The issue presented was one of the mother of teenage children wanting to vaccinate her children against the CoronaVirus - a 13 year old and a 15 year old child, both qualifying for the vaccine. the father is opposed to the vaccines. The question is if she can take them to get vaccinated without his agreement.

The beis din decided that the opinion submitted by the father was overkill and in the 50 pages he submitted he was trying to convince them that the vaccines are bad and the children should not be vaccinated. The mother's submitted position was one based on the Ministry of Health's experts, encouraging the public, including children this age, to get vaccinated. 

The mother submitted a doctor's letter asserting the children are at no special risk as they have no underlying conditions and are in good health with the doctor's recommendation to vaccinate the children. The father countered that the doctor is not an expert in this matter.

The beis din concluded that the mother is allowed to vaccinate her children against the wishes of the father, as long as the children agree to be vaccinated.

Technically the psak might be right and just, but it seems like a recipe for the opposite of shalom bayis. The kids shouldnt be put at health risk to preserve the shalom bayis of the parents, but perhaps the beis din should mandate them finding a way to decide together and come to some compromise.

Of course the Haredi MKs and media are taking it personally and upset at her and at Kahane for her scoffing, even though really she is right. For the companies it is marketing to get these certifications even on products that dont need it because so many people have been brainwashed to believe they need hechshers even on such items.

The problem is that as far as I can tell, the proposed reforms will not solve this problem. These are almost always done by private hechshers such as the Badatz Eida Hachareiidis and others, and not by the Rabbanut. The reforms are going to give the private hechshers more power, not less, so I dont see how the reforms will put an end to this type of behavior. That being the case, if I am correct, she should not have been scoffing at it because the proposed reforms will not solve this issue and put an end to that absurd situation. If they would be putting n end to it, then she would be able to laugh at it and show how necessary the reforms are, but that is not the case.

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Rav Shmuel Baruch Ganot, a rebbi and posek, says that he was asked by several congregants, or gabbaim, of a shul that publicized their scheduled service of Hallel with musical accompaniment in a shul and several avreichim expressed protest of this type of a service claiming it is changing form tradition, if it is allowed or not.

Rav Ganot says that poskim in the past have dealt with this issue already and generally have paskened that it is not allowed because it both looks too similar to the service of the Reform, and also because it is inappropriate to do so when standing in front of the King. Rav Ganot says there might be a difference between the regular part of the davening and Hallel, as even the Levites in the Mikdash sang Hallel and played instruments along with it, so perhaps during Hallel it is appropriate even when standing before the King. Additionally, perhaps in Eretz Yisrael there is no problem of being similar to the Reform and there is no concern we might get swept up and follow in their ways. Presumably this is because they have so little influence or impact here in Israel.

Rav Ganot points out that the shul of Rav Dov Kook, the mekubal in Tiberias, sings Hallel with musical accompaniment, but they do so with seriousness and a sense of exaltedness, so the style is different than the style of the services being discussed.

Rav Ganot concluded paskening that in the shul they should hang a sign letting everyone know that Hallel will be sung with musical accompaniment with a serious attitude and atmosphere, and not in any way with letzanus and fun. Additionally the sign should say this is a one time event as it was already announced but it needs to be discussed further with the gedolim before such a service will be planned again.

Rav Ganot expounded further on the matter with no definitive conclusion and says he asked Rav Chai Kanievsky about Hallel with musical accompaniment and Rav Kanievsky said it is not appropriate.

Initially his court case in Manchester was delayed because he refuses to speak Hebrew, the language of the Zionists, for which they had a translator, but insisted on speaking Yiddish, a language for which the court had no translator. It does not see like it should be difficult to find people in Manchester who can speak both Yiddish and English and translate for them, but whatever. It seems this case is in court because until now the United Kingdom Home Office has refused to grant asylum due to Israel not being considered a state that is dangerous form which people can be granted asylum. Palestinians can get asylum but that is generally from Palestine oppression, not Israeli.

  -- PM Naftali Bennett, about the reopening of the school year after the holidays

 

There is really nothing special about this. All over the country, especially in my neighborhood, people are doing this every holiday. But there is something about the way he puts it, the empty hotel dining room (aka sukka) with them doing it all alone, the image of them celebrating all alone in the large room, that is somewhat enchanting.. 

