I dont know or care much about what went on there and who said what, but Rav Zilbershtein did say something very interesting that I came across.

Rav Zilbershtein related that he had heard form his rebbi Rav Yechezkal Abramski. He says the psak Rav Abramski said was shocking and Rav Abramski had told him to publicize it but then Rav Abramski himself publicized it.

According to Rav Zilbershtein, Rav Abramski had paskened that there is a decree to join the army but it is very not appropriate. The halacha is that if we cannot work it out with the army and avoid the service then there is a mitzva upon each person to leave Israel and make every effort possible to not live here! 

Rav Zilbershtein says that he said to Rav Abramski that he is shocked to hear that. Rav Abramski basically said what today would be converted to "hold my beer"... you think that is shocking? wait until you hear what I am about to say! Not only should people leave Israel but they should even be mechalel shabbos to run away from Israel if necessary!

That is shocking.

My [funny] response to that is that if one is already going to be mechalel shabbos one can also join the army and be mechalel shabbos!

Minister Amichai Eliyahu today said in an interview that the hostages should be called "shvuyim" and not "chatufim", and their return should only be dealt with at the end of the war.

Some people are upset about him trying to change the term to shvuyim from chatufim, some think he is right, I just dont get it.

Chatufim means kidnapped.

Shvuyim means captives

Bnei Aruba means hostages.

In English the hostages have always been called Hostages. In Hebrew they have been called Chatufim. So that was always a discrepancy.

Honestly I have thought all along that chatufim is a less than accurate term for the hostages. 

Why are some insisting on using the term chatufim, and some prefer to switch it to shvuyim? Technically they should be called Beni Aruba. Shvuyim is pretty close and might even be considered somewhat interchangeable with Bnei Aruba. What is more accurate and what is the big difference if they are called one or the other? 

And maybe Eliyahu is right, I dont know, but the response would then be yalla get to work and finish the war, why is it taking so long?

Everyone says how PM Benjamin Netanyahu is the worlds leading statesman, with nobody having the diplomatic capabilities that he has, definitely not in Israel but also on the world stage. Yet through the rubble and mud of Gaza, justified as it is, Netanyahu has succeeded in turning just about the entire world against us. He still has some of America (and fewer every day) and Argentina behind him, but not much else.

One of Netanyahu's main life goals was to prevent a Palestinian State from being formed, Bar Ilan speech notwithstanding. He has worked very hard over the past 3 decades to prevent it, including moves like building up Hamas to prevent the PA from having too strong of a leadership position among the Palestinians (this strategy eventually turned on him when Hamas became a group of powerful monsters). I find it ironic that Netanyahu himself is going to be responsible for the world recognition of the Palestinian State for running this war with no real consistent strategy or goals and getting mired down into a deteriorating situation with partners pushing him to continue seemingly endlessly. The only goals the world hears about are the goals stated by his partners Smotritch and Ben Gvir (and their ministers) to clean out Gaza, to resettle Jewish communities in Gaza, to stop humanitarian aid, and the like, and the world considers that to be ethnic cleansing and genocidal. And because of all that more and more countries, important ones, are saying they are going to recognize a Palestinian State in the very near future. 

Some of you are not going to like this and will call me a Leftist, but this is the current reality, like it or not.

Thank you Prime Minister. Good job.

The question asked was about yeshiva bochurim who will be going to their camps on Monday, the day after Tisha B'Av, and need to do laundry Sunday night to prepare for their trip away.

To point out - the custom is that during the Nine Days we do not do laundry (caveat that Sephardim do laundry except for the week of Tisha B'Av itself and there are possibly some other customs as well). This has been extended to the night after Tisha B'Av to commemorate that the main burning of the midash actually happened on 10 Av so we refrain from laundry and other restrictions until noon of 10 Av.

So the Rosh Yeshiva asked the Rav was about these young men who cannot wait until the 10th because they will be going away and need the laundry den before that? And also, what about for people who will be getting married on Monday, can they do laundry on Sunday night in preparation for the wedding?

Rav Kook answered with an explanation he heard from his rebbi, Rav Elyashiv.

Rav Kook said that the bride and groom themselves (not guests or family members) can start doing the needed laundry on Sunday night, while other family members can start doing their laundry Monday morning without waiting for mid-day. People who will be traveling on Monday can do laundry on Monday morning before mid-day. At the end of the day, the custom to not do laundry is just a custom.

