Interesting developments in Bet Shemesh municipal elections.

The news is reporting that the long-standing fight in Arad between the Gur community and the mayor (from Yesh Atid) continues, with the mayor having a couple more shuls evicted and dismantled today.

In the past week. the mayor has been clearing out what he says is shuls that were illegally place dor taken over by the Gur community.

I do not know who is right and who is wrong, who deserves what and who is doing things that should not be done. All I would say is that even if the Gur community is 100% wrong, and I do not know that to be the case but even if it is, the shuls do not need to be dismantled today. It can wait until tomorrow, it could have been done last week or a month ago or can be done next week. Dismantling the shuls specifically today is just insensitive to the Jewish calendar and Jewish sensibilities.

The world won't come to an end if they wait another day.

I find this story a little bit humorous, as an outsider, as sad as the situation might be.

A case has come before the courts about a yeshiva trying to throw a boy out of yeshiva but the boy being unwilling to leave. The yeshiva administration is trying to get a restraining order against this young man that would force him to keep a distance from the yeshiva.

So what did this fellow do that the yeshiva so desperately wants him gone?

According to the director of the yeshiva, associated with the Gur chassidus, this young man has basically wrought destruction upon the yeshiva. He has started fires, he has destroyed property, he has leveled threats of physical violence against people. According to the director, this young man has caused over 120,000nis worth of damage to the yeshiva plus damage to the yeshiva's reputation and good name.

According to the director this has been going on for a while. They have given him many chances, as per his requests and begging, they've tried to go to beis din, they've tried many things and now it is time to throw him out of yeshiva.

The young man's lawyer presented his client's case saying the young man is willing to leave, but only if the Admor of Gur says so - he wants the Admor to hear the case and make a decision as to what should happen. The director of the yeshiva has thus far refused to involve the Admor saying he has thousands of chassidim, is elderly, and cant get involved in such matters.

The young man's claim to stay is that he follows the rules, the takanon, of the chassidus, to the letter. he does not have a cellphone, he does not go to swimming pools, and does not work on the side. These rules, he claims, are of supreme importance to the Rebbe, and his adherence to them should protect him.

the court has thus far rejected the request for a restraining order and is hearing the arguments.
source: Kikar

Far be it from me to say whether this young man should be allowed to stay in yeshiva or to be forced out. That is them to work out. While normally it would, I think, require extreme situations, it is possible this has gotten to that point. I am not sure why in a chassidus with so many rules, they cannot have rules or instructions as to how to deal with such situations, and if they really do not, perhaps they should sit with the Admor and work out the situation and rules for similar situations in the future.

Anyways, throwing the young man out of yeshiva might be necessary from the perspective of the yeshiva, he really needs to get help and learn to deal with his violent tendencies or anger or whatever it is that is causing his behavior. I hope they don't just toss him to the curb but give him some direction, help him find the right place that will help him grow and deal with his problems.

Smartphone owners have been targets of derision and punishment in the Haredi community for a while now. We've seen smartphone owners be declared unfit to daven for the amud, get aliyas, blow shofar, hear shofar, witness weddings and more.

The latest, in the Gur community, is separate classrooms for children of people with smartphones -and that is for people with approved kosher smartphones. Anybody in Gur who claims to need a smartphone, can get permission to obtain a kosher smartphone with filtering. It seems that so many people have gotten permission for the smartphones that they are going to be opening separate classrooms to filter out those kids from the kosher cellphone kids.
source: Actualic

Classroom segregation makes me wonder if we will soon see separate water fountains and bathrooms...I guess at least they aren't throwing the kids out of school and rejecting the applications of such kids.

The fight over the parking lots can pretty much already be declared finished.

According to Kikar.net, the Gerrer Rebbe has decided to send his chassidim to join the fight alongside the Eidah Hareidis. (Rav Elyashiv said he protests the chillul shabbos but will not call on people to a hafgana.).
If anybody knows how to run a hafgana successfully, aside from the Eida people, it is Gur. With them on board, it is just a matter of time before the mayor is forced to give in.

It is interesting to note the Gerrer Chassidim joining in the protests against the opening of the parking lot. In essence, one could say that it is [at least partially] the fault of the Gerrer Chassidim that the lot was opened. They are the direct reason why Nir Barkat won the mayorship, as they chose to support him over the religious/haredi candidate Meier Porush.

So they brought the secular mayor to power, he opened a parking lot, and now they are protesting that. Perhaps they are "doing teshuva" for their previous support of Barkat.....

If anybody thought that Gur is not really working for Shalom Lerner, and they are looking for ways to back out of their agreement, tonight I was out running. While on the run, I passed a couple carfuls of Gerrer hassidim who were out pasting up signs in support of Shalom Lerner for mayor....

Two items of Breaking (local, municipal) Election News that could be very influential in the looming elections:

1. Chabad of Ramat Bet Shemesh has decided to officially support TOV in the upcoming elections. They are telling their people to hang TOV signs, to vote TOV and to push TOV as much as they can. That means that this additional boost of at least 500 votes (possibly more because of non-chabad people who support chabad) could well indicate that TOV now might even have the coveted third mandate in its sights as a very real possibility.



2. Last night Gur of Bet Shemesh signed with Shalom Lerner. They announced last week that it was their intention, then they got cold feet and went running to Abutbol (related to national Gur issues). When Abutbol could not offer them anything serious, because he gave away all the jobs already to everyone else who signed earlier, they came back to Lerner and last night signed with him. This is a big boost for Lerner and his campaign.