff without that portion of the luggage and send it later on another flight.

During the week this would not be a problem at all - either they would slightly delay the flight, get the issue resolved, and then off to Israel, or they would send the luggage on the next flight. On the Thursday night flight they run into Shabbos problems, so they cannot easily delay the flight even for a tiny bit, risking landing on Shabbos.
source: Kol Hazman

It seems to me that the solution is to not take these Thursday night flights that risk chilul Shabbos with any slight delay. To avoid chilul shabbos with these flights, everything has to work like a Swiss clock, and how often does that happen? Can anyone really expect El Al, or any airline, to always have perfect weather, no technical problems, no backups on the runway or whatever else might cause a delay? Many rabbonim have repeatedly called similarly upon the public to not fly on these flights scheduled to land right before Shabbos.

I get that people want or need to maximize their trips, taking advantage of the entire possible weekday schedule for their fundraising or business or leisure and want to come back at the last possible moment - but that treats Shabbos so casually and disrespectfully compared to the importance they give to their other involvements.

The solution to all these problems is to NOT take these last minute flights. Take Shabbos into consideration and take a flight scheduled to leave earlier that day or the day before, or after Shabbos.

Nothing I said is meant to absolve El Al of the need to treat all their passengers, including the religious and Haredi passengers, with proper respect and appropriate service and to do everything in their power to run the flights on time and without difficulties. The reality, unfortunately, is that flights are often delayed a bit for many reasons out of the control of the operators.

The Haredi parties need, and want, the new Draft law for their constituents, but they cannot vote for it - they cannot vote for a law that will send some boys to the IDF. They do want other parties, even Yesh Atid if necessary, to vote for it, but they won't, or cannot, vote for it themselves. They were also expecting that after the first vote a few months ago, some changes to the law would be made and it could pass easily.

The Supreme Court deadline for a new law to be passed ends in just about 9 days, so it is now coming down to the wire. The imminent collapse of the government last week put it all at risk, and the Haredi reps breathed just a little easier when the government did not fall. Now, Defense Minister Netanyahu is saying he will not change the law at all. While Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beyteynu say they plan to vote for the law, as they did before and ensuring its passage, they say they will only do so if the law is not changed one iota from its current format.

The current proposal in the works is not quite good enough for at least some of the Haredi representatives so they are now threatening to pull out of the government if Netanyahu tries to pass the current law proposal, as it is..

So the irony is that the Haredi parties, no matter how much more the law is changed according to their requests, plan to vote against the proposal but will possibly pull out of the government and bring about early elections if it does not get passed by other people.

This is one of the strangest forms of shekker where they want a certain law or social norm but feel they cannot support it themselves because of how it will look. They cannot be seen to be supporting a  law that will send boys to the army, even though they really want it. They don't want anyone to look back at the books and see Haredi votes for such a law, even though they actually support the law.

sources: Israel Hayom and Actualic

On Wednesday afternoon at 3pm we uploaded a short song we wrote, which was directed at Airbnb for their recent, blatantly anti-Semitic policies. We included a subtle, polite suggestion that they stay out of politics or people would boycott them, in the same way that they attempted to boycott Israel. It went viral. We had never seen anything like it.. And then just like the kind of magic trick that leaves you feeling violated, facebook removed our video (without any prior warning or justification). Vanished into thin air. Thankfully, “Stand with us” had uploaded their own version of it which is still doing the rounds and has been viewed close to 100,000 times (see link below). We won’t be bullied and we want the truth to be heard loud and clear; so we went into the studio today to re-record a full length studio version of the song. Please share it and help get the truth out.

This person is not just a racist but is completely crazy. I want to request from the Chairman of the Knesset to be put back to sitting next to him, so that he can move his seat again further away. Then I'll sit next to him again and he keep moving further away each time - until he leaves the Knesset.. 

  --MK Aymen Odeh (UAL), after MK Avigdor Lieberman found his new seat as a member of the Opposition next to Odeh and insisted that he be moved and not have to sit next to Odeh

MKs Yehuda Glick (Likud) and Eitan Cabel (Hamachane Hatzioni) have proposed a law to limit the marketing and advertising of cigarettes ad other smoking products. Among the limitations would be a clause that such products cannot be presented openly for sale.

The result of this proposal is that kiosks and "piztutziyot" (snack shops), quick stops, convenient stores, duty free shops, etc., would not be allowed to have the cigarettes and other tobacco products out on open display.

The committee working on this bill approved it caused quite a stir, upsetting many saying it would cause a lot of harm to the convenience stores that sell so many cigarettes. Glick and others who support and promoted the bill say they are not trying to hurt the shops, and would be willing to find ways to help the shops, but cigarettes cause cancer and 8000 people die each year in Israel from smoking.
source: TheMarker

The changing of the guard in Bet Shemesh (and most other cities) just happened on Tuesday of this week, with outgoing mayor Moshe Abutbol handing over the reins of the city to incoming mayor Aliza Bloch.