I am not quite sure what that last comment means. Customs are considered pretty important, especially customs brought in the actual Shulchan Aruch and commentaries.. dismissing it as "just a custom" seems out of character, but it gives me leeway on lots of things! 

Regarding the campers laundry question, Rav Kook said that the comment about someone traveling on 10 Av was regarding someone traveling to perform a mitzva. It is not clear if one is traveling not for a mitzva but for personal reasons and benefits if this would be allowed. Rav Kook concludes though that if any aspect of a mitzva is involved, one can be lenient and do laundry on Sunday night. Yeshva bochurim going on Monday, 10 Av, to camp under the auspices of the yeshiva, is surely involving a mitzva in some way as it will include chizzuk, or inspiration and the boys strengthening themselves religiously, so they can surely do laundry on Sunday night. Better, if possible, to wait until the morning but if that is not possible, laundry can be done Sunday night. 

source: Behadrei

That being said, the one thing I wonder about, before the starvation campaign as well but more so now with the starvation campaign, is where are these brilliant marketers and public relations people in Gaza and in Hamas coming out with the fake images and the powerful messaging, immediately capturing the hearts and minds of almost the entire world.

Israel has destroyed Gaza. Israel has killed much of the Hamas senior leadership in Gaza. Israel has killed out much of the command structure of the Hamas military wing. Who out there in Gaza is the brilliant marketer, or on the brilliant marketing PR team, that comes out with these messages and campaigns, that generates and publicizes the fake Pallywood videos and images? Who are they and where are they hiding? This terrorist organization has people who know how to create these campaigns and bring nearly the entire world to their side? Why has Israel not yet taken out these brilliant marketing agents of Hamas? 

Obviously we all know Israel has not invested an agora in marketing and public relations. the Israeli government has let that fall by the wayside. The few people they brought in they eventually fired. Israel relies mostly on several volunteer activists - they dont really rely on them they just benefit from their freelance work. They dont rely on them because the Israeli government seems to not care about that at all. Was there a counter campaign against the starvation campaign? I think PM Netanyahu made one statement about the lies, well after it was too late. Did Israel do anything to stave it off, to show it to be incorrect?

Maybe if Israel would allow independent international journalists in to Gaza to report on the war they would be putting out the truthful images and comment on whether or not there is actually real starvation and hunger and it would not just be our word against theirs.. 

But the main point of this is where is the Hamas Creative Agency with its brilliant marketers and PR people, and why has Israel not disabled them already a long time ago? How do they continue to function "on a dime" while the rest of Gaza and Hamas continues to be destroyed and dismantled increasingly every day?

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  -- Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu

good? bad? if you agree with the sentiment expressed you can't really be upset that the world (including the ilk of Piers Morgan) gets upset that it looks like Israel is trying to wipe out Gaza and kill tens of thousands of children... the ministers of the government repeatedly say that this is their intention and objective...

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  -- Defense Minister Yisrael Katz

we have heard this threat of the gates of hell opening many times. Has this become a version of the Haredi parties threat to topple the government if a draft law is not passed by date x?

And considering what Gaza looks like, I wonder what it will look like once the gates of hell open on it!

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The Haredi parties are all busy resigning for ideological reasons, but in the meantime are busy putting their people into places where they will keep their jobs and effectively run the offices being abandoned by the respective ministers.

Such as Motti Bebchik, the famous assistant to ministers Litzman and Goldknopf. When each of them resigned, Bebchik kept his position in the respective ministry and ran it on behalf of the resigned Minister. So they resign to make a big show of ideology but in practice keep their hands in the pot. And the Coalition allows them to so as not to upset them so they might come back later.

And now Bebchik just got fired from running the Housing and Construction Ministry. But not because his Minister he was working under resigned. He got fired because he criticized PM Netanyahu publicly. And he criticized Netanyahu while trying to keep a job he should not have had anyway...and even now that he was fired, it is only him but his assistants are keeping their jobs and running the office

And Moshe Arbel, a Minister from Shas, just resigned along with the rest of the Ministers of Shas as per the instructions of the Council of Sages. But shortly after resigning he retracted his resignation. Why did he retract it? Because he wanted to appoint some people to new jobs before his resignation goes into effect. So he resigned, retracted to give out some jobs, and is going to resign again. And Arbel had just criticized MK Eichler for trying to get appointed to the Housing Ministry while also threatening to resign over the Draft law issue asking if all politics is cynical just to get jobs...

