Someone or some group, presumably extreme anti-zionists such as Neturei Karta or similar, have put up these broadsides on Jerusalem walls...

The pashkevil is announcing the "last warning" to the Haredi Members of Knesset. They are being warned that if they continue negotiations with the Israeli government and the IDF over trafficking in thousands of souls that will be lost for jobs and seats in the Knesset of Heretics and for fat budgets, the Jewish community will perform the Pulsa Denura curse on them and on their assistants, including blowing of the shofar, black candles and strong curses!

uh oh

they performed the ceremony around the grave of Kobi's grandfather, Chacham Machlouf Kobi... due to Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kobi starting to operate free public transportation on Shabbos beginning this coming Shabbos..

here is an ad that has been posted around the neighborhood (and probably other areas)..


this is an ad for a course for educators to teach them to educate according to a specific method.

For some reason, the advertisement is in Hebrew though the course itself is going to be in English.. That makes me scratch my head.

The funny part is that it says "the curse will be in English", instead of saying "the course". Funny typo. My explanation is that everything will be in Hebrew except for when they teach the curses because there are, famously, no curse words in the Hebrew language - so those they'll have to teach in English!

(I probably should not be posting this as my point will surely be misunderstood)

A well-known Israeli lawyer, Yoram Sheftel, was on the radio cursing out Rav Shteinman. He was commenting on what Rav Shteinman said earlier today, when he said about members of the current government who voted in favor of the new draft law that their names should be blotted out, that they should all descend to Hell... and he went and cursed and talked disparagingly about Rav Shteinman.

I did not hear what he said, but Kikar Shabbos reports on the incident, though they leave off the curses he actually said. MKs went on the attack. Others are forming a movement to have Sheftel sanctioned..

I am not going to defend Sheftel. Of course not. What he did was wrong and despicable.

However, when the public discourse is set in those terms, when rabbis are daily calling political opponents "enemies of israel", "their names should be blotted out", "Amalek", "Hitler", and more, does it surprise anyone when someone else has had enough and throws it back? Where is the outrage against calling other Jews Amalek or against saying nasty things about other groups?

You don't have to like someone, but you also don't have to be so mean. and if that is where you are going to let yourself go, don't be surprised when other people go to the same place.

Haredi MKs should not just be expressing their outrage, but should be working within their own community to improve the style of dialogue and tone of conversation.

you can't sling mud without getting yourself dirty

(by the way, you can hear his interview on both the Kooker and Srugim websites)

I sure am glad that I did not vote Habayit Hayehudi in the last national elections... while not voting for them provides no guarantee that I would be saved from a trip to Hell after death, according to Rav Shalom Cohen had I voted for them I definitely would have been guaranteed that trip to Hell.

Since I will most likely end up there anyway, for one thing or another, for some period of time, maybe I should have taken advantage and voted for them!

Two weeks ago, Rav Shalom Cohen, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Porat Yosef and a senior Shas rabbi, said in a shiur that kippa sruga people are Amalek. Many were upset and disturbed by such a statement, and Shas went on a campaign to "explain", or soften, when Rabbi Cohen said. Some politicians apologized for the misunderstanding, the words were out of context, it is not what he was referring to, he only meant the politicians, he only meant this or he only meant that. There was a symphony of explanations and apologies as to what Rabbi Cohen meant by his words.

The truth is that I find it almost insulting that they feel the need to apologize for him and to finds way to explain his words. He is being treated almost like the old senile uncle at a family affair - nobody knows quite what to do with him when he says or does crazy things, so people just smile, maybe grimace actually, and apologize. I think it is demeaning - as an important rabbi he should be responsible for his words, he should be considered to say what he means. If he thinks his words were misunderstood or taken out of context, he should explain them. He should know he is responsible for his words and be careful about what he says, or be held responsible for what he says.

