The site of the hit is 4-5 kilometers away from where I live by road, and I would estimate 2.5-3km as the crow flies. It sounded and felt so close and loud, everything shook, though in reality it was a few kilometers, and 2-3 neighborhoods, away.

Be safe out there. 

heavy rains overnights and in the early morning hours caused flooding and power outages around the country. Bet Shemesh was hit hard too with flooding in different parts of the city, with some roads becoming inpassable.. in this instance a transport van driving kids to school got stuck in a flood.. some guy pulled his trusty kayak out of his closed and went out to rescue the kids...

I am not quite sure what he did to rescue the kids, or what his plan was.. maybe he just reassured them.. I dont see how he could have fit 10 or 15 kids in the kayak to row them to safety... maybe he made a bunch of trips back and forth... either way, A for effort and ingenuity

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I did this several times over the past two years for the processions of local hero soldiers being taken for burial after falling in the war, it is nice to do it in a more celebratory fashion for the celebration of a returned hostage...

there probably arent that many against it..

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Normally people eat chametz until the time on Erev Pesach that one is obligated to stop eating chametz and then people dispose of it and burn the chametz...this year because Erev Pesach is on Shabbos, and one cannot eat matza on Erev Pesach, and we need a way to dispose of our remaining chametz after eating the challa (in whatever form you might have it) but unable to burn it because of Shabbos, it is common for one of those methods being flushing the remaining chametz down the toilet.

The rabbanim of Bet Shemesh, whoever they are - I havent seen a list of the 30 names signed on the letter - issued a psak that people should not dispose of their remaining chametz by flushing it down the toilet on Shabbos, whether it is just the chametz itself or even if the chametz is wrapped in a vessel of some sort such as a bag. In previous years when the situation was similar with Shabbos being Erev Pesach, people flushed things down the toilet and it caused problems with the pipes getting stuffed up and even caused chametz to come back up, and sometimes also into neighbors houses, on Pesach itself. This is therefore a mitzva of disposing the chametz being done by causing damage and even causing people to have chametz present, and it is a mitzva being done via an aveira.

It sounds horrible and disgusting. I dont know why any homeowner would flush bags of chametz down the toilet or drain. I can understand crumbling up bread into small pieces, that seems ok, but big pieces and doing it with bags or other containers seems worse than negligent and a recipe for disaster. Do they really not think it might cause a blockage of the pipes and have a sewage backup over the holiday?

Besides for the damage being caused to everyone in the area, I am not sure there is really a chametz issue. once the food has been sitting in the sewage system it doesnt seem like it retains its status as edible food. And anyway, if I am the neighbor and have someone else's chametz coming up through my pipes, it still doesnt belong to me so I havent violated the prohibition of having chametz on pesach. EVen the fellow who flushed it down was mafkir it and did the annulment of chametz so it is stupid to do this, it is damaging to do this, but I dont think it is a violation of the rules of chametz nor is it causing others to sin.

The rabbonim signed on the letter suggested an alternate solution. They suggested throwing any remaining chametz into the street, into the public thoroughfare. The Municipality has no intention to acquire that chametz and will make all the garbage cans hefker before Shabbos, so chametz can be disposed of in city garbage cans.

It is not uncommon here for people to refuse to dispose of old bread in the garbage cans, even wrapped up, and instead just put the leftover bread (all year round) on top of walls near the garbage cans or on top of the garbage cans. I wonder how they will do this before Pesach rather than putting it in the hefker bins...

If the city if making all the garbage bins hefker, I wonder what they would do if somebody would take ownership of some of these bins and take them home...

Happy Birthday!

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Plans for the construction of a new neighborhood were announced. The neighborhood would consist of 12,800 living units designated for the Haredi community, to house about 66000 people. The neighborhood will be on an area of 930 dunam and will straddle both sides of the Nehar Dan road.

The plans for this neighborhood will be brought next week to the Jerusalem Region Planning Committee for initial approvals.

There probably isnt a person in the city who has not wondered if or when they will build more housing on the open land adjacent to Nehar Dan.

Objections to the plan are being expressed already. Objections that I have seen point out that Nehar Dan was built with the explicit purpose of being a way around RBS B connecting the RBS A and C communities with the older section of Bet Shemesh, with no need to go through RBS B, thus lessening the traffic burdens of Nehar Hayarden going through RBS B. The objection is that this plan to put housing right on Nehar Dan will make Nehar Dan the busiest road in the city and bring back all that traffic and congestion.

