one topic not discussed that I have heard from rabbonim to be very relevant in this discussion is that if "shatfa nahar" - once something is available on the internet it might be like a river having washed an object away which causes automatic yiush...

Zaakah, no relation to Zaka (the org of volunteers of people who clean up body parts in the aftermath of terror attacks and handle other forms of kvod hameis issues around the world, is an organization that helps survivors of sexual violence and seeks justice for them and advocates for survivors of child sexual abuse.

For years, ever since the Internet bans have become a thing with conferences and rallies and asifas and whatnot, we have all been joking about using an "Internet Goy" for your Internet needs. I have personally even been the "internet goy" for the occasional neighbor or school teacher who needed some Internet usage but did not have their own access...

I love the ad posted in the NY/NJ area for this new business/service being offered.. a few of my friends posted it online...

Kikar is reporting that the Ministry of Communications has announced that it is planning to shut down all the "news lines". These are phone lines that people can call to and hear all the latest news, breaking news, updates and whatnot. These are very popular in the Haredi community among people who do not have internet access and don't listen much, if at all, to the radio. You call a number and then hear the news items read out over the phone. There are many different news lines.

According to the Ministry of Communications, these lines are taken advantage of and people stay on the lines for a long time and the phone companies have complained about losing a lot of money because of them.

On the other hand, for many people this is the one way, or the easiest way and most kosher way, for them to get the news. Cutting them off means they won't be updated. Community leaders are worried that cutting off such a service will force a lot of people to get access to the Internet in order to stay informed, and this is something they really don't want to do, but might be "forced" into it.

While I personally think people need to get with the times and not complain that an offered service is anti-haredi (or anti-whatever) just because it is offered only using the latest technologies and not compatible with non-kosher phones or lifestyles that choose to not make it available, in this case I see no reason for these news lines to be canceled. If the phone companies are really complaining about losing money on these lines, they should charge more. Why shut them down? Just like I pay for Internet access, if someone else wants to get his news read to him over the phone let him pay for that whatever the cost is. The phone company does not need to lose money to provide the service, but I think it is reasonable to charge a fair price for such a service.

I also think that the community leaders who run these lines are thinking very poorly of their community. If someone is ideologically opposed to Internet use, will he really start using it just because these phone lines shut down? I think it is far more likely that some alternate service will be created in some way, but it seems pretty weak to me to assume everyone will suddenly cave and get Internet just because the news line is shut down.

I am a little upset right now about the Herzl lady.

If you haven't noticed, a woman, seemingly from the weaker society of Israel, got herself caught on camera in the middle of a video documentary or news report being recorded at the Kotel. As she steps in front of the camera she turns and calls out looking for Herzl and calls out for Herzl a few times until she notices she is on camera and rushes out of the frame. The reporter and camerman then start laughing about what just happened.

The video has gone viral, and, the internet being the internet, has also spawned parodies sticking "Herzl lady" in the most bizarre scenes around the world, while the entire country laughs at her.

I think I have a pretty good sense of humor. I can joke about almost anything and can laugh at jokes about almost anything. But I don't like this culture of shaming of individuals who did no wrong, this picking an individual and laughing at them, for nothing. Herzl lady did nothing wrong besides for stepping in front of a camera at the Kotel that she didn't notice, and now she seems to have to lock herself in her apartment because she can't go outside as everyone is laughing at her and approaching her and bothering her.

There, I have said my piece and now I am a spoilsport.

The Director of the Postal Authority has announced the list of cities receiving the most packages of products ordered online...

Out of all the Israeli cities, Bnei Brak has come in 5th!
source: Kikar

Bnei Braq, the most Haredi city in all of Israel. Bnei Braq residents receive the fifth highest number of packages ordered online from abroad.

The Haredi battle against the Internet has really been a major success!

The fight by Haredi leadership against Internet use among the Haredi public is picking up a notch.

According to Kooker, despite their best efforts with campaigns and protests and rallies, the use of smartphones, and internet in general (i.e. via computers) continues to spread even in the Haredi community.

To that end, they are picking up the campaign and going to run campaigns in communities around Israel against the dangers of technology. The two interesting points in the upcoming campaign are:
1. they are going to stop focusing on smartphones and expand the reach to laptops. From now on, people who need computers (to write their divrei torah) and are given a hetter to use one will only be given a hetter to use laptops that will be kosher laptops -like they made kosher phones with certification, they'll do the same for laptops.
2. members of Haredi communities will be asked by the rav of the community to sign that they do not have smartphones, and if they do have internet access what the purpose is. The rabbonim will also somehow be authorized to verify that and ensure reports signed on were true and not falsified.

