-- President of the USA Donald J Trump

he is popular here but not quite as popular as he used to be.... definitely not 99%

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So this extreme leftist, Kaplanist even according to some, is also an extreme messianic (though without the qualifying long unkempt peyos) rightist, maybe even a Bengvirist. I will note, one of the reaosns I went today is because my daughter who serves in Mishmar Hagvul (which is why I said maybe even a Bengvirist), aka Magav, is stationed this week on Har Habayit. 

Obviously I have heard of the changes on Har Habayit over the past few years. I still have sort of kept up and stayed in My Har Habayit whatsapp groups and I always follow Har Habayit in the news, so none of it was a surprise to me, but seeing the changes with my own eyes, and all at once after a period of time rather than seeing it incrementally as it happens, was significant.

Going in had a minimal security check, just the metal detector - no iterrogation and body search for a siddur or other religious materials.

Being that I did not go up with a group, the police gathered the several individuals going at that time together on the Mugrabim Bridge and turned us into a group. On the bridge was a box with a sheaf of laminated papers of prayers. During the police instructions he told us that we cannot use our own siddurim or anything else other than the sheet of tefillot prepared and available. He also said we can daven openly on the eastern side and only on the eastern side. While I am not sure what the  difference is, if they are letting people pray publicly there and even with a source sheet, why nto also allow siddurim? but ok, they used to arrest people for moving their lips silently on Har Habayit, so offering a limited prayer sheet that you can hold and walk around with is a massive change.

Also, some people were wearing colorful shawls turned into a tallis, and one person from Yeshivat Har Habayit and had turned his jacked into a begged of tztzis. There are some black shawl tallitot that have become popular recently by Yeshivat Har Habayit people that I have seen pictures of but nobody in my group today was wearing them.

Once we went up it was pretty basic for the first section, but what was noticeably different was no Waqf guards following us around - just the police and Magav.

Once we hit the eastern side, pretty much everyone did hishtachavaya, full prostration. Right there, out in the open, not hiding behind other people or trying to catch the moment the plice office is looking in the other direction...Continuing on we went to the center of the eastern side where the path directly to the mikdash area is and everyone did prostration again, and people settled in and davened, each doing their own thing. The police did not rush anyone or try to move us along. Interestingly enough, a few people sat down theer at one point and started learning somethign (I think hilchot har habayit but not sure). At some point the police asked who wants to continue on and who wants to stay with the kollel.

Just then another group approached us, which also would have never happened before - it used to be only one group at a time, and if you took too long you were holding up other people waiting to go up. Also, it turned out one of the kids there (ascending with his father) was just turning bar miztva, so at that point many joined in to sing and dance with the bar mitzva boy. Also somethign that would never have been allowed before.

The rest of the way around was uneventful. Near the end I saw my daughter as she came over for a moment from where she was stationed, we exited the Har, and I walked over to Shaar Kutna where she was stationed to see her for a few minutes (Jewish exit off Har Habayit is Shaar Hashalshelet) and then headed out for my car.

Crossing the Kotel plaza I thought for a moment to go down and pray but then caught myself and thought that this would be sacreligious after praying on Har Habayit on the other side of the wall. What do you think - is it appropriate to pray at the Kotel after praying on Har Habayit or is it sacrilegious and maybe a bizayon to Har Habayit?

Due to the recent [global] sharp increases in the price of gasoline, along with it coinciding with Smotritch's electoral campaign, the Finance Minister cut the "blu tax" on gasoline by 1nis per liter. Smotritch did this in October after the month had already begun (which was one of the other few times in history the price changed mid-month).

On the night of November 5, as it turns to November 6 at midnight, that tax discount will expire so the price will automatically adjust upward. The FInance Ministry announced though that the discount will be lessened to 50ag per liter and extended until the end of November. Meaning, the tax discount partially expires on november 6 so will go up at the pump by 50ag per liter, and the balance will expire at the end of the month when it will go up by another 50ag per liter (along with whatever else happens to the price at the end of the month, up or down).

Living in historic times is getting both expensive and tiring...

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  -- Lali Deri, former candidate for Knesset on the Amcha Yisrael slate

A moment after they annoucned their plan to recommend Netanyahu for PM after the elections I said exactly the above and called it a fatal mistake that would lose them support. They copuld not withstand the pressure coming from Netanyahu to drop out and they thought publicly saying they support him would get him off their backs...