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funny reporting on a difficult situation...

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  -- MK Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), after reports say he has again tried to persuade Gantz to leave the government and form a government with Likud, with Gantz serving first as Prime Minister

Rav Zilbershtein said there is an issue that many event halls, restaurants, hotels, and catering services, in the Haredi community as well, employ non-religious waiters. These non-religious waiters will dispose of food, including vegetables, remaining on plates after being eaten, by clearing the plates or leftover pans into the garbage, as they have done until now. During shmitta this is a problem, as these foods must be disposed of properly to prevent actively causing them to rot or become disgusting. they should be disposed of in a special bag with nothing else and then can later be mixed with the regular garbage, after they rotted on their own. Employing these non-religious waiters is going to be a problem, as it will lead to violations of shmitta.

Rav Zilbershtein added that employing non-Jews will not solve the problem either, as the fruits and vegetables have kedusha so we cannot allow a non-Jew to dispose of them either.

Rav Zilbershtein said there is only one solutiont ot he problem and that is to install cameras in the restaurants or hall and tell the waiters about them. the waiters should be warned that if they dispose of any vegetable sin the garbage this year, and they are being watched, they will be fired with no severance. This would be the only way it would be allowed to employ "amei haaretz" - ignoramuses, non-religious people.

I suppose this is only a problem in Bnei Braq. Generally catering services, wedding halls, restaurants, and the like are not using "otzar beis din" produce, but would be using mostly non-Jewish produce, and maybe some imported. Obviously non-mehadrin places might also use hetter mechira produce, but Rav Zilbershtein is not talking about that. Bnei Braq has the minhag of the Chazon Ish that even non-Jewish produce retains its holiness and must be treated properly, while in most other places the minhag is that non-Jewish produce is not treated with kedusha and can be disposed of regularly. It sounds to me like Rav Zilbershtein must be talking about in Bnei Braq only, as in Jerusalem and elsewhere this should not be a problem at all. 

the investigation has been cancelled because the investigators realized, as many of the Breslavers have been claiming all along, that the local PCR tests in Ukraine had been negative, and the tests upon landing in Ben Gurion airport had been negative for them, while only the MDA, Magen David Adom, tests in Ukraine had been positive. The investigators decided based on the official information they confirmed that there was no fraud and the problem was with MDA testing, not with the Breslavers and any possible fraud. The investigation is closed. The Breslavers returning from Uman did no wrong.

That's great news.

Now I hope they open an investigation into MDA. What was faulty in their testing? With MDA doing a lot of the testing within Israel are there also a lot of false positives and the numbers are totally wrong and unreliable or was the system used in Ukraine different in some way? Was there any intention by MDA to make the Breslavers look bad or was this all innocent? I don't know any of the answers to these questions, but if the government found it necessary to launch an investigation into 150-200 possible fraudulent tests, that should be enough to launch an investigation into MDA now that they have been found to be the source of the problem.

Not surprisingly, the announcement was being shared with heavy criticism of this shul putting people in danger and for using a reckless policy.

Personally, I don't think it was a bad thing, not that it should have been done. But the fact that it was, gives people an opportunity to take precautions. A lot of Covid positive people were surely going to be going to services without telling anyone they are Covid positive - this has been happening in every other venue and there is no reason to think it would not happen with Yom Kippur services. That is besides for the people who violate and flout the rules openly and publicly just because they can or because they don't believe in the seriousness of the entire matter.

Having a shul announce that it is welcoming Covid positive people to pray with them would give others who do not want to be in the presence of someone Covid positive to find a different place to pray. It was almost definitely going to happen anyway, and this way it happened in a way that would allow other people who so desired to take any necessary precautions. And maybe all the Covid positive people who would feel uncomfortable and unwelcome elsewhere would see this type of a shul as a solution and all concentrate there to daven in a welcoming atmosphere.

I would like to know after the fact what happened - was the minyan full of Covid positive (and recovered) people? Did covid negative people attend as well? If they did, did the virus spread? How many people from that minyan got sick and/or seriously ill? I doubt we will get any such information.

the Rosh Yehudi organization organizes Yom Kippur services every year in Tel Aviv by Dizengoff. This is the conclusion of Neila and you can see how it is attended by thousands of people of all types. This year at the last minute they invited Yedidya Meir and Sivan Rahav Meir to participate and they decided to go.