So, after all the apologies and explanations, Rabbi Cohen has made them all moot, basically saying he meant what he said and he said what he meant. Rabbi Cohen has been recorded saying that anybody who voted for Habayit Hayehudi will go to Hell. And, he has no problem assuming everyone with a kippa sruga supports Bayit Yehudi, because that is how they associate themselves, unless he is told otherwise that someone did not (referring to a letter of protest he received, about which he said he would want to ask what party she voted for but assumed it was Bayit Yehudi)
(source: kikar)

In brief, stop apologizing for him and the other Shas rabbis who insult and curse everybody they do not like. Either fall in line and promote that agenda openly, or disassociate yourselves from people who say those things.

A story like this just makes me scratch my head and wonder..

According to INN, some group has placed the curse of the Pulsa dNura on an Arab MK. Until now the pulsa dnura people have generally been Israelis. This group is described as an "American rabbinical group". I guess the loopy is not limited to this side of the ocean.

INN says:

An American rabbinical group on Monday declared that it was placing a “pulsa dinura” (“lashes of fire”) curse on Arab MK Masoud Ganaim (Ra'am-Ta'al). The group, calling itself “the Great Pulsa Dinura Committee,” said that Ganaim deserved the curse because he refused to stand when Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah, was played at a recent event, and for ripping up in the Knesset a copy of a law to regulate Bedouin settlement of the Negev.
In a statement, the “Pulsa Dinura Committee” said that it had deliberated on Ganaim's actions, and had determined that it had no choice but to impose the curse. Once the curse is placed, the Committee said, there is no earthly power that can remove it. As a result of being cursed, the statement said, Ganaim can expect to suffer serious illnesses and injuries.
Beginning in August, the group said, Ganaim will contract a mysterious illness from which he will not recover, or, alternatively, fall from a high place and badly injure himself, or be the victim of a serious traffic accident. The only way to avoid this fate, the group said, was for Ganaim to leave Israel, and take 100,000 of his Arab supporters with him. The statement gave him 20 months to leave.
Ganaim told Channel Ten that he had been told by a representative of the group that they targeted him “because they said I incite against Israel, and because I refused to honor the state by standing for Hatikvah. Instead I left the Knesset plenum when the anthem was played. In the envelope that contained the letter there was another enclosure that included two seeds, apparently from melons. They said that this was a 'sign of death,'” Ganaim said.
Ganaim said he did not take the threat seriously, but that he has filed a complaint with police anyway. “These people are racists and fanatics. I have been threatened before, but not like this. In their letter they mentioned how Yitzchak Rabin was killed and Ariel Sharon was put into a coma because of a 'pulsa dinura.' But I am not afraid,” he said.
The “Pulsa Dinura” is the name of a ritual ceremony with supposed kabbalistic roots, which has been used on occasion in Israel to call for the downfall of prominent public figures. It is not even clear if it is a part of normative Judaism, and most rabbis dismiss it as a fiction.

They are giving him 20 months to leave? he has to convince 100,000 others to leave with him? Why not just put the pulsa dnura on all the Arabs? Just because he did not stand for Hatikvah - will they be putting it on the many fine Jews who do not exactly respect Israel's national anthem?

There might be some serious ramifications for not standing in shul for the Prayer for the State... be very careful!

Ynet has an article talking about the curse of the Kennedy family, but I don't think they are aware of the actual curse.

Mary Kennedy - victim of Kennedy Curse?

Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., was found dead in a barn behind her home yesterday.

Mary Kennedy joins, in her death, a long list of tragedies in the extended Kennedy family.

While Ynet invokes the "Kennedy curse" in the headline of their article, they fail to mention what the curse actually was.

Legend has it, as believed by many in the "yeshivishe" world, that the curse began with Joe Kennedy. Supposedly Rav Aharon Kotler had asked Joe Kennedy for assistance in obtaining certificates for European Jews, and to help lobby the president to work on to save the Jews. Kennedy refused and was rude to the rabbi.