When Aliza Bloch took the keys of City Hall, it turns out she took more than just the keys. At the time, there was a baby infected with measles in an adjacent room. The Health Ministry is calling upon everyone present at the ceremony on Tuesday to get their vaccination against measles boosted. Mayor Bloch is going on Sunday to get herself vaccinated again, and everyone else present - guests and journalists alike - need to go get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible.
source: Ynet and Haskupim Twitter

STOP SPREADING MEASLES!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

If you dont want to vaccinate your kids, at least dont take them out in public and put everyone else at risk. Someone caused this baby to be infected, and then it spreads further.

With the government functioning on a narrow coalition of 61MKs, and after immediately taking a loss to the Opposition in voting just the other day, and with the Opposition deciding to not offset missing MKs for votes, coalition chairman MK Dudi Amsalem has ordered all coalition MKs to cancel any and all scheduled trips abroad in the near future and to make sure to be present in the Knesset for all votes. Opposition leaders have ordered the same for opposition MKs.
source: Ynet

This helped immediately, as just today the coalition won a series of votes with the narrowest of margins. it required a sick MK to come in with her IV drip, but they won the votes.

If I were the leader of the Opposition, I would arrange now, for any vote that has all 61 coalition MKs present, to send some of the opposition MKs out or tell them to not show up, just to frustrate the coalition MKs that had to cancel their trips and they'll think they did not really need to.

61 MK coalitions are good for keeping things interesting...

My son was watching some football match (soccer for us Americans) last night between the Israeli national team and a team from Scotland. The Israelis lost, though they were winning at the time... Suddenly he calls out surprised. He saw in the stands a Haredi family at the game, and the father was learning gemara. At the game, in Scotland! I went over to see, but they had already moved on and I missed the opportunity.

It turns out this was Rabbi Zeev Leff, rav of Moshav Matityahu. Rabbi Leff is in Scotland visiting his children who live there. According to Srugim, when he heard the Israeli team was going to be there for a match at the same time as his visit, he decided to go to the game to support them and cheer them on. Of course, Rabbi Leff spent most of the time learning and not actually watching the game.

Funnily enough, the Israeli announcer calling the game suggested the rav say some tehillim so they will win the match..









It would have really been cool to see him wearing a team jersey....

Caption Contest!
1. Aliza Bloch is not afraid to get her hands dirty!
2. Aliza Bloch's new office
3. I thought I voted Bloch for mayor, not for garbage collector!
4. Aliza Bloch interning with the garbage collectors in case her new job does not work out..

On a more serious note, Bloch started her term with a meeting and tour of the city with the garbage collectors to see what the issues and challenges around town are. A plan is being put together in the coming days to give the city a face-lift and clean it up.

in honor of Thanksgiving...

lol

this is the director of Ikea Israel....

you don't have to be religious to be superstitious...you can even be anti-haredi and still be superstitious..

We will not tolerate a situation in which passengers refusing to sit next to a woman as the holy torah requires will be removed from the airplane. We will not boycott El Al but the public will stop traveling with El Al all on its own..

  -- MK Yisrael Eichler (UTJ)

hmmm, as the torah requires?

anyways, while the affected passengers might prefer other airlines, as they probably should already anyway (considering price differences, delays, quality of planes, customer service, etc), I wonder which other airline they will choose will allow them to refuse to sit next to a woman after being assigned a seat and not remove them from the plane?

I think @NefeshBNefesh needs to start a service not just for olim, but also for vacationers.
Call it #airnbn

— Elli Fischer (@Adderabbi) November 20, 2018

is this a new flavor of Pringles? Have Pringles become like Cracker Jacks, each with a prize inside the package?

IDF soldiers at the Qalandiya security checkpoint found this when checking a Palestinian woman. Upon interrogation the knife was mean to be used in an attack on Israelis...

That's just a regular kitchen knife...

Recent municipal election results have been the cause of merry celebration for some and dismay for others. Some of the celebrations have been marked by joyous singing and dancing, sometimes even perhaps a bit inappropriately - such as the scenes of yeshiva bochurim in Haifa dancing around Dr Einat Kalish, and scenes of yeshiva bochurim in the headquarters of Moshe Leon in Jerusalem celebrating his victory to celebratory dancing, in a mixed crows with other celebrants. But that is besides the point.

While celebratory dancing for the successful election of a politician is not for me, it does not bother me that other people do celebrate like that, especially after a contentious electoral season.

Interestingly enough, one celebration in particular upset many, specifically within the community that was fine with the celebrations earlier.

Celebrations were also held by high school girls in various Bais Yaakov seminaries, including Bais Yaakov Seminar Hachadash. After Moshe Leon's victory, the next morning in school the girls and the staff danced and sang in celebration, while some members of the staff were upset and opposed the celebration.

Other people were upset too, and there have been a number of editorials written online, critical of these celebrations. The most prominent of the ones I saw was by former Shas MK and current administrator of a women's seminary, Nissim Zeev.

Zeev was critical of the dancing saying that the girls have their place and have always helped with elections. But dancing? Historically such a thing never happened. Seminary girls have no place in or connection to politics. This is in sharp contrast to the ideal of "kol kvoda bas melech pnima".