Regarding #1 with kosher laptops... somebody (an askan) is going to make a lot of money disabling internet access on thousands of laptops or manufacturing laptops for this market. Where do I sign up to do the work and get authorized to issue the kosher stickers? The askan can take his percentage, but I'd like to make some money off it too.

I cannot imagine DELL, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba. Fujitsu. Asus or any other company agreeing to make a few thousand laptops with less technology, and to keep making new ones each year.

Regarding #2, they tried that, or something very similar, already in Bet Shemesh a year and a half ago. The Haver program was sold with a massive marketing campaign, and when it came down to reality, it fizzled out. I don't know if they just didn't get enough people willing to sign or if they lost their energy and just didn't manage it very well in the follow-up or if they just weren't capable of doing what they had planned at the time, but they disappeared very quickly.

I would suggest that if the campaigns until have not really been effective, as they admit the use continues to spread, perhaps more of the same, doubling down with the same strategy, is not what should be done. I  think the campaigns have been pretty successful - having a kosher phone is standard in the Haredi community, bu tit seems likely that many either ignore it or buy a smartphone in addition to the kosher phone, so while an askan somewhere is making his money, the people still have their internet access.

So, instead of doubling down, and trying to do the same thing with computers, in what will surely be another failure (assuming the first really was a failure of sorts), maybe it is time to try a new approach.

Instead of ramming this down the communities throats and banning and threatening, and all that, maybe they should try something else. If they asked me, I'd suggest education. Teach the community to use the Internet responsibly. With filters as well. Maybe there are other ideas people have. Maybe they need to bang their heads together and come up with a new idea, but when something doesn't work, doing it even more usually isn't the solution.

Kikar Shabbat, a Haredi news site, has come up with a new way of generating advertising revenue, and it is by accusing some readers of theft.

When surfing to the Kikar Shabbat website yesterday I received an unusual popup message. It said that the system has detected that I am using ad-blocker software to block their advertisements. The notice adds that I am trying to surf the Kikar website while transgressing an issur d'oraita.



That is pretty serious stuff.

On the one hand the entire Internet is assur, on the other hand using the Internet without seeing Kikar ads is also assur. damned if you do, damned if you don't!

The message offered two options to the surfer - one button offered instructions for disabling the ad-blocker. The other button stated "I want to continue to steal".

I clicked on both buttons out of curiosity. Clicking on the "cancel ad blocker" button took me to a page with instructions how to exclude their site. Clicking on the "I want to steal" button yesterday took me to a page to fill out a form for interest in vocational courses and Nahal Haredi. Today they changed it and it takes me to a page explaining why it is theft, and then brings sources for how serious a transgression theft is.



Pretty serious stuff.

it seems using filters is assur. I guess they are promoting unfiltered internet. I wonder which gadol this charedi-oriented website asked about this...

head of the Central Electoral Committee made a decision yesterday that was relevant perhaps 15 years ago, maybe more.

Justice Salim Jubril decided that Netanyahu's speech before the House of Representatives would be allowed to be broadcast in Israel, but only with a 5-minute delay. The 5-minute delay would allow them to view it and edit out any election propaganda, if Netanyahu should try to take advantage of the opportunity.

Today, with the internet, and live feeds of streaming video, this decision is supremely irrelevant. If I cannot watch it unedited on IBA or Channel 10 or whatever other channel there is in Israel I will go to the Fox News website or MSNBC or CNN or any of a hundred other websites and pull up the live feed. The only people who will be affected by this decision are the handful of people who do not have Internet access and are interested enough to try to watch the broadcast live on television.

The days of censorship are long over in a free and democratic country/ In a place like China or Dubai perhaps they can block the streams and prevent any given speech from being broadcast before they edit it out. In a developed country like Israel, they'd be better putting their efforts to better use no other issues and not waste their time any longer on this type of pointless narishkeit.

Buying online is about to get cheaper in Israel..

According to Globes, Finance Minister Yair Lapid yesterday signed an order exempting personal imports from customs taxes for purchases up to a maximum of $500 (up from the previous exemption of up to $325).