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I always find these types of interviews interesting - every year... somehow half of these explaining their forgiveness found ways to use this as a way to bash the government...

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  -- MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ)

I like it

Though practically his advice is only necessary if staying with other people, in someone else's house/sukka. If you are in your own house, there really is no reason, from an epidemiological perspective, to go outside... but that is overthinking it...

One of the many Dead Sea pools (this one on the Jordanian side) turned red (looks more purple to me but that might just be the lighting)... The issue is being studied as the reason is currently unknown but might be caused by chemicals dumped or algae.

If the water in the pool splits anytime soon we might have a better idea...

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Translation:

My instinct is to agree, but I dont know enough about medicine or ethics to make such decisions. And thankfully or hopefully I will probably never be in a position to make such a decision. What do you think?

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In light of the recent prison break by convicted terrorists, MK Itamar Ben Gvir (Hatzionut Hadatit - Otzma Yehudit) has proposed a law that would curtail some of the benefits afforded to security prisoners. 

Ben Gvir's proposal would have any security prisoner who is a member of any terrorist organization that fights against the State of Israel. Ben Gvir would have the prison services not serve any meat, chicken or fish to such prisoners. At All. 

Additionally, Ben Gvir's proposed law, should it pass, would allow such prisoners visitation rights with only first degree relatives, and only once per year.

Additionally, Ben Gvir's proposed law would have such prisoners moved around form cell to cell every 30 days. No such prisoner would be allowed to remain nit he same cell for more than 30 consecutive days.

Ben Gvir explains his proposal saying that this would prevent such prisoners, usually imprisoned for killing Jews in terrorist attacks, from planning more attacks from within prison, and it would prevent them from planning escapes. As well, Arab security prisoners should not be given more benefits than Jewish security prisoners, and Jewish security prisoners such as Amiram Ben Oliel were not allowed to have cellphones in prison.

source: Israel Hayom

The proposal of moving them around every 30 days sounds reasonable to me and it could pass muster. it is hard to imagine from a human rights perspective the withholding of meat/chicken/fish and limited visitation would be allowed by the Supreme Court, even if it would pass in the Knesset. Perhaps more often than once a year, but it could be limited to first degree relatives once a month or once a week. The meat does not even make any sense or provide any benefit, so I am not sure why he proposed this - they need to be fed something with protein and nutritional value. Should they be fed just beans 3 meals a day every day?

  -- Avi Blumenthal, media consultant and head of the PR Division of the Health Ministry to the Haredi sector

1. Blumenthal is right - we have needed stricter enforcement, and this has been so all along. There is no point in making all the crazy rules without any enforcement. If they are not going to enforce the rules, stop making them.

2. Blumenthal is right - selective enforcement helps nobody.

3. there is never a good time to start enforcing. It will always hurt somebody "unfairly". If this is the policy, real enforcement will never begin. 

4. Announcing such a thing publicly basically ensures that nobody required to be in quarantine over Yom Kippur will actually stay in quarantine. 

The terrorists in jail who escaped last week planned their escape and worked to it, reportedly, for about a year and a half. I must say, that is pretty impressive. They probably tracked the guards' patterns in addition to paying attention to the level of security and technology, and in addition to actually planning and working on digging the tunnel. Impressive in some way.

All that work for a year and a half or so, and they just figured once they get out they'll figure out the rest. Yehiye beseder. it will all work out, it will be ok. They did not have anyone on the outside helping them, they did not have arrangements on the outside for a hiding place or for someone to pick them up and sneak them across a border or for someone to bring them supplies.

Yihiye beseder. We'll figure it out, it will all work out.

They were caught, 4 pf them so far, wandering around, diving in garbage cans for food, sleeping in parking lots and olive groves. They wandered through several Arab towns looking for assistance and sleeping quarters but nobody helped, and people reported them to the authorities. They tried to hitch rides but nobody would pick them up.

While the planning of the prison portion of the escape might have been impressive, the planning of the part after the escape shows how Israeli they really were. Yihiye beseder. It will all work out.

