The Breslavers working to go to Uman despite the pandemic and all the challenges that come along with it (such as closed borders) has really been an interesting ordeal and a real curiosity.

Champion gymnast Gabby Douglas is designing some new leotards for her upcoming competitions at the World Championships.

One of her new leotards has been designed in a way that might very well interest you. It is definitely a curiosity.

From GK Elite: (bold and underline added by me)

 This scoop back gymnastics leotard displays an ombre sublimated bodice printed on shimmering holotek fabric with a mesh top. Unique style lines outlined in Swarovski® crystals add a dramatic touch to this stunning leotard. The Hebrew word “Elohim” (translation: The Strong One) was added to the left sleeve to honor her rich heritage of faith. Her sister, Joyelle “Joy” Douglas, created this custom design and worked with GK to bring this leo to life!

She is using the name of God on her leotard to call upon strength, perhaps to invoke God's strength, or trait of strength. Perhaps it will serve her well. I wonder if her Jewish teammate, Aly Raisman, will be wearing something similar. But why in Hebrew?

Ted Cruz. oy, Ted Cruz.

Ted Cruz got himself into a little bit of trouble when he garnered an endorsement by a Christian pastor that has commented about Hitler having been sent by God to target the Jewish people.

Now, no candidate can control everything said by every leader who gives them endorsements, but Cruz initially praised the endorsement and even defended the pastor, raising the ire of Jewish groups.

Now, Cruz has responded to the Times of Israel stepping away a bit. He praises the pastor for his work but on this specific issue Cruz repudiated what the pastor said and insisted that "God did not intend anything in Hitler's evil, and it is wrong to suggest otherwise"

With that Cruz seems to have satisfied the Jewish groups that were upset by the initial endorsement and support.

Somehow, though, this is puzzling.

According to Cruz's clarification, God had no intentions with the evil perpetrated by Hitler, i.e. the Holocaust. And Jews are good with that. Do the Jews who were previously upset really believe that God was not involved? It does not seem, to me, like a very Jewish belief to take God completely out of the equation.

I would not have gotten upset initially at the pastor's statement, and actually find Cruz's clarification more disturbing.

I guess you can't make everyone happy all the time.

this is the full debate from Thursday evening of the 10 top Republican candidates running in the Republican primaries for the US President nomination.

Overall it was fairly interesting, but not really relevant to the Life in Israel blog. The reason it gets posted here is because of the question asked near the end, at about minute marker 1:34:36. The question is presented from a viewer on Facebook asking if any of the candidates have received word from God as to what they should do and take care of first.

I was fairly amazed, and astounded, that such a question could be asked, and answered, in the country that has the clearest separation of church and state. I also wondered how such a question would go over in Israel, and what the candidates answers would be..  

40 years have passed. Most of Israel's citizens did not personally experience the shock of the fearful siren, wailing up and down, that at 2 PM ripped through the silence of the holiness of Yom Kippur. The nation was wrapped then in its fast, gathered in the synagogues, or in the privacy of their homes. The gates of heaven were not open that day, the prayers were not answered, the war broke out. The fire was on two fronts, the north and the south, by the time the siren sounded, the first soldiers had already fallen. Israel had made a mistake and was surprised, and her children gave their lives with amazing heroism and saved it from the valley of tears.

  -- President Shimon Peres, at memorial ceremony on Har Hartzl for the fallen soldiers of the Yom Kippur War

thoughts:

1. Shimon Peres, a representative of Israel's leadership, speaks about God's involvement in a public ceremony and not just in one for religious people.
2. He remembered to blame God for the bad, the attack on Israel - our prayers were not answered. the gates of heaven were not open. How often, if at all, in a public ceremony, does he, or any representative of the Israeli government/leadership, give God some credit for the good?
3. Even specifically here: he blamed God for the failure - our prayers were not answered. And then when things turned around, he gives credit only to the heroic soldiers (and they were heroic - I am not saying otherwise) but makes no mention of God..

it's good that he thought of including God in the process, but it is a shame he only thinks of God for the bad things and not the good things...

For the past 2 years or so, people have been able to register domain names, only with specific authorized  registrars, using Hebrew letters.

