People have been scamming the world trying to sell junk from Israel for a long time. I think of items like "holy water", "holy air", "holy sand", and the like.

The latest is on eBay are rocks from Jerusalem near the Kotel, and even people claiming to sell rocks from the Western Wall itself!

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The pictures on that last one are all pictures of the area of the egalitarian platform where the Reform and Women of the Wall hold their services, making one suspicious that the rock might have  been taken from the Kotel in that area.

First of all anybody considering purchasing such a rock must question its authenticity. It probably does not come with any certificate of authenticity and might very well be a rock just picked up from the ground anywhere nearby or even not so nearby.

Second, depending on the status of the Kotel, and assuming the rock is actually from the Kotel as claimed, it might very well be prohibited to sell and buy, and even just take, such a rock. If the Wall is a remaining part from the Beit Hamikdash, it could very well be taking something holy and appropriating it for personal use, which is a problem. The other possibility is that the Kotel might not have the status of having been part of the actual Temple but only a retaining wall for the Mount and then it would not have such a status.

Third, I think it is illegal by Israeli law to take such artifacts.

Fourth, I find it amusing that all those selling these rocks have an image of the rock next to an Israeli coin, for sizing purposes, and in the description they say the coin is part of the purchase package.

Fifth, I guess the next step will be selling sponsorships of the Stones that are part of the Kotel. They will put plaques upon each stone saying who sponsored that stone, or half stone or quarter stone, of the Kotel.

Are you interested in buying a valuable piece of Israeli history?

The first tractor owned by Ariel Sharon on his farm, Sycamore Ranch, is up for sale. On eBay.

Starting bid stands at $20,000.

From the description of the sale item on eBay:

This unique tractor belonged to the late Israeli prime minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon. The tractor has been in good hands throughout the years and has a very interesting history:
This tractor is really Mr. Sharon's first friend. It served Sharon as he worked with sheep in the Shikmim Farm, where he resided. After a while, Sharon realized the tractor was too big and fast for his work with sheep, so he decided to sell it.

A Cherkessian farmer named Korkus bought the tractor in 1974, and worked with it until 1990, while maintaining the machine's excellent condition. In 1990 the tractor was sold to Nir Sadan, the current owner. When Sadan came to pick up the tractor, Korkus said: "This tractor belonged to Israel's war hero, Mr. Ariel Sharon".
Years later, Sharon has become the prime minister of Israel and has arrived to a corner stone ceremony in the Gilboa. Sharon's tractor was the only one near the stage, and other tractors surrounded it. When Sharon went on the stage to start his speech, he immediately recognized the tractor, his first friend. Sharon could hardly contain his excitement and talked about the tractor. The crowd clapped with pride and joy for the reunion of the two friends, and in respect to the very special man that was Mr. Ariel Sharon.
This even is shown in the video below.

Nir Sadan, the current owner: "I'm honored to be part of the chain which serves to perpetuate the legacy of this amazing man, who contributed so much to Israel".
Mr. Ariel Sharon, also known as Arik Sharon, has been a prominent figure in Israel's military and political arenas throughout the years.
Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, and participated in most of Israel's big wars. After his military career, he was nominated Agriculture Minister and Defense Minister. He was nominated as Israel's 11th Prime Minister.

This is pretty cool. I am surprised there is not a picture included of a younger Sharon driving the tractor from earlier days...

I'd love to see this appear on the show Pawn Stars and watch them authenticate it and value it, then negotiate for it.

Anyways, go bid. get yourself a vintage tractor

Is this ebay auction actually worth this much money to anybody? why would it be? even to someone who considers Jonathan Pollard a hero, are people willing to pay money for a letter he wrote?

Jonathan Pollard SIGNED Personal Letter To Rabbi and other Rabbinical Papers

That's a lot of money for a can of peanut oil... I guess it makes sense considering that today you probably cannot find peanut oil that is kosher for Pesach...

We've seen some unusual items for sale on ebay in the past, so when I heard that Bibi's leg cast was up for sale on an auction site, I fully expected it to be found on ebay. The seller, though, listed the cast on Webidz instead.

No, it is not the State of Israel selling the pieces of the cast as memorabilia, perhaps with the emblem of the State of Israel embedded somewhere on the cast.  It is just some person who claims that his mother works as a nurse in the hospital. He says he asked his mother to save the pieces of the cast after they would be removed, and his mother did. He is selling it, calling it a "poetic justice auction" because Bibi has taken so much money from him and from people like him and his mom these past years and this is a way of taking some of it back.