I guess the Palestinians have some Israeli traits. (or is it the opposite?)

Yihiye Beseder. Yeah, sometimes it will be, and sometimes it won't be.

Think about the terrorists running away, running all over the largest Arab city in Israel, Nazareth, like abandoned dogs unable to find anyone willing to give them a place to hide or food to eat! This is the same Nazareth that a month ago hosted in hotels, for free, tens of Israelis running away from the forest fires in the Jerusalem area and also acted immediately to help after the Meron tragedy.

This is the spirit of participation in the Arab Israeli community

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actually, a bracha and a prayer

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I get that these things cost money to produce and require ads and sponsorships, but I hate it when they are so blatant as part of the show...

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the big item in the news right now is that hundreds of people returning from Uman have allegedly forged PCR test results, and many are actually positive. MDA claims 13.5% have tested positive, while Breslav spokespeople say that is not true, though I don't know how they can know if someone is positive or negative and if MDA is right or wrong without testing the same people or at least a similar sampling, with other testing systems. They might be smart but I doubt they have the power to just look at someone and determine if he is positive or negative. 

Besides for the issue of positives, news media are claiming that many of the Breslavers have forged test results. First, that s not surprising as people all over the place are faking tests for travel and for green passport, along with faking green passports (no, I have no numbers but I have heard a lot of anecdotal talk about this). Second, it is not surprising as many of them do not believe Corona is a real thing anyway.

the thing is, the Breslavers could or should have learned from the prison break terrorists the other day and just used a spoon to dig their way out of the airport without getting tested. then the story would be silenced and the police would try to just make it go away because of the egg on their faces.

This is in Ripponlea in Australia, as some members of an illegal Rosh Hashana minyan broke the rules of the tight lockdown. As police found out about the minyan, they surrounded the area for 14 hours as members of the minyan refused to let them in and they waited for the members to come out. Each adult member was fined over $5000. Some members tried to avoid being caught by escaping through various other places of egress, including via the roof.

According to news reports, they have been meeting illegally for a while already, operating under the guise of a legal support group similar to AA.

According to YWN, a community activist justified the minyan saying:

The activist, of course, compared Melbourne authorities to Nazi Germany - there is nothing more Jewish than that:

I don't even know what to say. We have all read about how strict the extended lockdowns have been in Australia. This is an example of how strict they have been. A 14 hour standoff? Wow. I guess that gave them enough time to get all the services in (at least one day's worth) before being caught and fined. At least they got their money's worth! 

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giborey koach

I dont recall such ceremonies in the past, though I am sure this can't be the first time... fascinating

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1. a year and a half wasted being careful and following the guidelines pretty carefully. I got it anyway. Now I kind of wish I had gotten it earlier on so I would have had less concern throughout..

2. I really enjoyed not getting dressed for 10 days. The hardest part of being released was having to get dressed.

3. Some people love to go out - socialize, do things, etc. I go out to do work and errands, but besides for that I like to stay in. 10 days staying in was a breeze.

4. I was somewhat disappointed with the Misrad Habriyut and with the kupat cholim. I did not get the sense that anybody was on top of things. Nobody really checked in on us. They called the first days each person tested positive and that was mostly to go over where we had each been in the previous days and with whom we might have been in contact and to calculate how long isolation would be. The rest of the time, almost no contact. I got an sms letting me know I am released from quarantine, but nobody first spoke with me to confirm anything about symptoms or how I am feeling. I guess they relied on a survey I filled out a couple of days ago and trust I was not lying. I did not lie, but I find it hard to believe there aren't a lot of people lying or fudging the general questions.

5. At one point a kupa doctor called to ask how I am feeling. Nobody called to check on any of the other family members that tested positive. I was basically asymptomatic but someone else in the family was sick. Not deathly sick, but sick. When the doctor called for me, I said I am fine but someone else is sick. Doc wanted to speak to that person, who was very weak at the time and could hardly talk, but he said he needs to hear the person talking and breathing. After the conversation the doctor simply said the patient does not sound like she needs a hospital so that's it. What about other treatment? We could not go to a doctor or to the local health clinic because we could not leave the house, and they did not want us to come in, for obvious reasons. The doctor would not prescribe over the phone without being able to diagnose anything. All we could do if necessary would be to go to the hospital and waste many hours for an unnecessary hospital visit.  The doctor above also did not call back a couple of days later to follow up or check in on us again. We could have been laying here dying and nobody would have known about it until we would maybe show up in the hospital.