Joseph Kennedy Sr.

Supposedly, the legend goes, Rav Kotler (or name your favorite rabbi) was upset with him for his attitude, and wished him ill saying he should never have "nachas" from his descendants.

Was there actually such a curse? I have no idea. It sounds almost like the listing of tragedies that have befallen many of those involved in the Disengagement and saying that there is a curse on anybody who had their hand in that. That is the frum legend though.




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The weather forecast for the coming week is expecting pretty nice weather. Unseasonably hot weather, to be more precise. Of course that can change at any moment, and/or the weathermen can be wrong.

That raises the question if the supposed "curse" on Purim, placed, supposedly, by the Brisker Rav, will or will not happen this year. The "curse" was, supposedly, that the weather would be bad on Purim in Israel (Yerushalayim only? all frum areas?) so that people would not dress in preetzusdige costumes.

When the weather is less than optimal, we all talk about how it is always that way because of the curse. What happens when the weather is nice?

What would you do if you knew you only had 180 left to live?

MK Ahmed Tibi received a threatening letter saying that the writer had placed a pulsa d'nura curse upon Tibi and Tibi only had 180 days left to live...

The letter said, "Because of your poisonous stance against Israel and Zionism, theadministration of this group has issued a pulsa d'nura against you. You have 180 days to live. Your death will be sudden, cruel and accompanied by great pain… it is time to prepare your will. Your friends in the terrorist organizations will be happy to prepare a health clinic for the last days of your life."

The letter was signed by the name "Johann Rasmunsen" in the name of the organization known as "The Pulsa di Nura Organization".

I did a quick Google search. The organization name brings up nothing specific, but websites with information about the pulsa d'nura. Nothing specific about that organization.

A search on the name "Johann Rasmunsen" brings up a number of people with that name. one is a long distance runner. Another is a Senior Vice President of a company in Norwegia. There is another guy with that name that is a whale catcher. And then there are plenty of others as well.

What would you do if you knew you only had 180 days left? I think I would try to avert the curse by doing good deeds and atoning for my sins. Perhaps if I knew I only had 180 days left because of a curse, maybe I would also look for an expert in the mystical and find some way to counter the curse with another type of a spell. I would probably spend a few days having fun as well.

Somehow, I don't think Tibi has to worry much about a curse from this group, though if he is really concerned, perhaps the time has come to fix his ways.

After the amazingly warm and beautiful weather we have been having over the past two weeks, starting today the forecast is expecting the next four days to be cool and rainy weather.

I don't know if the curse of Purim is true or not, but it sure feels like it. Year after year, no matter what the weather is leading up to Purim, Purim time is always cooler and rainier.

In recent past, we have heard a lot about things like gilguls and dybbuks. There has been lots of debate and arguing, all over the place, between those who believe in there things and those who dont.
Now we have the story of a "cursed" tank. Yisroel Hayom reported today that there is a specific tank many people are considering to be cursed. To the point that the army has removed it from active duty.
This tank was hit and damaged by mortar fire a number of years ago.
The tank then was hit in 2006 by Hamas militants and two soldiers were killed and Gilad Shalit was taken captive, was later repaired and sent back to the front lines and active duty.
The same tank was later attacked, during Cast Lead in Gaza and damaged by anti-tank missiles. The tankist miraculously got out ok.

The tank was then repaired again. Just a short time later it was sent back in and the same tankist was in Gaza in that tank. Hepoked his head out of the tank and was killed by a Palestinian sniper.

Is the tank possessed by a dybbuk? Is it just a "bad luck" tank, like someone's lucky shirt? Is it cursed?

The latest edition of the Eidah magazine is out. Here is the cover, below. The feature is the battle they are fighting against "The Empire", a.k.a. Intel.

What I find particularly interesting, and it might be worth buying the edition just for this article, is the article on the Pulsa D'Nura.