He promises this is the actual cast, but I have no idea if there is a way to verify that.

Anyways, it looks like he is going to be stuck with it, as so far nobody has submitted even a single bid. Either nobody is interested in bidding on pieces of a cast that have no way to be verified that they were removed form the leg of Benjamin Netanyahu, or else maybe the starting bid at $100,000 is simply too high and nobody thinks the cast is worth that much.

You can bid on the supposed remnants of Netanyahu's cast here..

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If you are looking to go to the "Internet Asifa" at Citi Field arena next week, you probably know by now that the event has been sold out. Whether tickets were dumped on communities just to make it seem sold out, or if they were actually snapped up by the multitudes wanting to participate, it does not matter to someone who wants to buy a ticket today.

The good news is that you can still get tickets - they are being scalped. I don't know if they are being sold on ticket and sports websites, such as Stub Hub or Tickets Now, but they are available on eBay.

Two examples of listings on eBay are:

• 2 tix available with current bid at $122
• 8 Front row tix with current bid at $183

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eBay has so many auctions running at any given time, a certain percentage of them are going to be off-beat and interesting items. Some of them will even be jewish, and we have seen in the past interesting, or weird, Jewish items or events being auctioned on eBay.

The latest to hit the virtual auction block is the right to light a community's bonfire on lag B'Omer.

The community of Minyan SheLanu in Lakewood, New Jersey, led by Rav Chaim Abadi, is selling the lighting of the bonfire at Blue Claws Stadium..

From the description of the item:

You are bidding on the Zechus to light the Minyan Shelanu 11th annual Lag Baomer Bonfire.

The Minyan Shelanu 11th Annual Bonfire/BBQ will take place on Wednesday May 9th from 5:00pm-12:00 at the Lakewood Blue Claws parking lot located on New Hampshire Ave and Cedarbridge Ave.

Minyan Shelanu is once again proud to present our Annual Lag Baomer Bonfire Event. Intense preparations are underway for this years Minyan Shelanu’s tremendous event. What started out as a modest Bar-B-Q in the back of a building has grown and grown. As the community began attending in droves the venues kept changing to larger locations. This year the event will be held on the 9th of May in the parking lot of the Blue Claws stadium. As the venue has grown so has the itinerary, as a matter of fact it has developed into a full blown event with a long delectable menu grilled on location accompanied by live music. The high light of course may be the raffle for at least one person of course!

The Minyan Shelanu each year holds a $10,000.00 raffle which the winner is selected at this event. These funds assist the Minyan somewhat to be able to continue their incredible work. Under the leadership of R’ Chaim Abadi shlit”a, the Minyan has come to earn fame and accolades across the town and far beyond for a home to everyone. Teenagers and adults alike find a home at the Minyan. Their minyanim shiurim as well as events is the source of so many individuals ruchnius. Their signature game room, their meals, and the place to call home is the epicenter of so many lives. Most importantly is the warmth of the Minyan. Many items can be purchased or acquired, genuine warmth and love for every one is a rarity to come upon. The Minyan very rarely solicits funds. This is an opportunity to help a mossad kadosh as well as have a memorable evening and possibly even an unforgettable evening for the winner of the $10,000.00. Children unattended by adults will not be allowed in. To purchase tickets or to read more about the Minyan, visit our website at MinyanShelanu.org. Cant wait to see you there!

As of this writing, the bidding stands at $755.

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eBay just announced it is officially establishing eBay Israel. Not a local Israeli version of eBay, but a development center eBay Israel is recruiting dozens of engineers for the new development center.
(source: Ynetnews)

This is just eBay's third development center outside of the United States. This is a major show of faith in the capabilities of Israel and Israelis.

Add to that the announcement of Donald Trump considering investing in Israel, and it seems like Israel might be in pretty decent shape.

There are always people selling interesting and weird stuff on eBay. The latest eBay item of interest to the Jewish world is somebody selling a stone from the Western Wall.

This is probably a scam, as I doubt anyone is chipping away stones from the Western Wall, and I don't think he is selling any stones that weigh 10 tons...