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MK Eisenkot's bloc, aka the Change Bloc, has 67 mandates but no clear path to a government. Of the 67 seats, 19 are held by Arab parties that will be difficult to form a government with. Netanyahu is working hard to delegitimize forming a government with the Arab parties, even though it looks like the big scandal of voter fraud will come to almost nothing (actual results still pending but it looks like this was just a planned Netanyahu head fake). There are a couple other options for Eisenkot such as bringing in the Haredim who have expressed conditional interest. One little part of me wants to see this happen just so we can see people on the Right (eg Yinon Magal, among plenty of others) go ballistic about the Haredim and call them traitors to the Right and all sorts of other things.

Another option being floated is a unity government of sorts. I have supported this option for a long time and wanted to support a party running on this platform in the elections but other than Hendel they all dropped out. That being said, a unity government will not be easy to put together either. Netanyahu's people are saying they want a unity government but only Netanyahu will be Prime Minister with no rotation, and Eisenkot's people are saying he won't sit under Netanyahu. If this is going to work and avoid new elections (election fraud will probably not bring us to new elections right now), it is going to take a lot of work and compromise.

Until any of that happens, The Change Bloc has the numbers and are sayibng that in the meantime until the government stuation can be figured out, they will start by working on using their majority in Knesset. To start, if they can work it out among the various parties, they will put up their own candidate as Speaker of Knesset and remove outgoing Speaker MK Amir Ohanyon of the Likud. The Haredim say they will likely support this move as well, considering they regret, in hindsight, supporting his candidacy (because he is a homosexual and suddenly it is a chilul hashem that he was appointed to this position).

After that move, they say they will try to pass some basic legislation they campaigned on. Again, in Knesset they have the straightforward numbers for this right now. There are various ideas for legislation and decisions they are floating to pass quickly, such as appointing a State Commission of Inquiry, among others. One I already discussed, being a law to disqualify anyone indicted from running for Prime Minister.   

I saw a new idea floated last night in the Change Bloc. That is, they would pass a law that would change the method of our elections. Theyw ould set it to be two separate ballots, one voting directly for Prime Minister and the second being a vote for Parliamentary representation. There is reasonable logic to this, considering the Executive and Legislative branches are meant to be two separate branches of government. This was tried before and abandoned after one election (when it did not help Netanyahu the way he thought it would when he passed the law). That would mean whichever candidate for PM wins the most votes would become Prime Minister and would not need a Knesset majority for forming a government but could form it with however few or many MKs he wants. Netanyahu himself has spoken about this idea in recent years as well, but there is no way he would agree to it right now.

Personally, I am in favor of electoral reform, but it has to come as part of a comprehensive set of reforms designed to improve our electoral system, not just to help this or that candidate at a specific time and place.. I am not a fan of gerrymandering, and this is just a form of that. I am in favor of term limits as well, but we need mroe electoral reform than just term limits and it should come as part of a bigger package of reforms, not on its own as a way to exclude a specific candidate. 

Also, Eisenkot might support making such a change for direct election of Prime Minister but I can totally see it coming back to bite him. Just like polls were wrong regarding the results of the elections, perhaps polls were wrong showing him as the favored candidate for PM. 

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  -- Chairman of Shas MK Aryeh Deri, lamenting the results of the elections that sees Shas dropping to 7 seats, and possibly to 6

well, yes, that is how elections work. The people choose which party to vote for and it is their fault they did not vote Shas. They question is why Shas potential voters chose not to vote Shas, and that is not the fault of the public (though it was their decision)

Some people think they own their public's decisions, and the public does not have a right to choose otherwise...

I hope this Qatari influence gets uprooted and banished from Israel and whomever they find to be connected to the fraud, if true, gets his due punishment

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right now, less than a day to elections, lots of people are saying lots of crazy things, so it cant be hard to choose, but I think this one takes the cake 

  -- Rav Sariel Rosenberg, Av Beis Din of Bnei Braq, at the Degel Hatorah election rally last night

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I think this kind of stuff is so cool where people have talents and figure out how to use it for preparing for the mikdash. 

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wow

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  -- Defense Minister Yisrael Katz

this government does not take responsibility for any attacks after they happen, and now they are preempting and absolving themselves and passing around responsibility in advance too for future attacks (god forbid)

This morning Deri made a campaign promise that would have the State giving every young man turning 13 years of age, ie turning bar mitzva, a set of tallis and tefillin. As well, he will force the Ministry of Education to allot an area in every school where any students who want to will be able to pray.

Deri says this is in response to harsh promises made by some (ie Yair Golan and others with similar ideas) that would be a threat to the Jewishness of the State of Israel - he says they want to turn Israel into a State of all its citizens [rather than a Jewish State]. Promises such as to remove religion from the public sphere or acting to remove Messianism from the schools...