I marked it off on the cover artwork below. Anything and everything you ever wanted to know, or didn't want to know, about the Pulsa D'Nura.

Purim is a cursed day, supposedly. Supposedly, Purim has been cursed, in Israel, to have bad weather - cool, rainy, etc. The purpose of the curse is to avoid people dressing in untzniusdikke styles and costumes.

Personally I have heard the curse as having been wrought by the Hazon Ish, the Steipler, Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and the Brisker Rav. Maybe others have heard other names as the source of the curse.

I have also heard the curse on Purim in general, Purim in Jerusalem, and Purim in Bnei Brak.

It could be that the curse, if it really exists, is the reason for the crazy weather we are about to have. We just went from stormy to nice. By shabbos it is going to get into heat wave weather with temperatures as high as 28-30 (mid 80's). By Monday-Tuesday - Purim - the forecasters are predicting rain again with cooler temperatures...



Side point: does anyone have credible information on the origin and specifics of the curse?

There is an old tale I heard many times when I was in yeshiva.

The tale goes that no matter what the weather is like leading up to Purim, on Purim itself the weather will be "bad" - rain, chilly, windy, etc. The tale says that one of the rabbonim of Yerushalayim from previous generations (about 60-80 years ago) placed a "curse" of sorts on the day. He prayed that the weather on Purim should always be bad.

The purpose of this curse was to prevent indecent and immodest behavior. Purim is a day that is prone to breeches of tznius - cities all around Israel hold "adloyada" parades. Even the secular fully participate in the celebrations of Purim and dress up, often in immodest costume, and there is a certain spirit in general (in the religious community as well) of freedom-do what you want-answer to nobody-etc. The fact that plenty of people are high on alcohol or even completely drunk only adds to that.

So the Rabbonim supposedly prayed that the weather on Purim should be lousy. In bad weather people cover up more. They are not found outside as much so the parades will be smaller. And so on. Basically, the bad weather helps limit the pritzus.

Personally, I originally heard of the curse in the name of the Brisker Rav (Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin of Yerushalayim). I have since heard of it in the names of the Hazon Ish, Rav Shalom Sharabi, Rav Yosef Haim Sonnenfeld, and Rav Landau. I am sure that it has been said over in the name of other Rabbis as well, so it qualifies for a [insert name of Rabbi here].

Is it true?

I have no idea. No amount of searching has ever come with a definitive answer on the matter.

I have spoken to many people about it and some say it is true and some say it is a bubbe maase. I have even heard some deride such a rumor adding that we often have droughts in Israel, and if not actual drought it is at least less than the needed rainfall. We call for special prayers to be said and we make a big deal of there not being enough rain. Yet one Rabbi supposedly says a few words and it effects tens and tens of years bringing rain. If it is true, they complain, how come these Rabbis do not bring rain the rest of the winter, if it is so easy for them..

The fact is though that in the 16 years I have been in Israel, the weather is always less than pleasant at best on Purim, even if it was nice weather in the days preceding Purim. Sometimes it rains and even storms. It can be windy. Sometimes just a slight drizzle. Sometimes it just changes from sunny to overcast and chilly and that is enough to put a damper on plans. I always pay attention because I am always curious to see how the "curse" pans out..

The current forecast is calling for beautiful weather on Purim. We shall see how it pans out this year.

I heard on the radio today the newscaster was talking to the head weather guy about the forecast. When they got to the weather for Purim the weather man said it was supposed to be nice, but then he added that we cannot predict the weather for Purim. Purim, he said, has its own sets of rules. Predictions are never right for Purim (the track record, some would say, is not that good for the rest of the year either, but that is another story).

The weatherman did not say why Purim "has its own set of rules" and maybe he does not know about the "curse, but it seems even the weather people are aware that the weather on Purim is usually worse....

I think this curse of the Chicago Cubs is getting out of hand.... This is a theory I have never heard before and they are going to try to oust the curse/jinx.

I hope it works.