It seems the system of using Hebrew letters works by registering the Hebrew letters while also converting the Hebrew letters to a unique string of English letters and processing the actual request through the English letters. For example, when I go to the URL of איגוד-האינטרנט.org.il it takes me to the website of the Israeli Internet Society, and the URL that shows up in the address bar is then displayed as http://xn----zhcbgfhe2aacg8fb5i.org.il/

There is a committee that meets to discuss the potential approval of requests to register domain names that might possibly be considered harmful or degrading or insulting. The committee was only recently established, in February of 2012, and its first case was to debate and decide upon a request to register a domain name using the Hebrew letters of God's 4-letter name - the Tetragrammaton.

Under the rules for registering domain names in Israel, it disqualifies any name that might be considered vulgar, harmful to society or to communal sensitivities, or any other name that might be considered inappropriate with the laws of Israel.

The rule seems kind of vague, which actually makes the committee more necessary to figure out what to do in such situations.

This case came up, of someone who wanted to register the holy name as a domain. It was flagged as possibly being a problem, and the committee met to discuss it. The final decision was to allow the registration of the domain. (source: ISOC-IL)

It seems the decision to allow it was actually passed by a 2-2 vote. The decision to oppose required a majority vote, and the tie meant that the domain registration would be allowed. Yochi Brandes voted against, saying that we don't use that name on street signs or to name towns or villages, and it should so remain exclusively in the domain of Torah scrolls and in sifrei Tanakh.

The opposing view did not dispute that, but said that this reason does not fall under the guidelines by which a domain name can be rejected. The name itself is not vulgar or insulting, and therefore cannot be disqualified under this rule. (source: Bechadrei)

Besides for inappropriate use of God's name, and perhaps inappropriate content that might be published on a  website represented by God's name (as if that is not enough of a reason), which would probably be considered degrading and insulting, I am not sure what else is actually being transgressed by use of the name. If you type in the domain name and then shut the site or go to a different page, is it considered erasing God's name?

I doubt it because the name does not appear in the URL (besides for the digital aspect which makes the name not even really there) as it gets immediately converted to the unique string of English letters. I doubt there is any specific halachic issue beyond the inappropriate use of God's name, though obviously the owner of the domain will dispute that his usage is inappropriate. It is definitely an interesting issue to consider, and it makes one think about what is appropriate and what is not.

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Either God has a sense of humor or MK Zeev Elkind does not.

The Knesset recently decided to appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate the source of funding of the extreme left organizations. The decision for an investigation passed despite the brouhaha it was made into, as if how dare anybody investigate the leftists. I did not get what the big deal was, as the rightists are regularly being attacked, investigated and lambasted, so why should the leftists think they are immune? Regardless, the decision was made to investigate despite the opposition.

Yesterday the Knesset was deciding the make-up of the committee that will be conducting the investigation. It got heated, and the Arab MKs were getting upset. During the session the Arab MKs called out to Elkin, the director of the government coalition who is responsible for establishing the committee, "Why not just have [National Union MK Michael] Ben-Ari investigate us and be done with it???"

The comment was obviously made in a cynical fashion, as Ben Ari is the loudest opponent to the Arab MKs and leftist organizations and has said numerous times that [certain] Arabs should be banned from the Knesset, he has said he would take care of them, he has been vocal against the leftist organizations, etc.

Somehow Elkin did not pick up on the cynicism in the remark, and actually appointed Dr. Michael Ben Ari as the head of the investigative committee.

The Arabs were obviously upset and left saying they will ban the investigation and not cooperate.

Ben Ari, on the other hand, said he was pleased with the unusual arrangement (unusual because his party, Ichud haLeumi is not part of the coalition yet he was tapped to head the committee), and the MKs from the Arab parties know that "I will deal with them and their friends the way I promised. I will protect the State of Israel from all its enemies, both internal and external, who want to destroy it."

God works in funny ways. A cynical comment by the Arabs actually led to Ben Ari being appointed to head the investigation.

Is anybody going to change his faith, or lack of, because of this underground test that some say may destroy Planet Earth? If they prove the "God particle" or do not, is it going to make a difference in anybody's life?
If they do prove it, people who want to live "God-less" will find other reasons. If they do not prove it, it proves nothing anyway, as lack of proof does not prove anything.

So what's the point?