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They are understandably upset as they were basically forced, because of their own rhetoric, to resign when they clearly didnt want to.

What they are doing right now is called burning bridges. They may be forgiven, they may not. If they are not going to reconsider their positions, they should simply take the high road and not burn bridges. Considering their positions they don't have too many alternative options and they seem to be trying to become pariahs among those who are their only potential partners. Take the high road, keep it ideological, take the proud position of having resigned to protect the yeshiva bochurim, if you really believe that's what you were doing, and don't spew hatred.

I am not quite sure how this works. This is similar to what Ben Gvir did when he left the government, he also supported it form the outside despite having left due to significant disagreement on policy, and eventually returning.

What's the point of resigning and leaving the government but protecting it from the outside? The government will be a minority government but they are propping up the government they are abandoning. What is the point of that? I didn't understand it when Ben Gvir did it either.

 
update:

it seems they are leaving the government but not the coalition. Still not sure what the point is but at least they arent supporting it from outside but from inside so it makes slightly more sense

from the news:

 Amiel Yarchi (Knesset reporter for i24) reporting: Netanyahu is putting strong pressure on Deri to wait before leaving the government considering the security events in Syria..

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So another Israeli border fence was easily breached by a band of civilians, though this time it was in the other direction...

Does Israel not know how to build a decent border fence? Maybe we need Trump's border walls here in Israel....

There is some sort of massacre or genocide or something going on in Syria with government forces (remember when Al Jolani was considered a good guy, reformed from his ISIS ways?) attacking Druze communities in [Southern?] Syria.

Somehow Israel has gotten involved and has been attacking targets in Syria to try to protect the Druze communities.

I get that we have Druze in Israel that are generally loyal to Israel, and they have familial ties to the Druze in Syria, but why are the Syrian Druze and whatever is going on there our problem? Are we now the world's policeman? don't we have enough problems of our own?

I am not against our involvement, I just don't understand it and don't know enough about why we are getting involved.  

Besides for that where are the campus protests around the world on behalf of the Druze and against the Syrian government? Where are the protests in the streets? Where are the outraged activists and governments calling on Syrian forces to stop killing innocent civilians?

Good riddance. France can take in as many Gazans as are willing to leave. Enjoy.

This can help Trump's plan of voluntary emigration from Gaza. It seems nobody really wanted the Gazans and nobody was willing to accept and receive them in any significant numbers. France can be a good solution to get that program back on the table. I would only recommend the French Jews get out before too many Gazans move there. Maybe we can do a population swap (voluntary, of course)

As a former Israeli Prime Minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100% certainty:

The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false.

Epstein’s conduct,…

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) July 14, 2025

I say pointless, as good as it is, because those who accuse Israel of being involved will continue to do so as they will just say it is a coverup and Bennett and others are lying. Lack of involvement cannot really be proven so the accusations will just continue...

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they went to Bnei Braq and just let yeshiva guys talk about the draft law and the IDF, no narration, no story, no chatter, just letting them talk and be heard.. interesting perspectives..

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To note, kids commonly ignore cars and drivers and continue to ride their bikes and scooters and bimbas weaving in and out and around the cars trying to carefully maneuver through the lot. Granted, the driver has to always be extra cautious, but the kids are way too flippant about the dangers. The parking lots are made for cars but are also used as playgrounds by the children of the adjacent buildings and this causes an inherent danger. As I once heard said, pedestrians may generally have the right of way but it doesn't help much if they dont want to spend months recuperating from an injury or have to undergo operations and needless to say if killed.

That being said, back to the psak, so a couple rabbonim got together and issued a psak saying drivers need to drive slowly and carefully paying attention to their surroundings and residents and children and parents of children need to be careful and recognize that the parking lot is dangerous and kids should not be there playing unsupervised. Drivers should make sure to install in their cars whatever safety features and sensors that are available and can even pay for them with maaser money.

The family of fallen soldier Moshe Noll walks from their house in RBS through what has become the traditional flag escort flanked by Rabbis, community leaders and community members, on their way to the funeral of Moshe

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Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, rav of Ramat Elchonon neighborhood of Bnei Braq, does not like the trend of the cholent shops people go to on Thursday nights to sit and enjoy some chulent... in Hebrew they are called Cholentiyot or Chontiyot.