Personally I am not convinced it will cause Nehar Dan to be overly congested. Nehar Dan is a nice large road with two lanes in each direction and perhaps/hopefully it can handle that additional traffic that will result from this construction. Perhaps Nehar Dan might need to be widened further as part of the plan adding an additionallane in each direction. Or maybe additional roads will be built as prt of the infrastructure of the new neighborhood, this splitting the additional burden among multiple roads. Probably no solutions will be offered and it will be a burden. That's usually how it works here - they push to build as much housing as possible without concern about the infrastructure to support it, and then afterwards everyone complains about the traffic or running sewage or whatever. So probably nothing will happen and it will be a burden, but perhaps someone will finally be wise enough to start planning infrastructure improvements alongside housing construction. We can be hopeful. In my opinion, that is one area where they can build housing without it creating a crazy situation of too many residents cramped into a tiny area without enough infrastructure - like the plan to add tall buildings at the corner of Hayarden-Hayarqon just under the top Neve Shamir buildings. That is insane and the infrastructure is already way overloaded and the situation will likely be horrible if that plan goes through (which it surely will because nobody cares about the residents, only about building more buildings).

Other objections are just the general objections of too many people, too much housing, leave some green areas, etc. That bothers me less. People need housing. Where I and you live was also a grassy mountain one time in the past but they built on it. As long as it doesnt create horrible dense living conditions or horrible infrastructural support, build away.

What I do find ironic, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, is the intent of Nehar Dan. In addition to the intention of relieving the traffic burden of Nehar Hayarden through RBS B, back when it was being planned in the Moshe Abutbol days there were a lot of protests on a fairly regular basis and frequently enough they would get violent. Additionally, with Nehard Hayarden being the one road going from RBS A to Bet Shemesh (other than going out to the Highway 38), residents walking through RBS B form one to the other in either direction would often find themselves under attack by the local residents. Moshe Abutbol in planning Nehar Dan, expressed explicitly that it would be a way from RBS A to Bet Shemesh (and back) without needing to go through RBS B and lessen the tensions between communities, add increased safety to the people walking, and provide general relief as a viable alternative.

While the future residents of the new neighborhood might be perfectly lovely and accepting people and nothing may change, there is also the chance of this area becoming somewhat similar to RBS B, especially as it will be very close and adjacent to RBS B, thus possibly making the road built to avoid RBS B just another road going through it with people walking there under attack from the local residents. Hopefully it will be lovely residents accepting of others who dont protest the people walking through.

This set of posters in particular is highly offensive and has made it to the national news. Unless Shas throws their support to Aliza Bloch, the numbers arent even close and I am not sure why they are going to such an offensive campaign in its final days...

The posters say - " In a Milchemet mitzva, a mandatory war, everyone has to go out, even a groom from his room and the bride from her chuppa - on Sunday everyone must go out to vote!" etc etc

There is a war going on. A real war. A real milchemet mitzva. The real war is happening down south, and somewhat up north. Thousands of soldiers, and previously hundreds of thousands of soldiers, are serving and have gone to battle. The Haredi community has for the most part not taken part in that milchemet mitzva, finding every excuse why they are to be excused from it. Yes, they did volunteer and donate equipment and make barbecues for soldiers, but that is far from the same thing as going to battle. But for the war in Bet Shemesh to become mayor that is the milchemet mitzva they must all go out for!!??

Not only did the Haredi parties, all around the country, benefit from general low voter turnout because of the war (less interest in municipal elections during a war) while Haredi turnout remained high as it normally is, thus winning higher percentages of seats in city councils.. Not only did they run aggressive campaigns and fought with other Haredi sectors over power and control, while the country is at war. Not only all that but now they are using terminology from war to fight the battle of elections? 

These signs are in poor taste. Very poor taste.

One sign I saw looks fine, mentioning Achdut in Bet Shemesh under Abutbol (because he signed support with Agudat Israel and expects to sign with other parties, so he is calling that Achdut). The other sign being plastered around is less understandable, at least to me.

The slogan on these signs say "Aryeh needs a strong Moshe, Moshe Abutbol for Mayor of Bet Shemesh".

Why? Why does Aryeh need a strong Moshe? How does a strong Moshe as Mayor of Bet Shemesh help Aryeh Deri doing anything specific in the government? Feel free to enlighten me.

I do get that it is a play on words using a similar campaign theme to the last Shas campaign in the national elections, saying Bibi Needs a strong Aryeh", but at least that made sense - Bibi needed a strong turnout of support for Shas to form a stable coalition. That makes sense. I guess they are banking on that theme in people's minds, but I dont get a strong Moshe helps Deri or how a weak Moshe hurts Deri. Of course Deri wants him to win, but how does this hurt or help Deri?

  -- Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf

1. maybe the agreement was from previous years, when Litzman headed Agudat Israel, or when Gafni was chairman of UTJ...

2. Agudat Israel breaking the agreement with Degel, if there was an agreement, is actually funny and ironic. When Degel broke their agreement with Shas (in Elad) and supported Porush for re-election, their gadol Rav Landau justified it saying agreements do not need to be kept. Now Degel is upset that Aguda isnt keeping an agreement (if there was one) by supporting Abutbol for mayor instead of Degel's candidate Greenberg.

3. Notice that they dont care about what anyone feels is good for Bet Shemesh or any other city, what policies might be relevant, or who an appropriate candidate might be. They just want an equal share of power, divide up the land, each one getting a turn to put their people in place. This is why many dont like these deals.

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With less than a month to go until election day we are seeing some activity in the ranks of the candidates.