Various news sites (Bechadrei, INN and Mynet) are reporting about someone claiming to sell stones from the Western wall on eBay. he is not doing what others have done before - selling stones or dirt from nearby the Wall. he is claiming to be selling actual stones from the Wall itself. Rabbi Rabinovitch, the rav of the Kotel and holy sites, has sent a complaint to eBay demanding they cancel the sale, calling it sacrilegious, a serious offense to Judaism, and a violation of Israeli law.

Rabbi Rabinovitch also claims it involves fraud, as there is no blessing in obtaining such a stone, rather a curse would befall such a person. To support that, Rabbi Rabinovitch bring sin his book about the Western Wall a story related by Rav Zilbershtein in which a woman fell seriously ill. Someone told her husband that he should put a piece of stone form the Kotel under her pillow and it would be a blessing for recovery. As soon as he did, she died.

I did numerous searches on eBay and could not find the stone from the Western Wall being offered. Maybe they took it down.

When someone pointed out to me the classified section of this week's free Yated Neeman, I got a real kick out of it, Who knew that Yated classifieds could be so funny!!?? When I read it I was not sure if I was reading Yated Neeman or eBay! They need to change the name of the newspaper, though I am not sure if eNeeman or Yated Bay is better..


If you can't make out the Hebrew, basically someone is trying to sell the rights to name his baby. It doesn't say  how much it costs, so I am assuming it up for bidding. It says "Respected family interested in giving a name to a baby after a good person for pay".

Nice of them to call themselves "respected", or a more accurate translation might be "important". Unfortunately they restrict to "named after a good person", which gives them a lot of leeway to veto any selection. They are the arbiter of who is considered a "good person".

This is something I expect to see on eBay, not in the Yated.

The latest interesting Jewish item to go up on sale on eBay auctions is the maftir for Shabbos Nachamu (this Shabbos) in my shul, BTYA, in RBS because the rav is away for Shabbos due to a family simcha. They are calling it the right to be the rav, but they have stripped it of everything except the aliyah of maftir nachamu.

The accompanying descriptions says:

Get a chance to be "The Rav" this Shabbos, Shabbos Nachamu, 5771.


A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, unless it's your Bar Mitzvah.


The winner of this quick auction will be called up to Maftir and will say the b'rachos of the Haftorah (actual reading done by a BTYA baal koreh, from a k'laf).


Does not entitle the winner to say a d'rosha.


Winner must be present at BTYA for davening, or must arrange with a Gabbai before Shabbos who should get the aliya, otherwise the gabboim will choose on their own.


In the event of any discrepancy or question that should arise, Rav Malinowitz will be consulted, or, in his absence, Dr. Ari Stern, the head Gabbai will have the final say.


BTYA is located at Nachal Refaim 34 A, RBS

announcement said that buying this honor does not include the right to give a drasha, though if the gabbai asks you to lead the mussaf services, you can use the famous Carlebach Nachamu tune in mussaf.

Some other interesting Jewish-themed auctions on eBay included the Skverer Rebbe's leftover cake, someone to dress modestly for a week and leftover cholent. I wonder how people would rate this one compared to others...

You can place your bids for maftir nachamu until 6:47 pm Friday afternoon, according to the bidding page.

I would be curious what type of ideas someone could come up with to make this experience more interesting, taking into consideration the exceptions listed.

And the latest crazy Jewish item for sale on eBay is a box of leftover matza, from Pesach, from the Skverer Rebbe.

I guess someone was cleaning the house and found a remaining box on top of some cabinet. As they were about to throw it out, some gabbai, or maybe a kid in the house, thought "hey, lets try selling it on eBay as a segula!"

The price, as of this writing, is sitting at $2.25, and shipping is free.

Not only that, but they say that if you order it now you can still get it in time for the holidays! I am not sure if that means Christmas and New Years or Hannukah.. :-) . And it begs the question why one would be in a rush to get leftover Pesach matza in time for either Christmas or Hannukah...

Place your bid now, before time runs out..Shaindellungar closes the bidding on November 25 at 11:10:32 PST.

And enjoy your matza..

Hungry?

If you are not sure what to throw together, or have nothing available in the fridge, start bidding on this fellow's leftover cholent.

Starting bid on ebay is $2... you have 9 days to ponder the possibilities. I just wonder if the cholent will still be good by the end of the bidding.

Most of us either throw the leftover cholent out or put it away for a weeknight dinner, or finish the cholent completely on Shabbos, or don't have cholent at all. This guy found a unique solution to dealing with his leftovers..

