There is a story going around from Ramat Hasharon. it is on the Hidabroot website but was also discussed on the radio.

The story is that on Friday afternoon there was a power outage in the area. in the Yochananof supermarket the owner decided to let the customers go home with their goods, despite not having paid for them, as the computer system was down. The owner decided he could not leave his customers without food for Shabbos and going to other supermarkets in the area would also not be an option as they too did not have electricity or there just would not be enough time to go somewhere with electricity and fill another shopping cart at that point int he day and get home for Shabbos.

So he let them all go and said to come back on Sunday and pay. The honor system regarding what they took, though everyone wrote down their names and phone numbers.

Kahn News on Twitter took a poll to see if people think most went back and paid or if most did not. 44% of respondents thought more than 80% will go back to pay. As of this morning the owners said that between 50-60% have already paid, and they expect the number to reach 100%.

Personally I think most people, if not everyone, will go pay. Decent people will generally not betray a kindness that was done to them and will want to make it good with the owner.

I do wonder how people will know how much to pay - some items are sold by weight, such as meat and chicken and vegetables. Other items are on sale or have club member discounts, and sometimes you just don't remember the exact price of some of the items in your cart.

I do have faith in people that almost everyone. if not everyone, will pay, and will probably pay more just to be sure, because of the uncertainty with items sold by weight. I do think the owner, taking such a big risk, did a tremendous chessed for his customers and will hopefully be showered with blessings, and perhaps more importantly will see his faith in his customers justified when they all pay their bills.

hmmm...

According to Kooker, four PHDs in economics decided to devise a way of testing the level of truthfulness and honesty of haredi women vs secular women.

The test comprised of the various students who were the test subjects taking a die and rolling it behind a screen. They would then each report on the results of the throw, and the higher the number rolled, the tester would give a higher amount of money to that person - 10NIS per number rolled.

The results of the test showed that the Haredi women reported back truthfully the numbers they actually rolled, even though they could have received more money by lying. The secular women reported back consistently higher numbers, preferring to lie to get more money rather than tell the truth and get less.

Unfortunately Kooker provides no source for further analysis - no written thesis or doctorate pointed to for more details. How many test subjects? How many rounds of testing? How did they discover who was lying and who was telling the truth? Did it really happen or did Kooker make it up? I did a search and did not find this study written about elsewhere, so I don't have the information to provide

Out in the general world it seems like such studies are inconclusive. I found studies that say religious people are more trustworthy, and I found studies that say religious people are less trustworthy.

I would like to believe that being raised with a divine moral code would make an adherent more trustworthy and faithful to his morals than someone who devises his or her own moral code, but I think we need information on this study before coming to a definitive conclusion.

Kikar Shabbos website has recently come up with so many crazy stories and halachic decisions happening in the haredi community that they are starting to seem like the National Enquirer. I don't know if all these stories happened or not, if they were reported on accurately or not, and even if they did happen as reported why suddenly they are being publicized, especially in such great increasing frequency like never before. Perhaps it is simply greater media access than in the past, perhaps it is haredi journalists digging more for this type of information like never before or maybe it is something else completely. Either way, the stories and piskei halacha make for interesting discussion.

The latest incident of interest is a story that happened in the apartment neighboring that of the apartment of the Kanievsky's. The apartment upstairs had been sitting empty for some time, as the elderly resident died. After some time, the family rented the apartment to a tenant, an avreich who wanted to live near Rav Chaim Kanievsky. He probably has had to pay a mint for that location.

It seems that this avreich has been using the apartment but one of the rooms has remained unused. The family owning the apartment asked the tenant if it would be ok if they rented that room out separately to Kupat Ha'Ir, and the avreich agreed (probably happy to have some of his expensive rent deducted).

Kupat Ha'Ir wanted to rent this location to make a shop taking advantage of the proximity to the many visitors  to Rav Kanievsky's house, making it possible to solicit donations in great numbers.

the rental went through, and Kupat Ha'Ir hired a contractor and began renovations to make the room usable. Sure enough, instead of just renovating the room, they also opened up a new window and door right out facing the stairway to Rav Kanievsky's apartment.

The tenant, and the owners eventually, protested the changes to the apartment, and expressed their distaste at their apartment being used as such a collection store (I am not sure why they rented it to Kupat Ha'Ir in the first place if this is true. What did they think Kupat Ha'Ir was going to use it for?).

So, according to Kikar, the tenant, with the owners on his side, went to beis din and got a restraining order against Kupat Ha'ir from making such changes.

Ignoring The Dayan
Kupat Ha'Ir ignored the restraining order issued by the beis din and yesterday showed up and continued the renovations. After the police were called in, The Kupat Ha'Ir administration decided to go to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to ask if they could continue or if they should stop. Rav Kanievsky refused to answer and told them to go to beis din.

Rav Kanievsky Paskens
Later in the day Rav Kanievsky called them back in and told them to stop the construction. He told them to back off the idea and forget about opening up such a store upstairs. Rav Kanievsky explained that because there is at least the appearance of deception having been used, they should back off. No bracha can come from deception and dishonesty.

The Kupa people responded that they would listen to his words and cancel their plans, even at great loss.

My guess is that now they will create a campaign to raise money for donors to get the zchus of listening to Rav Kanievsky and help cover the losses.

David Morris wrote an interesting incident on his blog, Tzedek-Tzedek, and it raises a question about tzedaka that we find coming up fairly regularly in the past few years.

He writes:

A minor incident on Purim has troubled me.


I collect on Purim day for Lema’an Achai. This year I teamed up for an hour on Purim with my friend Murray Shore from Toronto, and we went together door-to-door.


A donor (we’ll call him Ploni) came up to us and proposed the following deal.