I think that the kupot cholim in every city or region should have a team of doctors to make house calls or have clinics open specifically for corona patients to get basic treatment. not everyone needs to go to a hospital, but they still might need treatment for other things or for side effects that need relief. The doctors would be vaxxed or recovered and obviously would only go in protected with PPE, and it would be doctors willing to deal with these patients. 

6. There is a tzadekes in RBS that is a nurse or PA, I am not sure what her actual position in real life is, and she goes around checking on people. Someone told us to call her and we did. She came several times, gave medicine and vitamins and checked on us and gave us guidance. At one point she felt it necessary and told us about a doctor we could hire privately to come make a house call, which we did, and it was a big help. We took care of ourselves privately, but the kupat cholim or Ministry of Health should have been checking up on us and seeing what we might need and if we need any medical attention. Again, I get the feeling that we could have been laying here dying and nobody would have known unless we showed up in the hospital by our own forces.

7. We could have been walking around the neighborhood or city or country, like many others, spreading the infection, as nobody checked in on us. No enforcement at all. 4 people in the house tested positive plus some other quarantines overlapped. maybe they know who is responsible to keep the rules with no need to check up on and they only check in on the people they know might break the rules or aren't sure about. I don't know but it seemed kind of hefker. 

8. I figure now between having 3 doses of the vaccine plus natural antibodies as well, I must be like superman by now.

Shana tova and have a good and healthy year

  -- Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

This is funny and true. I expected no lockdown. I do not believe there was ever a serious threat of a lockdown. This government's approach, for good or for bad, has been clearly to try to find a way to leave the country open. A lockdown did not make sense, and the pressure for it publicly only came from people who had no intention of adhering to it anyway. A lockdown for Sukkos also does not make sense, so I am not overly impressed by his warning, but I do agree that the more people follow the guidelines, the better off we will be.

Additionally, the funny part is in saying "continue following the guidelines". Almost nobody is, so I don't know who should continue doing so...

At the end of the day, good job in preventing a lockdown. I wonder if anyone who has been criticizing Bennett and his peers for the past 5-6 weeks about the possible lockdown coming will now praise him for not locking anything down. Everyone screaming over the past month about possible restrictions in travel to Uman while all other travel is open - will they praise him for allowing travel to Uman almost unrestricted?

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A Chassidic couple kayaking through the streets of Brooklyn

I just wonder why they owned a kayak in Brooklyn...

great date night activity

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Of course people are all huffy about this requirement saying that on other flights vaccinated/recovered people do not need to get tested before flying.

I dont know what the current rules are for travel to any specific place but back at the end of June and early July  to travel to the USA I had to take a negative PCR test within 72 hours of my flight to the USA. Despite being vaccinated. So people should just stop complaining, go do what they need to do and go where they want to go. yes, these are the rules and many people have to do seemingly unnecessary or unhelpful procedures to travel to where they want or need to go right now. They make rules and the rules apply across the board even if they do not always make sense. Especially now when vaccinated people are also catching the CoronaVirus, even if not getting seriously ill - they will still spread it. With a lot of Uman pilgrims likely not vaccinated, that could spell danger without testing.

That being said, the most egregious aspect of this, I think, is that this decision is being made last minute. There is hardly any travel time left to go to Uman. Rosh Hashana is Monday night. there are only a few travel days left. Anyone wanting to go to Uman that has not yet gone will have to get tested either today or tomorrow, to get results back in time for the trip, and anyone traveling today or tomorrow likely wont be able to get the results back fast enough. Most Uman pilgrims are likely already there, as it is already fairly close to Rosh Hashana, so this new rule will only affect a relatively small percentage of the pilgrims. Making these decisions last minute just makes it harder for people to plan, harder for people to follow the rules, and harder for people to willingly comply. Had the decision been made a week or two ago, maybe people would be grumbling less.

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covid is really a dybbuk? this is just weird

  -- MK Uri Maklev (UTJ)

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