My friend who works in Rehovot pointed out this story to me as she watches it unfold outside the window of her office. This is fascinating drama pointing to local city corruption and keeps life interesting!

A former deputy mayor in Rehovot, Ami Feinstein, has been painting the curbs of an entire neighborhood in Rehovot with the classic red and white "no parking" colors. He has explicitly said that he is doing this so residents will think there is no parking available anywhere nearby and will go to park their cars in the paid parking lot, that he owns, in the area.

The city painted over the curbs with the blue and white colors, and other relevant combinations (yellow and red for bus zones, etc), but Feinstein has painted it over again and again. He insists that all cars should park in his paid lot.

Besides for painting the appropriate colors, City Hall of Rehovot has said they will be unrelenting in enforcement of people who take the law into their own hands, and will continue to repaint the curbs if necessary in the future.
source: Mako News

I dont see any word about an arrest for damaging city property or vandalism or whatever category this might fall into, or fines. The cat and mouse game of repainting wont convince him to stop.

It is hilarious, and the height of chutzpa, for Feinstein to trick drivers, and practically force them, into parking in his paid lot. He should have at least used his political power to rezone the streets as no parking. This does seem like how the old saying goes that lazy people end up working harder in the long run.

Who knew that Ron Dermer, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, was such a funny and ironic guy?

Here is Dermer's tweet:

This year I decided to send a gift for the holiday that would also help combat BDS pic.twitter.com/43haadtzvm

— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) December 21, 2015

Ambassador Dermer sent holiday greetings with gifts around town, including to the White House. The gift Dermer sent was packages of products made in Judea and Samaria - items that the BDS movement targets and that the EU has decided to label for easy identification (for potential boycotting).

Takes a bit of chutzpah.

Had he been in the EU it would make some sense. Sending it to US diplomats and politicians, people who have opposed the BDS and the labeling movements, makes less sense.

Still - it takes a bit of chutzpah.

sources: Times Of Israel and Huffington Post

The Menendez bothers murdered their parents (in 1989) and then begged for the mercy of the court on account of them being orphans.

This expression is almost the definition of chutzpah and dates much farther back than the Menendez brothers. Abraham Lincoln is credited with using this as the definition of "hypocrite". Lincoln said a hypocrite is the man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

My mind went to the Menendez brothers when I read about the court decision in the case of Yishai Shlissel, the man who murdered Shira Blanki in the Gay Pride Parade recently, and tried to stab others. Actually it was not the court decision that made me think of the Menendez brothers, but something Shlissel himself said during the court proceedings.

Shlissel said that to commemorate the memory of Shira, the Pride Parade should be stopped and no longer held in the future. If we want her ultimate good, we must stop the blasphemy against God. Future parades will bring harsh decrees against the Jewish people.
source: Kooker

I think Shlissel's statement qualifies for the title of "chutzpah, and for Lincoln's definition of hypocrite. He might not be as bad as the Menendez brothers, as he was not asking the court for mercy, but he isn't that far off. 

How ironic is it that the Eida Haredis planned a hafgana for yesterday protesting the Education Ministry's increased involvement in the Haredi educational system, "forcing" the liba (core curriculum) upon it, and damaging the purity of the Haredi educational system, and then on the same day of the hafgana, results are released for the exams, national and international, of Israel's students.

What did the results show? That the average score of 8th grade children in mathematics was a 44 in israel. Among the lowest in the world. Science and technology tests averaged scores of 56.

So while the whole general educational system is failing, the Education Ministry still feels obligated to force its "successful" methods, curriculum and direction upon those who want to control their own education.

Don't get me wrong - the haredi system has plenty of failings, and I am not defending them.But when the general system is such a failure, it takes some special chutzpah to then try to force that system upon others.

If this is not chutzpah, I do not know what is... considering the Israelis Syria is responsible for holding whom we do not even know if they are alive, dead in good condition, bad condition or anything else about them...

I remember in yeshiva there was always a legend of this having happened. Did it ever actually happen? I do not know. You will find lots of people who will say there classmate did it, but I think it might be a bit of an urban legend.

We used to get fines in yeshiva for infractions. if we came late too many times to davening, it would be a $5 fine. if late to learning seder, maybe a $7 fine. Going to sleep past curfew was worth $10.(I made those numbers up, I do not really remember the real amounts).

So legend always had it that there was a guy who was fined often for various infractions, and his fines were building up to a significant amount. he got fined once for something he thought he did not deserve (he probably was not given the benefit of the doubt after so many infractions) that when he went to pay his fine, he paid it in pennies, greatly annoying the Rebbe.

Is the above story true? I do not know. I always believed it, but as I got older I got more skeptical about it...

Well, now the story happened. In real life. In living color..

Some students were getting upset at the long, slow lines in Mc Donalds, and the low quality food served there (they could have just gone to a different restaurant, but I guess there reaction was more interesting!).

They decided to get revenge. Eventually the project just became a way of fighting off the boredom. They decided they would collect enough 5 and 10 agura coins (1.5 to 2 cents) to buy about 600 shekels (about $150) worth of food.

It took some time but they did it. They went in to Mickey Dees and ordered 600 NIS worth of food. When the cashier rang it up, they called in their friends with the bags of coins and they dumped out all the coins on the counter. The branch had to have some of the other employees help count the change, messing up the whole branch for the rest of the day.