The Daily Mail is reporting that ebay is now being used for internet dating. Of course, the revolutionary case has to be a Jew.

But after seven years of his mother being unlucky in love, James Doyan has decided to place her 63-year-old heart up for auction - on eBay.

Despite the old adage that money can't buy you love, twice divorced Sandi Firth has agreed to be 'sold' to the highest bidder on the international website.

Alongside a portrait photograph of the grandmother-of-four, the advert reads: 'Beautiful, great cook, educated, articulate, family focused, caring - priceless.'

It adds that she is in 'used condition' but describes her as being in 'pretty good working order [with] no real defects or signs of wear and tear'.

The online description then continues: 'She is stylish and loves to wear the latest fashions (sometimes forgetting her age) and parades them at any opportunity.

'Highly sociable she is a busy bee in the community and I don't think we have ever been out of the house without her bumping into someone she knows - it has become a bit of a running joke.'

It goes on: 'When not working (which can sometimes be unsociable hours) she enjoys amateur dramatics, presenting on community radio (chat show and topical interviews), bridge and is trying ever so hard to get out of playing golf which her friends are encouraging her into.

'My mum is also an amazing cook - she really is - good home style cooking - and her cherry pie is the best.

'I must warn you that she is a strong woman - bringing up two kids on her own thirty something years ago was no mean feat and has made her into a fiercely strong sometimes stubborn woman - but always with kindness and generosity at the forefront of her mind (as she is telling you that you are wrong and she is ALWAYS right).'

[...]

Mr Doyan is prepared to deliver his mother to the successful bidder but added that at 5ft 7ins she would also be light enough to travel with a courier.

With a starting required bid of £1, there have been no official bids for the businesswoman who Mr Doyan said was 'driving me crazy' with her single status.

But, listed in the 'collectibles' section of eBay, and described as 'unboxed', Mrs Firth has attracted up to 250 viewings, and her son, who has 100 per cent 'positive feedback' on the site has received emails from potential bidders asking to 'try before they buy'.

Yesterday Mrs Frith, said that despite previous attempts at online dating, her attempts to find a man have been 'a bit of a disaster'.

Mrs Firth, who runs her own market research company in Leeds, Yorkshire, said she was at first shocked by appearing on eBay.

She said: 'My son is very innovative and has a wonderful way with words. I have had some rotten times and he has been through them with me.

'It's a cattle market out there. It would be nice to meet someone normal and trustworthy - which they haven't been so far.'

Mr Doyan, a management consultant from Crouch End, London, claims his mum has simply been unlucky in love.

He said: 'I'm a bit impulsive and just decided eBay is the best way to generate interest in something.

'She has her own friends in the Leeds Jewish community, but this could reach out to people she might not have links with.'

The only problem with this is that I have not been able to find the listing anywhere on ebay. Not in the ebay UK as the image in the article indicates where the listing is, nor in the regular ebay (USA).. So who knows...

The next strange thing to hit eBay is someone who is trying to see how much you will pay her to dress tzniyusly for a week.
there are some strange people out there, but definitely an interesting concept. if she already dresses tzniyusly, then she has lost nothing and makes money on doing something she already does. If she doesn't dress tzniyusly right now, then perhaps "mee-toch she'lo l'shma, ba l'shma" - she might start off dressing tzniyusly for pay, but maybe eventually it will become permanent...

And I wonder what I can get people to pay me to do... bidding for this closed at $350...

This is funny. Somebody is selling a piece of cake on eBay that he claims is from the Skvera Rebbe. The price is holding right now at $48...

The cake is a piece of honey cake, supposedly from the Rebbe (I don't know he confirms that - I guess you have to trust the anonymous guy on the internet selling a piece of cake), and he says that if you buy it and eat it, it is a segulah to be blessed with a sweet year....

Bidding closes in a few days, so place your bids now!

A frum guy in New Haven scammed customers on eBay out of hundreds of thousands of dollars selling equipment he never had any intention of actually delivering.

In a sentencing memo, she argued that his unusual background made him unequipped for the business world. Levitansky was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in the Beaver Hills neighborhood. His parents put him through years of religious day camps, summer camps, then a Talmudical seminary in California, all in hopes that he would become a rabbi. Following his parents’ wishes after high school, he volunteered alongside a rabbi doing community outreach in Florida, then attended another Talmudic seminary in New York run by the Chabad movement.