VAT isn't being changed, and will continue to be tacked on to purchases above $75.

Lapid says this is another step in lowering the cost of living.

The exemption from customs will be applied as long as 3 conditions are met:
1. the import is done via mail messenger or airmail.
2. the product is meant for personal use (and not for re-sale)
3. the price of the product is not greater than $500

The exemption will not apply to tobacco or alcohol products. It will apply to the most common internet orders of clothes (normally having a 6% customs rate), shoes (12%), and cosmetics and toiletries (12%).

I expect that this will cause an increase of Internet purchases of small electronics - digital cameras, computer accessories, etc.

You can sell your chametz online, you can donate for kapparos online, you can buy anything in the world online and now you can even register for marriage online in Israel!

it seems to me that opening marriage registrations online makes the entire debate about open registration around the country, allowing people to register in whatever city they want, fairly moot.

According to Srugim, the Religious Council of Tel Aviv has launched a system for registering online for marriage. (if you are curious or want to register, the Rabbanut site has the details, and they send you from there to the registration site). A couple wanting to wed can submit all the necessary forms online. Not only that, but the witnesses that need to go to the Rabbanut to "testify" that each party is Jewish and single will no longer need to go to the Rabbanut offices to do so - they can give their testimony now using Skype!

Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rav Eli Ben Dahan said they are working to make the religious services accessible and reliable for everyone and are using the most technologically advanced tools in the world to do so (that might be true, but they can definitely use a better web designer)..

This is great, in my opinion. Everything should be made easier, less bureaucracy, and should be available online when feasible.

About two years ago the Knesset passed a law regulating the alcohol industry and their marketing capabilities. According to the new law, alcohol companies are no longer allowed to advertise on billboards and buses, along with being limited in various forms of media. At the time, in the committee sessions dealing with putting together the details of the law, it was decided not to include internet-based advertising in the law.

More recently, this past July, the committee included the Internet in its final set of details.

The law has now gone into effect, but the brewers and winemakers of Israel have been working to thwart it. They have been running a protest for the past couple of weeks. Now they, in coordination with a number of bodies and organizations, have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to force Minister of Health Yael German to remove the Internet from the included list of regulated media for this law.

The appeal is based on the claim that German overreached by including the Internet in the list of regulation when she had only been empowered to regulate the advertising in other media, not including Internet. As well, the claim is that it hurts businesses, especially small breweries and wineries and boutique breweries. It also doe snot apply to foreign manufacturers who will still be able to market to the Israeli market, on the Internet, and will only hurt local business.

The following video was made to oppose the ban on Internet advertising..


Manufacturers will not be able to advertise their companies on Facebook, twitter, other social media nor advertise on websites. This will be very harmful to them. It will likely also harm the first Israeli whiskey distillery, Milk and Honey, though they already successfully raised their funding on Indiegogo - so at least that is not at risk.

Are we coming to the end of the days of unfiltered Internet?

According to a law proposed by MK Orli Levy Abuksis (Likud Beyteynu) and MK Penina Tamno-Shata (Yesh Atid), Internet Service Providers would be obligated to offer, free of charge, filtering of any harmful content - porn, violence, etc.

The proposal was actually toned down from its original format. Originally the proposal was to require ISPs to set the filtering automatically, and it would be incumbent upon the customer to explicitly say that he wants no filtering. After complaints regarding issues of freedom of information and privacy, it was changed to the current format in which the ISP will have to tell customers about the option, but filtering will not be the automatic default. The ISPs will also be obligated to advertise the availability of the option of filtering.

The law was submitted and passed its initial reading last week.
(source: Ynet)

I don't think this will put the filtering companies out of business, nor will it satisfy those behind bans of the Internet, filtered or unfiltered. They will say the concerns of secular people running filtering systems are not going to be the same concerns of religious and/or haredi people requiring filtering. Any filtering down by a secular company for secular people, will still allow content that is inappropriate for haredi or religious people. I don't think we will see, even if this law passes, the end of Internet Rimon or the end of the Haredi internet ban any time in the near future. At least not because of this.

Will downloading music and movies from the Internet, in Israel, soon become legal?

MK Meir Shitreet (Hatnuah) along with other MKs have proposed a bill that would make it legal for home users to download and copy movies and, songs from the Internet and copying disks. The law, if poassed, would only make it legal for personal use, but not for selling. The balance of this law is that it would add a tax to manufacturers and importers of equipment used for making copies of disks. Money from this new "tax" would go into a fund that would pay out to musicians and producers.

