Ynet had an article about Hava Mond. Hava Mond is a fashion model originally from Tzfat (Safed) who is religious and has remained religious despite the profession she has chosen as one of Israel's top models.

The discussion around the internet and various forums, Areivim included, has centered on the question of whether such a woman can really be classified as religious or not. She chooses a profession in which it is nearly impossible to not do aveiros.
While true she might be performing admirably in many issues, as she says she only eats kosher which sometimes means she does not eat all day as the only food available is often not kosher (she shoots a lot in the international scene), she davens twice a day, she keeps shabbos, etc.. other problems arise. The greatest issue is modesty. While she has her limits, she does model in non-tznius attire.

So, is such a woman religious/frum is the question people are debating.

My thoughts on the discussion are, and I wrote this to the Areivim forum and another forum,:

I do not understand the discussion. Are we all perfect? Do none of us commit any aveiros, often willingly? Are the aveiros these people are committing any "worse" than the aveiros we might be committing in the privacy of our own homes without the newspapers letting everyone know?Would any of us consider ourselves not frum because of the aveiros we do?

We each have our pekalach and we each have the mitzvos we enjoy doing and do better than other people and we each have the aveiros that we are more prone to doing than other people. This is the aveira that this woman does. Does that make her less frum than me or you?

It is not for me to decide. My relationship with Hashem is between me and Hashem, yours is between you and Hashem and hers is between her and Hashem. Just like I do not know the details of your life, your mitzvos and your aveiros and it would be wrong and even impudent of me to assume I know how Hashem cherishes or not your relationship with Him, it is wrong of us to judge her and assume we know the details of her life and relationship with Hashem from one sketchy article and it is impudent to allow ourselves the liberty of judging the relationship she has with Hashem.

Shooting in Utah!
Another disgruntled teenager (this one 18 years old) shoots up a bunch of random people.

Good think an off-duty cop was in the mall having dinner with his wife. He confronts the guy then teams up with another police office and they put an end to the kids miserable life.

CNN brings us the story of the cop who was off-duty but still carrying his gun who got involved.


The funny thing is, when I hear stories like this, such as reading them in the Hamodia hashgacha pratis article, I tend to roll my eyes, nod/shake my head, or mouth a cynical 'wow'. Yet when CNN prints a similar story by a non-Jew, the cynicism is gone and, at least my initial reaction, I am impressed.

Why am I, or why are we (if you do the same), more cynical about these things when it comes to frum Jews? Or am I just an aberration?

Was Abraham Lincoln Jewish?

I doubt it, but there are such theories.

Hamodia ran a piece last week about Abraham Lincoln possibly being Jewish. They raised all sorts of circumstantial evidence which, they say, indicate his affiliation to the Jewish people.

Such evidence includes letters of correspondence between him and people of the Hebrew faith, assistance he provided as President to issues of concern to people of the Hebrew faith, the lack of any clear religion in his background, and a town in England named Lincoln that at some point had a sizable Jewish population.

They offered no real proofs to the suggestion.

They did not claim that Abraham Lincoln hailed from Lincoln, England. They simply mentioned the town in England with some of its Jewish history.

They did not show that Lincoln assisted and tried to solve requests by Jews any more than requests by other people. They simply showed examples of Jews having made requests of Lincoln and his responding positively.

They did not show that Lincoln corresponded more with Jews than with people of other faiths. They simply mentioned that he corresponded with Jews, and brought some examples of such correspondence. I will assume (rightly or wrongly) that he also corresponded with people of other faiths. If he corresponded with a Mormon would that prove (or even indicate) that he was a Mormon? Would correspondence with Muslims make him a Muslim? etc.

As President of the United States of America, and preceding that as an aspiring to the presidency, it is likely there were plenty of people of all faiths who sent letters to him. Many of these letters would have contained requests of assistance on various matters of concern. Like any politician he would have tried to help when he could.


To use such baseless evidence as possible proof of Lincoln's Jewishness is a disgrace and an embarrassment. The Hamodia newspaper is treating its readers as morons and people lacking intelligence.