The young man didn’t take to the line of work, however.

“Mr. Levitansky did not want to become a rabbi,” wrote Merriam. At age 18, he withdrew from the seminary. In 2007, he started his own business, Bluetooth Kings LLC.

He didn’t start out intending to scam anyone, Merriam argued: Levitansky just got in over his head. By May 2008, the orders were rolling in with such volume that the young man couldn’t handle it.

“Things quickly got out of hand, and Mr. Levitansky became completely overwhelmed,” Merriam wrote. “As a young man who had been raised with the idea that he would one day become a rabbi, Yochi Levitansky was ill-prepared for the challenges of running a business on his own.”

In his sentencing, the judge, based on the prosecutions arguments, said that the crime was not just against his customers, and he did not do damage just to ebay, but he damaged the whole internet as actions like his undermine the faith people have in making transactions over the internet.

The case was about much more than money, he argued — it’s about the foundation of the Internet marketplace.

As more people turn to the Internet to buy goods, they need to be able to have faith that anonymous sellers won’t rip them off, Chang argued. Though the customers Levitansky swindled have mostly been repaid by eBay, he said, “they will have the memory of being defrauded.”

They even compared him to Bernie Madoff:

Dorsey said while a longer prison sentence wasn’t necessary, Levitansky does need some prison time to teach him respect for the law and to deter him from repeating the crime.

“That’s a lot of money,” the judge said of the swindled $237,257. He called the defendant “well short of Bernie Madoff, but somewhat tracking in that same direction.”

A comparison to Madoff seems to be a bit of an exaggeration, in my opinion... This was purely criminal as he took people's money and never delivered the product he was selling them. What does this have to do with fraud and Ponzi schemes to the tunes of $50 billion, or whatever the final numbers were?

At least he is trying to make good on the money he stole:

In defense of her client, Merriam said the case was “solely about money.” She said the case was really a civil matter, and that the debt owed to eBay was a drop in the bucket compared to the company’s profits. She argued that the behavior was extremely out-of-the-ordinary for the young man, who has no prior criminal record and comes from a supportive, educated family.

Merriam said her client intends to fully pay the company back — he already got a job as a maintenance worker, fixing sinks to dig out of debt. Levitansky can pay it back quicker if he can stay employed instead of going to prison, she argued. She urged the judge for probation instead of prison, arguing that the quarter-million dollar restitution would be sufficient punishment.

Every shul, pretty much, wants to "sell the name". Shuls put out beautiful brochures and have campaigns to try to locate the person who might just do it...

One shul in Israel has taken a new approach and is trying to "sell the name" on eBay! For a starting bid of only $600,000 you can sponsor a shul in Givat Shmuel, Israel. It seems that not too many people are interested, as he still has 0 bids... hatzlacha to them.

If you want to go cheaper, there is a shul in Montreal selling its name on eBay and the "Buy it Now" price is only $25,000... hatzlacha to them too...

A little while back there was an article, and it made a lot of noise in the media, about how Israelis leave Israel, and it discussed Australia as one of the leading places for Israel to move to.

I probably should not link to this, but if anybody wants to start a new life in Australia, there is some guy there selling his whole life on eBay. That's right. His whole life. he will walk out with the clothes on his back, his wallet and his passport. The buyer gets everything else.

A little while back there was a notice about an organization that, in an effort to raise awareness of shmitta and to give people abroad the opportunity of fulfilling the mitzva of shmitta, was selling small plots of land that they would manage and leave fallow for the shmitta year on the buyers behalf.

Now comes the latest venture out of Israel. Somebody, in Bet Shemesh no less, is selling, on ebay no less, bottles of land from Israel.

I do not know how this fits in with the laws of shmitta. If he sells the dirt to a non-Jew, is he using the hetter mechira? If the non-Jewish buyer grew a tomato in the bottle would it only be permitted according to some authorities and not others? Then again, if he plants things in the bottle, it is really matza m'nutak (grown disconnected from the ground) and should be ok to eat anyways.

But let us say the buyer is a Jew. Does that present more problems? Are you allowed to export soil during shmitta? One technically cannot export shmitta produce to outside of the Land of Israel, but can he ship this bottle of dirt out?

Will the US Department of Agriculture allow a bottle of foreign soil into the US? I know they ban fruits, veggies and flowers from coming in. What about soil?

Anyways, go place your bids and get some holy soil!