Today had Gur signing a deal of support for Moshe Abutbol as mayor of Bet Shemesh. While we don't know what they get in return, Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf and his team signed with Abutbol and will campaign on his behalf. 

That means Agudat Israel is split, with Gur and Vizhnitz supporting Abutbol, and Shlomei Emunim and Belz (and some small groups) supporting Degel Hatorah's candidate Shmuel Greenberg for mayor.

I dont think any parties [yet] have signed support for Aliza Bloch, the current mayor up for re-election. 

Several other parties have still not [yet] announced which candidate they support for mayor.

Besides for getting support from at least some of the remaining parties, Bloch's best hope seems to be to benefit from a Haredi split - which has now actually happened. 

With elections scheduled for the end of February, there is still plenty of time for a lot to happen.

Residents of Bet Shemesh have been complaining ever since and have petitioned Mayor Aliza Bloch  and the Minister to get the city included in the list of cities and towns with the new guidelines. Bloch has requested this on behalf of the residents several times from the Minister.

It was announced a short while ago Minister Ben Gvir has approved the Mayor's appeals and has instructed that residents of some streets in the neighborhoods of RBA C,D, and Neve Shamir (Gimmel, Daled and Hei), will be able to apply for gun licenses under the new guidelines.

They are breaking it down by street and an applicant must live on any of the following streets in these neighborhoods to apply under the new rules:

If you want a gun, now is your chance, if you live on one of those streets. Good luck and be safe.

To paraphrase Oprah, "You get a gun! You get a gun! You get a gun!"...

The other night they slept in my town. No, he couldnt sleep at home but they did let him come home for just a little bit to visit. Some other local boys as well. 

He went back to their local base of operations and found his truck (he is a truck driver in the army) plastered with a sign full of words of encouragement and gratitude and wishes of success to the soldiers!

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While everyone was busy speculating on the clash between Degel candidate Shmuel Greenberg and the incumbent Mayor Dr Aliza Bloch trying to guess who is garnering support from where and who has the edge in the upcoming elections, Shas threw down the gauntlet with Deri announcing that they are going to run their own candidate, former Mayor of Bet Shemesh and current MK and Deputy Mayor Moshe Abutbol.

Shas is upset at Degel. The way the Haredi parties conduct elections (in cities controlled largely by them) is by dividing up the spoils with multi-city agreements, such as, in Bnei Braq you will support my candidate for mayor and in exchange in Elad I will support yours, while in Rechasim you will support mine and in Bet Shemesh I will support yours, etc. Degel seems to have broken the long standing set of agreements, and Shas is upset. In Bet Shemesh there is an additional problem in that Shas considers Shmuel Greenberg persona non grata as they say he hurt them in the past (both in Bet Shemesh and Jerusalem) keeping Sefardic girls out of Ashkenazi seminaries, etc. 

Running Moshe Abutbol for mayor in Bet Shemesh could be a real run at the mayorship, or it could be just to hurt Greenberg without explicitly helping Bloch who they also have lesser problems with. Being that Abutbol has not yet resigned from the Knesset or from his position as Deputy Minister, I personally consider it a not real candidacy, though it has potential to become one.

the announcement threw everyone in a tizzy. What does it mean? Who does it help? Who does it hurt? Each of the different commentators came up with a different explanation of how and why, and also of what it means for the elections as to who has a better chance of winning. Though it does look to almost guarantee that no candidate will win outright in the first round and we will almost definitely go to a second round to declare a winner. Imagining the scenarios that could play out and trying to guess who will support whom when and if what is dizzying

It looks like Shas is going to do the same in a few other cities as well now. And it also looks like Degel is going to retaliate and run their own candidate in Jerusalem against Lion instead of supporting him, and possibly oppose Shas in other cities as well.

And rumors are swirling over other candidates that might still announce, making it even more complicated and unpredictable!

We wait to see what happens, but it looks like this will likely be one of the most interesting municipal elections ever...

New parties are opening up, including new Haredi parties, threatening to upend the standard Haredi approach to elections. New candidates are announcing the possibility of running for mayor as they let the public know they are taking the forms to submit candidacy (which doesnt mean they will run but it at least means they are considering it and will have to announce soon, by the deadline, if they are) - this includes possible candidates form the Likud, from newer Haredi communities in the city (such as the young haredi communities - what they call themselves, and the modern haredi communities), among others.

With all these candidates and parties, if it happens, anything can happen. There isnt really a way to know or accurately predict who or how it will affect the current candidates. From whom will they take votes, with whom will they split votes, etc.

It could very well be that they are letting everyone know they are no longer playing by the old rules, they will not vote for someone or a party as dictated by the rabbonim or as constructed by the askanim in the name of the rabbonim. Of course the old mainstream Haredim wont go along with this, for the most part, but the younger ones, among the ones who are also going to academy and getting an education and working and going to the army, they are starting to do things differently.

We'll see how this affects elections and the future makeup of the Haredi community, but it is definitely an interesting development