Deri's promise is to pass this program he is calling "Tefillin for every child" - seemingly a spin on the old "a computer for every child" promise for imporving the educational system and giving children from lower socioeconomic families/communities a hand up to help them be less disadvantaged in relation to wealthier students. Deri says tefillin has been a symbol of the Jewish nation throughout the generations and this program will deepen our connection to Judaism and Jewish tradition, and will stregthen the security of Israel. The Torah says "the nations will see Gods name on you and will be afraid of you, and Chazal say that refers to them seeing the head tefillin. Tefillin is the spiritual power giving us the ability to defeat our enemies. The choice is clear, Deri says; either we strengthen the Jewish state ([in its Jewishness] and we deteriorate to a state of all its citizens, God forbid. 

Journalist Yoeli Brim has made a quick calculation of Deri's promise. According to Brim, if the current coalition parties win the upcoming election and will be able to form a coalition, and if this law or directive gets passed and goes into effect in 2027, the boys in 2027 who will be bar mitzva and get these sets were born in 2014. In 2014 there were 130,000 Jewish children born. Assuming statistically approximately 51% of them are boys that would be about 67000 Jewish boys who will get these tefillin sets. Assuming approximately 2000nis per set, that will require a budget of at least 135,000,000 per year. In five years that becomes more than half a billion shekels - pocket change.

State sponsored kiruv/religion always irks me the wrong way. We can leave that aside. 

I assume Der won't give tefillin sets to girls, but why should only the boys get stuff for fre from the State? Why can't the girls get anything too? If he only gives boys, and only Jewish boys, I see a discrimination suit potentially on the way. What would the girls get for their bat mitzva? A set of Halichot Bat Yisrael and/or Tzeea Ureena seems too small when compared to tefillin. Maybe girls get a free wedding dress when they get married? Maybe a free set of candlesticks to light for Shabbos?

And let's say we put aside a potential appeal to the courts for discrimination or whatever.

Why does the State need to buy tefillin for kids - why can't parents continue buying their kids tefillin as we have all done for thousands of years? Should the State also be paying for our Shabbos groceries? for our tzitzis? Holiday paraphanelia (e.g. lulav and esrog, sukka, seder plate, afikomen present, chanukah menora, etc)?

Tradition is meant to be passed down from father to son, not from legislator/politician to citizen. We should not be transferring our parental duties to the State, and we should not be passing our responsiblity for bearing the torch of tradition to the State. Some are trying to turn the State into one big kibbutz.

Truth is, I am just upset as I have no more boys coming up for bar mitzva... but on the bright side maybe my grandkids will benefit from this... 

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  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) in his final session in the Knesset Finance Committee, after the Coalition parties voted to approve the list of charitable organizations to receive Chapter 46 status, despite the Haredi organizations being left out

We often only learn our lessons after it is too late

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the full clip[ of his performance with the intro and the judging is pretty cool but they only put this part on Youtube...

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According to Rav Yosef, who signed a letter stating his psak, anyone encouraging others to ascend Har Habayit or who goes up is causing the public to sin and it is prohibited to vote for such a person. There are people, he says, who call themselves nationalist, from a variety of parties, who raise their hand up against God and His Torah and cause people to sin with the punishment of kareit, under the banner of nationalism.

Besides for the halachic problem itself of ascending Har Habayit, doing so also causes problems for us with other countries. Rav Yosef rejects the claim that it is needed for strengthening Israeli sovereignty and that, even if true that it strengthens sovereignty, is not any reason to permit an issur kareit..

Rav Yosef then says explicitly that it is prohibited to give such political parties any strength in the elections and to assist them or vote for them. ANyone who does will bear the sin of kareit and carry the collar of kareit around his neck.

source: Arutz7

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Minister Itamar Ben Gvir did a hafrashat challa event for the success of the right wing bloc and for Tali Gotliv to be appointed Minister of Justice...

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Back in 2021 Gideon Saar proposed an amendment to the current law that would also prevent anyone under indictment from being Prime Minister. Saar's proposal became known as Chok HaNeesham - the Law of the Indicted. I am not sure what happened to Saar's proposal - it seems to have just never been dealt with due to the multiple elections and chaos happening in those years.

MK Avigdor Lieberman has spoken out today (and maybe others have as well, not sure) that after the elections, assuming he and his potential coalition partners obtain some sort of victory in the elections, will immediately move to replace Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana with their own representative (nothing wrong with this move, it has been done before), and then immediately pass Law of the Indicted, Chok HaNeesham, which would then prevent Netanyahu from running again for Prime Minister (at least until his court cases are finished in his favor with an exoneration of all the main charges) in future elections.