Rav Zilbershtein really has two problems with the Thursday night cholent places, and they are not what I expected before reading the details.

Rav Zilbershtein was asked by some yeshiva bochurim about the appropriateness of going out for cholent on a Thursday night considering that cholent is a food that was specifically invented for the purpose of being eaten on Shabbos. Also, the cholent is not being eaten as preparation for shabbos, to make sure the cholent is good for Shabbos like people who taste a bit on Friday, but to enjoy a good dish on Thursday night, and now some have extended it and are opening earlier on Thursdays and even earlier in the week to serve cholent. And they put up big pots of cholent, not to sell cholent for shabbos but to eat during the week. So the question asked is if eating a shabbos food like cholent during the week is ok or if it is a problem and some sort of slight to Shabbos...

Rav Zilbershtein went through the potential issues and sources showing that it is important and preferred to designate a food to be special for Shabbos and one should not eat such foods during the week so as to properly honor the Shabbos with these designated foods.

Rav Zilbershtein mentioned people who had special foods for Shabbos and refused to eat them during the week, like the Arizal who wouldnt eat kugel during the week, and the Baal ShemTov who wouldnt eat "tzibbel" during the week, and the Chasam Sofer who wouldnt eat tzimmes during the week. And regarding cholent specifically which was actually invented to be specifically a shabbos food, for sure should be kept for Shabbos.

Rav Zilbershtein added that cholent is really not a healthy food and rabbonim over the years considwered that perhaps it should not be eaten but concluded that eating it on Shabbos is ok because Shabbos adds special bracha to the Shabbos food and provides protection from the unhealthy aspect of it. That bracha and protection only happens on Shabos, but if you eat cholent during the week, or other unhealthy foods, you are not protected and your health will be affected.

To conclude, Rav Zilbershtein pasked not to eat cholent during the week because:

1. it is important to keep the food designated for Shabbos enjoyment

2. it is unhealthy to eat cholent during the week because it does not get the protection awarded on Shabbos.

source: Hamechadesh

what if you dont usually eat cholent on Shabbos? Ok, you'll have to contend with the halacha about eating hot foods on Shabbos (which cholent was meant to satisfy), but you can eat other hot foods. If you designate a different food for Shabbos instead of cholent can you then eat cholent during the week? it might be unhealthy but is it really worse than ice cream or skittles or chocolate cake or fried foods, especially if only eating one portion once a week or once every few weeks?

why would you expect them to no longer be "messianic", whatever that means, just because they have now been drafted to the IDF? I would even suggest that the army is the best place for messianism to flourish rather than to be quashed...

this got left behind and might be thought of as irrelevant at this point but I think it is still an interesting topic and in Israel we have these types of issues and concerns on a fairly regular basis, even if on a somewhat smaller scale..

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Israel's Minister of the Interior Moshe Arbel announced that Weiss will not be allowed into Israel ever again, revoking his visa. Arbel said that he would not allow anyone who works against Israel and identifies with its enemies to enter the country.

Good move, but I am curious. If one day Weiss wakes up and says he wants to move to Israel, to make aliyah.... will he be allowed to or will the ban still stand? The Law of Return assures every Jew (or descendant of Jews) the right to make aliyah. Does Arbel's decision override the Law of Return or will that be his joker?

An avreich from BMG was arrested after he tried to hire a 15 year old to clean the carpets of his car. The teen snapped a picture of him and flagged down a policeman claiming the man was soliciting him. The man, Binyamin Kubani, was arrested without being given the chance to tell his side of the story, and the Lakewood community is seething and has been holding prayer vigils on his behalf.

Either significant details are missing or this is just a crazy story. With the amount of frum Jews in Lakewood and the influence they hold, is it possible for an avreich to be railroaded like this?

Do you know more about this? Did I miss any important reports that have been added to the story that make it make sense, at least somewhat?

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I dont know why now and not earlier, I dont know what he said while there (though I saw he met with some freed hostages and family members of still-held hostages), but it is good he finally went to visit the community. 

Better late than never.

I think the people who stood outside and screamed insults at him were wrong (though well within their rights) for doing so - they screamed for the past nearly two years at him for not coming to visit the community and now that he finally went they scream at him for not having come earlier. 

Of course he was wrong for not going earlier, but he finally went and that is a good and important move, maybe even towards some reconciliation.

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