MDA director Eli Bean created a ruckus when he explained yesterday that when MDA medics arrive on a scene they will deal with the injured in order of whichever of the wounded is most seriously wounded and needs more immediate attention. Even if that is the terrorist, while the Jewish victims have to wait.

Many people were upset by Bean's statement.

In response, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, director of ZAKA, has said that it is clear ZAKA will deal first with Jewish victims. Meshi Zahav said ethics have a limit as well.

At first I thought this was funny, because ZAKA is an organization that deal with collection of human bodies and ensures they receive proper burial, with all possible parts of the body that they were able to retrieve. Some of the gruesome work ZAKA deals with is scraping bits of flesh out of trees, scraping it off pavement or off walls, and the like. Zaka says they'll deal with Jews first, but ZAKA is carting dead bodies off the scene - the non-Jewish-terrorist is not going to need to be carried off any more immediately than the Jewish victims, so it makes sense.

But the truth is that ZAKA assists in evacuating wounded after such attacks. Many people will appreciate that they will give more immediate care to victims than to the terrorist. It is not even a matter of Jewish or not-Jewish, but a matter of caring for the victims before caring for the terrorist. One does not need to be a judge and jury to suggest that the victims deserve more urgent care than the terrorist.

Depute Health Minister Yaakov Litzman recently fired the head of Abu Kabir - the forensic institute of Israel, Dr. Yehuda Hiss. Hiss had headed the institute as chief pathologist for a very long time, since 1988. Much of his career as head of the institute was mired in controversy and conflict, both directed from the religious community and from the non-religious community. Under Hiss's watch, the institute was discovered on multiple occasions having mixed up limbs among dead bodies, improper burials, unnecessary autopsies that were not always authorized, and more.

At least in much of the religious community Dr. Hiss was considered evil incarnate. Willing to do anything for his own agenda, no matter whom he hurt.

I dont think too many people were disappointed or distraught when Hiss was recently removed from his position by Litzman.

With Hiss gone, the position of director of Abu Kabir is open and accepting applications.

An interesting, and perhaps surprising, applicant for this position is Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the director of ZAKA. There is just one problem with Meshi-Zahav's application - he has no education.

Meshi-Zahav asked the director of the Health Ministry to open the application process also to people without an education in the field, so that he would be able to apply. Meshi-Zahav claims to have the support of Yaakov Litzman for the position.

Obviously as head of ZAKA he knows an awful lot about death and dead bodies. Does that mean he knows enough to run the main forensic institute in Israel? he thinks it does. Meshi-Zahav says that Hiss himself who was educated and an expert had managed to fail time and again in the position, and what is needed is not expertise in forensics, as there are pathologists working in the institute, but a good leader and manager is what is needed.

Meshi-Zahav says that he is the perfect candidate because as someone already known for his sensitivity to the dead, his care for kvod hameis, he is the only one who will be able to restore the trust and faith in the institute that has been lost in recent years among the broader public.

One goal Meshi-Zahav has in taking over the institute is in promoting the use of a digital MRI system for analyzing dead bodies. He says these systems today can detect almost all causes of death, and there is no reason the institute cannot operate according to halacha, as halacha allows solutions to all the situations possible - such as with the new MRI systems.
(source: NRG and Bechadrei)

Become director of Abu Kabir with no education? If anyone can do it, Meshi-Zahav can. I am not sure that he can, but if anyone uneducated could possibly do it, it would be him.

Adar is known as the month in which "Yagon" was turned to "simcha" - "grief" was turned to "joy".

A bride on the way to her wedding last week in Bnei Braq ran into a major obstacle. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe had just died and the because of the masses attending the funeral, she would not be able to get through the crowds to get to her wedding on time (what wedding in Bnei Braq starts on time anyway???).

The bride called the ZAKA hotline. When they heard about her problem, they sent an ambulance to drive her to the wedding hall. The ambulance was able to make its way through the crowd, and she made it to the wedding hall on time. (source: Jewish Press)

Zaka, which is normally active in times of grief, was turned to being useful for joy.



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According to this report on Kikar Shabbos, a rescue team of ZAKA from Israel (though they were acting as an independent rescue team with international recognition, and not as an official Israeli delegation) has been working in Japan. They have both been helping out, and observing how to act efficiently in a mass casualty calamity.

While there, they have been working alongside other rescue teams. One of the rescue teams they worked with was a team from Iran.

They greeted each other, they seem to have been courteous to each other, and they worked together. They even took pictures together.

The only things I wonder about is whether Iran has already killed the members of the team. And if not, will are they going to let this rescue team back into the country after they were so audacious as to greet the Israelis.

Bein Hazmanim for the Yeshiva world is here, as the month of Nissan began yesterday. In Israel that means one thing, unfortunately. It is just a matter of time before we begin hearing about tragedies of Yeshiva bochurim on tiyulim without taking proper equipment, not enough water, etc. and ending up in some sort of tragedy. This past year there were a lot of tragedies of yeshiva bochurim on tiyulim, and the number seems to increase every vacation period.

In an attempt to avert the tragedy before it happens, ZAKA in conjunction with Meuhedet have been advertising courses in different areas, specifically in Haredi areas where the problem seems to be more rampant. The courses are to train the guys how to go on a tiyul, what is necessary to take along, how to be careful in the environment, basic first aid, etc.

Hopefully these courses will help, the guys can go out and safely enjoy themselves, and we will not be awash with news reports of yeshiva guys who dehydrated, got lost or fell off a cliff, chas v'shalom..