Whether it is a good law or not I don't know, though I think it is. Just like someone indicted should not be any other type of minister, he or she should also not be Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister's attention should be focused on running the country, not on defending himself in court. Even being a good law, it should not be used to ban Netanyahu from running, at least one election forward. Passing this would be a law targeted at someone specifically which should always be out of bounds. If they do pass it, I would expect and hope that Netanyahu would be allowed to run in at least the elections after that (and I am saying this as someone who no longer supports Netanyahu for Prime Minister), though maybe not in elections after the next one. We cannot pass laws targeting specific people and we cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. If after the coming elections this law gets passed, it should only go into effect after the next elections after these.

It would though be fun to see Gideon Saar's law passed to hurt Netanyahu after seeing how Saar has changed his poisitions the past 2 years....

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  -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

when he says things like this (he made similar style predictions regarding the draft of Haredim before he decided to not pass the law they were working on) I sometimes feel like I want him to win just so we can see how his words play out, or not, in reality

יש עסקה. את הכסף שלך אשמח שתתרום לאברכים הממיתים עצמם באוהלה של תורה, וחיים בעוני מחפיר יותר מאי פעם.

— מוטי לייטנר Moti Leitner (@MotiLeitner) October 12, 2026

Translation:

first, background of what this is in response to:

impressive that he did not just ignore the whole thing... Rivlin is clearly trying to protect the old guard from losing votes (whether Leitner actually gets in taking away many votes from the original Haredi parties or whether he does not get in and "burns" those votes...) and one classic approach would be to ignore. Leitner went out on a limb here...

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  -- Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotritch, speaking at the Arutz7 conference

harsh words there...

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  -- excerpts from former hostage Avinatan Ohr's interview with Ilana Dayan

different news sources quoted different parts of the interview, each depending on the position they wanted to stress and promote. The first in which he is ok and understanding of his parents choosing to be in the Tikvah Forum and fight for advancing the war while not demanding immediate release of their children vs the second in which he talks about finding a way to allow Jews and Palestinians to live peacefully side by side. People are complex and situations are complex. People can hold different positions on issues that dont always jibe with each other so cleanly

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Driving down there was pretty open until Highway 232 where traffic was a bit backed up. Highway 232 became known as the Road of blood or the Road of Death, in the ocntext of October 7. A lot of the massacre happened on 232 with the terrorists attacking the Nova festival at the more southern side and going north towards Kibbutz Beeri, attacking cars with automatic weapons and RPG and just horrible bloodshed everywhere along that route. Obviously driving down and seeing the road signs pointing to the various towns and communities whose names we are all familiar because of how they were attacked 3 years ago was surreal. The road was lined with the protective shelters that were very much part of the events of October 3 as people tried to hide in them but they became sitting ducks for the terrorists. The road was lined with ad hoc memorials as well.

After a bit of traffic we made it to Reim and went in. I must note it has changed a lot since I was last there (dont know if the changes are recent - I have been there a few times but not recently). First, the road there is no longer a dirt road but has been paved. New displays and presentations have been established with a lot of signage both giving directions and giving the stories and events of the day. There are displays of the yellow trash bin people tried hiding in but most were eventually massacred, exhibitof the police who fell trying to protect the civilians, the people who died in the destroyed ambulance, obviously the party goers, and more. There was a tefillin stand present along with the main tent in which a religious scribe spends his time writing sifrei torah in honor of the soldiers and in memory of the victims.

We walked through much of the site and the presentations learning and listening. There were a lot of people there today, obviously, including many family members of victims. We listened to parents tell the stories of their kids and listened to other people (we didnt necessarily know who they were) who were guiding groups or just describing the events to individuals.

After leaving Reim we stopped on the 232 heading north at a migunit, one of the enforced roadside shelters that became a killing site 3 years ago. 

From there we continued a little further north and visited the Tatzpitaniot Memorial site - the site honoring the IDF spotters who were slaughtered. The site overlooks Nachal Oz and sits between Saad and Beeri, Kfar Azza and Alumim. 

The spotters were stationed in the Nachal Oz Army outpost and it was overrun by some 150 terrorists. The tatzpitaniot are a particularly tragic story as in the months preceding October 7 they had warned their superiors of the activities they were viewing just over the border on the Gaza said but their warnings and concerns were dismissed.

Hashem Yikom Damam

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