Ploni offered to give Lema’an Achai 250 NIS, if Lema’an Achai will receipt him for 500 NIS.


Ploni explained that he has given out at least 250 NIS in cash donations to individuals, who are not able to give tax receipts. So Ploni is giving 500 NIS total charity, and believes he’s entitled to a receipt for that full amount.


Ploni further explained that Lema’an Achai loses nothing by this, as we doubtless have collected plenty of cash, which has not yet been receipted. At the moment, no-one gets tax benefit from this.


And of course, we receive 250 NIS from Ploni, which he otherwise might not have donated.


To finish off the proposal, Ploni named Rabbi X, an important community rabbi in town, who Ploni claimed had given Ploni his endorsement to collect such inflated receipts from tzedaka organizations, as long as the total amount in the receipts does not exceed the total amount Ploni gives in tzedaka.


“Everybody wins!” declared Ploni.


I asked Ploni for clarification.


“Please explain what you mean. I don’t think I understand clearly. You give Lema’an Achai how much?”


“250”, he replied.


“That’s kind of you - Yeshar koach & tizke lemitzvot.
And we receipt this donation for how much?”


“500”, he replied.


“You give 250, and we say we received 500. Right?”


“Yes, you see…”


“Hold on, maybe I still haven’t understood this fully, …with all respect, wouldn’t that be. umm.. a lie?”


“Well not entirely…you see…”


“And, technically, an act of fraud?”.


“Rav X said it’s fine, he said I can do this…what’s your problem?”


By the end of the (amicable!) discussion, Ploni gave Lema’an Achai 200 NIS, saying that our lack of cooperation with his scheme needed to be penalized by withholding 50 NIS from his originally intended donation.


I have seen the same phenomenon in many variations – the ends (a mitzvah, or supposed mitzvah) justifies the means (lies, fraud, stealing, whatever).


It troubles me, every time.

and he added in the comments and interesting side point:

By the way, when I asked Lema'an Achai's Rav, Rav Chayim Soloveichik, whether I had acted properly, he said I had acted correctly, and was shocked that anyone would claim rabbinical backing for such an aveira.


He then added: "You might think that Lema'an Achai lost 50 NIS on the deal, because you were honest...."


Rav Soloveichik put his hand in his pocket, and gave Lema'an Achai 50 NIS.


"David, this is so you should never think Lema'an Achai might lose out by being straight."

In recent years, and I dont know if this was not the case in the past or if it just did not happen in the past, at least in the USA, the authorities have been cracking down on such fraudulent tax receipts. Many frum jews are sitting in jail, even someone as prominent as the Spinka Rebbe, along with many people who were considered respected members of frum communities across the USA.

That people are still trying to do it, despite the exposure of those caught and the chilul hashem it created is a bit hard to understand. Perhaps it is because they think that in Israel it will be easier to get away with. Or maybe just because some were caught, does not necessarily mean it deters others from doing the same. If so, that would mean the numbers of those caught are probably relatively small compared to those actually doing such things, meaning the risk of being caught is considered very small.

Without knowing any more of the incident than what was written there, I suspect there was something different at play. A third option. I think a possibility was that this person was testing Lemaan Achai to see if it would do something dishonest, with perhaps a low risk of being caught, to make some extra donations.

Perhaps it could have been a test of LA honesty, perhaps it could have been an ambush and had they taken the bait this fellow would have announced it all over that LA is dishonest. Or maybe it really was someone willing to make a donation in exchange for a fraudulent tax receipt. I think more of it being a test because if they were not willing, why did he only deduct 50NIS from his originally planned donation? Obviously this logic is not proof of anything, but if I were in his shoes and found them unwilling, i probably would have given them a few coins and sent them on their way, rather than the significant donation he ended up giving.

I dont know what his goal was, but it is troubling that there are still people, despite all the Jewish community has experienced in recent years in LA, NY and NJ, who are willing to try to pull such scams. And Kol Hakavod to Lemaan Achai for withstanding what was probably a reasonably difficult temptation. He might not have been tempted at the time, but he probably had second thoughts afterwards, thinking how much more he could raise if he did this or that. Yet he refrained. And Kol Hakavod to Rav Chaim, the rav of Lemaan Achai for his personal addition, teaching an important lesson.

The most ridiculous thing happened today in Israeli politics.

Esterina Tratman, a Member of Knesset from the Yisrael Beiteinu party, was recently selected to be the new Minister of Tourism. She is a controversial figure to begin with, considering her outspoken opinions on the Arab sector in Israel.

Yesterday it became apparent that Tratman filed a claim with the courts that due to a traffic accident she has memory problems along with a physical disability. By law she is not allowed to work more than 4 hours per day. People are up in arms over the fact that this has been revealed now, as she is being appointed to the very important post of Minister of Tourism.

The bigger issue that broke today is her level of education. She informed the press during an interview yesterday that she holds a bachelors degree in Economics and Marketing and a masters degree in Business Administration.

I guess she assumed the press would not check, but they did. They today announced that she has no degrees and was not a registered student in any of the universities she claimed she graduated from. She never went to college, despite her claims otherwise.

To be honest, her lack of education does not really bother me. True, I would hope our leaders would be educated, but we already have another minister (Science, Culture and Sport) with no formal education, and it would not be the end of the world if she too had no formal education. Maybe she is extremely talented and experienced and would function fine despite no education. She obviously is talented, as she is one of the leaders of one of the, recently, more successful political parties.

The fact that she lied to the press about it, claiming she has higher degrees when she doesn not and it is so easily verifiable, makes her look ridiculous and as someone with bad judgement. How is it that they could not find someone reasonably honest (as politicians go) to appoint?

update - it is getting even more confusing. It turns out now she has a BA but not an MBA, but it seems she also lied about some other filings.... What a crazy story!