This law has been formulated in coordination with AKUM -the organization that works to protect the rights, copyrights, of musicians and producers.

This was reported this morning in the hard copy of Maariv newspaper today. Now online on their website..

The halachic position of such downloads has been debatable until now. I have  heard a wide range of piskei halacha on the topic. I think that this law would make the entire discussion moot. For those who say it is a halachic problem to download, I think it is only because legally the music/movies are copyright protected. Once it is legal to download and therefore the artists expect it to be downloaded and know they are getting their money from a specific source, I see no reason for those opinions to remain with a halachic issur.

The anti-internet and anti-smartphone people had their big rally yesterday in Bet Shemesh...

The kid on the poster looks like a girl, but I imagine it is a boy pre-upsherin. Otherwise yatza scharam b'hefsedum.

The sign has a kid pleading for people to daven for him that his father should throw out his iphone and his internet, and that he should not destroy the family.

photo credit: Yaakov Lederman

for the past few days they've been driving around Bet Shemesh in cars and blasting the following recording on megaphones of a kid crying out that he is drowning and he is burning due to his father having internet in the home.:




They also put up pashkevilim around town on Friday announcing that the rabbonim will announce on Shabbos about people participating in the rally. They needed to announce the coming announcement.

I don't know how many people showed up to their protest.. I have not yet seen any news reports about it..

The world is made up of all types of people. Somehow we get a high concentration of a certain type in Bet Shemesh.

Can a smartphone be "kosher"? Can a "kosher phone" include Internet access? Until now the answer has been no, but that soon may change.

According to Bechadrei, the Rabbinic Committee for Communications has been working to release a smartphone that will allow access to GPS, email and access to certain necessary services such as banking sites, government sites and others. It still will not allow usage of SMS.

For most people who need it, Internet access has been allowed, at least in the framework of business needs in an office, conditional upon using appropriate filters and an ISP that does its own filtering. No solution has yet been provided for mobile access, which has become, and is continually becoming more and more an integral part of our business and personal worlds.

The new smartphone soon to be released will not allow general Internet access. No recreational use will be approved for the phone. The smartphone is being designed and manufactured by Orange, and it will provide the ability to keep up with technology and the needs of business, while not compromising values.. The phone is being tested by Netiv and technicians, and they are working out what needs to be on the phone, and what features must be removed from the phone. There is competition between Orange and Netiv as to who will get the rights to market and distribute the new phone.

Furthermore, Bechadrei further reports, models of the new smartphone were brought to Rav Chaim Kanievsky for him to see, and to get his thoughts. Rav Chaim said about the idea that the job of the committee is to find smart solutions, so the whole thing won't become a situation of a decree the public can't uphold. "What is allowed - there is no reason to prohibit." When they find a way of providing the things that are allowed, people stop needing the prohibited devices and inappropriate content.

Little by little...

In a provocative response to Rav Eli Ben-Dahan's words about homosexuals yesterday, MK Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz has announced that he will be performing symbolic wedding ceremonys for same-gender couples on the steps of the Rabbanut of Tel Aviv.

Ben-Dahan, former head of the Rabbanut Beit Din of Tel Aviv and current candidate on the Bayit Yehudi list, said that homosexual marriage is the recipe for the destruction of the Jewish nation. While he spoke about human rights, he also spoke about the importance of the family unit and how such marriage brings about the destruction of the Jewish people, by destroying the family unit.

In response, Horowitz is arranging his symbolic ceremonies outside the Rabbanut Beit Din.
(source: Walla News)

While a symbolic wedding won't give these people much in the way of elevated rights beyond what they currently have, at least they will have free wi-fi while holding these weddings, and will be able to update their Facebook statuses and upload pictures of the weddings, for free!

According to Kikar, as part of their attempt to improve service to the public, Bezeq has just installed WiFi at all the Rabbanut Beit Din locations.

The project really began as an installation of a private network connecting all the batei din to make it easy and efficient for the dayanim to locate file cases. In addition, they are installing stations by which visitors will be able to see their own case files while waiting. As part of all this, Bezeq also installed wi-fi for the visitors to make avail of.

So, if the homosexual couples get nothing else out of their symbolic ceremonies, at least they will have free WiFi!