As an aside, not the point of this post, the women can help with elections but cannot celebrate them? In Hebrew there is a racist saying that used to be commonly used against sefardim, הכושי עשה את שלו הכושי יכול ללכת, meaning, the negro did what he needed to do and now the negro can leave. Meaning, when we need the girls to help out and work for elections that is fine, but when done they have to go back home and not participate in anything else. There's no issue of kol kvoda when we need their work, but there is when they want to do something.   

I do not know why this is in sharp contrast to kol kvoda. They were not dancing in public. They were dancing in their own school courtyard, in private, among themselves. Perhaps one can be critical of the person who committed it to video and then posted it on the Internet, perhaps as a breach of tzniyus, but to criticize a private celebration of people celebrating exactly the same way other people were legitimately celebrating to no criticism at all and saying ti is inappropriate just because they are female?

I just do not get why the men can be happy and celebrate, very publicly, but the women cannot, even in private.

sources: Kikar and Kikar

YWN and BS MehadrinNews are reporting on an employment conference/fair held for Haredi women in Bet Shemesh by the Link organization, founded by Chavi Ehrenfeld.

The conference was the target of protests. Haredi extremists heard about the conference and gathered outside the event in the Industrial Zone (by the Kinor David Wedding Hall) and cried their cries of shmad and how terrible this is.

Personally, I love the flat shrie of "gevalt" after each impassioned claim by the speaker. I always do.

As my friend Ben pointed out, this is actually a big change from the olden days when the protests would be held in Yiddish. Now they seem resigned to speaking, even in their traditional protests, in the modern language of Zionist Hebrew. I think they may consider the need to be understood more important than the tradition of talking only Yiddish and their rejection of the trappings of the modern State of Israel, though their mere presence alone should really be enough for that, so it is a good question as to why they are speaking Hebrew and not Yiddish.

In what might be thought of as "Throwback Tuesday" headlines back from the '90s, the police, having concluded the investigation into allegations of fraud and tax evasion, the police are recommending the indictment of Aryeh Deri for bribes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of shekels along with tax evasion to the tune of millions of shekels.

Surprise, surprise. Putting Deri back in charge of the Misrad Hapnim was like appointing the cat in charge of guarding the milk, as so many people said at the time...

Anyways, Deri must be hoping for the government to fall and fast elections, and is probably disappointed now that Bennett backed down from bringing the government down yesterday and is still hoping for Kahlon to do that in the coming days... Fast elections would be great for Deri to capitalize on this police recommendation and possible indictment soon. Deri will become a martyr and the traditional mizrachi voters will be whipped up to support Shas after seeing how the establishment has Deri as a target once again.

We've been down this path before. This story is a rerun.

J'Accuse! He is innocent! Will they just use the old calls in support of Deri, and just reuse the old flyers, or will they come up with something new this time?

According to Reuters, Airbnb today announced that it will remove any listings of home on their system that are located in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Do with that information as you wish. 

The latest episode between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Education Naftali Bennett shows, in my opinion, why Bennett is not even close to being ready to replace Netanyahu and take over leadership of the country, as he has stated his goal is.

I am not referring to Bennett's threats to leave the government and bring about early elections if not given the Defense Ministry recently abandoned by Avigdor Lieberman. I am also not referring to Bennett backing down from his threat - that might have even been a good thing.

I am referring to how Netanyahu totally outmaneuvered Bennett, and has since been trolling hmi incessantly.

For 4 years, plus the years of the previous government, Bennett and Habayit Hayehudi has been a loyal coalition member. While other coalition members have been frequently threatening to leave the government if this or that happens, such as Lapid in the previous government and Litzman (among others) every other day in this government, Bennett hasn't been making such threats (until now). He's been loyal to the coalition and has worked in his position and defended the governments policies and voted according to the agreements.

Suddenly Lieberman puts the government in a precarious position, and all the wrath of the Likud and Netanyahu comes out against Bennett. They make the entire country think Bennett and his irresponsibility is to blame for the position they find themselves in.

Then Bennett comes to the decision to stay in the government. He saves Netanyahu's neck, and does exactly what Netanyahu wanted him to do. And ever since then Netanyahu has been trolling Bennett:
1.when Bennett criticized the lawyers within the IDF saying soldiers can't function properly constantly afraid of legal action/ Beisdes for the general criticism leveled throughout the political spectrum against Bennett, Netanyahu specifically stated "IDF soldiers are afraid of no one".
2. After Bennett's statement explaining that they are staying in the government to be a watchdog over Netanyahu from the right, Netanyahu said I dont need watchdogs from the right. I work to preserve the security of the State of Israel and of its children".

and that was today after Bennett saved Netanyahu's prime ministerial seat. Netanyahu has not trolled any of his other coalition partners who hold the government in the palms of his hand - not Kahlon, not Deri, not Lieberman, not Litzman, not Gafni - the way he has trolled the one guy who has defended him regularly throughout the span of the government and having saved his neck today.

In some circles this would be described as "Netanyahu made Bennett his b**ch".

Bennett is not ready for taking over the mantle of the country's leadership. He might never be, but he for sure is not ready now.