Last year there was an incident in Jerusalem among the "Cult of the Veiled Ladies" in which the police raided the wedding of a 17 year old groom and a 13 year old bride. Such weddings of underage minors are illegal. When the police raided the wedding, most of the people present scattered and ran off to avoid arrest, while the bride and some of her female escorts were detained for questioning. As well, the police raided the wedding before the ring was placed on the finger of the kalla.

The wedding was against the wishes of the father, and he was not present and was supposedly not even aware of it taking place. After this happened, the father went to a beis din in Jerusalem and asked what his daughter's status is - if married or not, does she need a formal divorce? can she later marry anyone, including a kohein?

The dayanim on the rabbinical court investigated the matter and questioned people whow ere present at the time. They were convinced that the halachic part of the wedding had not yet taken place before the police broke it up. As well, theysaid that the chosson, the young man standing beside her under the chuppa, had never before spoken to her at all, not a single word - not about the wedding/marriage and not about anything else. After discovering all this information, and upon further deliberation and debate, the rabbonim paskened that the young woman was not ever married and would be allowed to marry in the future without the need for a gett.

The beis din decided that she had a chuppa but no act of kiddushin, so she retains her status as being a single unmarried woman.

Another issue the beis din had to deal with was whether or not there was a "kol", public knowledge that she had been married. If such a kol goes out, it is enough to require a gett to dispel the rumors considering her married, even though she was not actually married. The beis din decided that while the wedding was the talk of the day around Israel and especially in her neighborhood of Mea Shearim, but they were actually talking about how the police raided the wedding and what happened and not about how she had actually married. Ergo, no formal divorce is needed even if just to dispel any rumors.

source: Ynet 

you know how when a bar mitzva boy gets called  "chassan habar mitzva"? for example, when getting his aliya to the torah on his bar mitzva shabbos...

well, now you have a bar mitzva boy who was really also a chassan, and not just given the title for his bar mitzva...

According to Kikar, a young boy in Mea Shearim got married the day after turning bar mitzva. This 13 year old boy in Mea Shearim married a beautiful 12 year old kalla. I don't know if in this community they consider 8th grade to be kollel, or if he now has to leave school and find a kollel that he can learn in, or if maybe he will go out to work...or maybe his wife will support him in kollel for a few years in her work as a teacher or a programmer...

The young couple's families are from the burqa/shawl ladies community, and while they marry their children off very young, members of the community say this was unusual even for their community and most of them opposed it. The father himself was out of town and only learned of it upon his return. He got upset when discovering what happened and was arrested for his behavior, but then released shortly after.

Mazel tov!

Last year a Burqa Lady was shot when she went to the Kotel to daven. When she was asked to reveal her face and identify herself, she kept going towards the Kotel. She either ignored the security guards or did not hear them, but either way they suspected she might be a terrorist and a policeman shot her in the legs after she also ignored a warning shot in the air.

I can't imagine she did not hear a warning shot (and the reports never said she is deaf) - so she must have intentionally ignored the warnings.

It turns out that since then, over the past year she has healed and has also, to the urging of her family, removed her burqa and revealed herself to the world. It seems she was so closed up in her burqa and little world, she lost all sense of communication with those around her. They convinced her of the danger involved, probably not too difficultly considering she was shot in the leg, and she has started to heal in that sense as well.
source: Mynet

I guess they found the one successful method of normalizing these women and getting them to remove their burqas. Unfortunately it involves a gun rather than persuasion.

Things are gearing up for the Yachad party - even the women are finally getting in on the action.

The "Women of Yachad" (coined just now, right here) are setting up their womens division. Kikar reports they had a meeting of womens campaign branch leaders.

As can be seen in the picture, the women, who seem to like to sit very tightly and close with each other, include [at least one] a woman from the "kat hashalim" - the cult of veiled women who wear shals, considered on the more extreme end of the Haredi community.



I find it interesting that such a woman, who focuses so strongly on tzniyus and the need for women to not be seen, to be out as little as possible, would throw herself into being involved in politics and campaigning.

On another note, I guess they need/want representation in the Knesset as well. Why not? They deserve to feel represented just like anyone else.

And on another note, if the kat hashalim women feel represented by Eli Yishai, can others really get their representation from the same people?

And on another note, they are part of the broad umbrella that Yachad is embracing. It is relatively unique of them to represent such a broad spectrum of religious Jewry, and why not also that extreme end of it?

a wedding of a young woman connected to the Kat HaShalim. you can tell which is the kallah by the white drapes over her rather than the standard black or navy blue drapes. For the full story of this wedding, check out Kikar

Plenty of people don't inoculate their children with vaccinations. I personally think they are fools (in this matter), but I don't think they are criminals.

A woman in Mea Shearim has come under fire for not inoculating her children. Somehow they also connected this to the fact that she is a member of the "kat haShalim" - the veiled women cult, as if that has any relevance. If it does have relevance, I am not aware of it. Plenty of people do not believe in the efficacy of inoculations without having any connection to the kat hashalim.

Plenty of people don't inoculate their kids, but what makes this case special is that in this case one of the sick children died of his flu. A neighbor realized something was wrong, seeing the baby listless, and it seems many in the family were ill at the same time, and called the paramedics.
(source: NRG)

According to Kikar, the case has gone to one where the security forces have now raided her house in Mea Shearim last night, only to find that the kids had been moved to an unknown location. It seems they decided on the operation after being told by neighbors that there is another sick child in the family that is not being taken care of.

Personally I think that the inoculation issue isn't the main issue. If a person thinks inoculations cause more harm than good, than they can go to doctors, they can go the alternative medicine path, the homeopathy, or use whatever methods such people use to keep their kids healthy. I think the bigger issue here is that the mother did not take her deathly ill kid to a doctor, she did not call the paramedics when it became necessary, and she could not even be found when the paramedics came to revive the child.

The fact that a person does not believe in the method of inoculations as being good care for their kids does not mean they are necessarily neglecting their children. If they are not inoculating their kids, they should be vigilant in using the alternative methods of maintaining the health of their children and preventing the major illnesses. If they do not use inoculations but also don't do anything else, that is neglect - perhaps abusive neglect, perhaps criminal neglect - and the fates of these children should not be left in the hands of such a person.

According to Bechadrei, the rabbonim of the Eida are also looking for them and have called for the kids to be removed from her care.

Yes! A way has finally been found to keep women at home and off the streets! No longer will women need, or be allowed, to walk outside! Finally our streets will be all-male, free of women and the pitfalls they bring.

According to NRG Yahadut, booklets were recently passed out to women, in Tel Aviv of all places, for the Haredi woman, called "The Guide to Kosher Parnassa", explaining and giving practical solutions of how to live successfully without stepping foot out on the city streets.

The explanation for this ridiculousness comes in the next paragraph when it is explained that the guide was published by an organization called "b'Nafsheinu" that is connected to the kat ha'shalim - the veiled-women cult people.

Here is my free-translation recap of the article:

According to the report,  the booklet has two sections - the first being divrei torah about the greatness of women who stay home, and the second being a practical guide how to overcome the seduction of going outside.

According to the booklet, Hashem wants women to hide herself, not just by dressing modestly but to actually  hide themselves as much as possible.
Before a woman goes outside, she should be doubly sure that she actually needs to, whether it is for going to the supermarket, or taking the kids out for a walk. It says that it is always best for a woman to sit at home and never go outside. Every time a woman goes out of her house, she puts herself at risk - perhaps at that moment she is missing her chance to fulfill her mission in this world, and therefore best not to go out at all.

Going out is dangerous, and much more so when it is done regularly on a daily routine. And going out with jewelry is much worse. Working in a workplace with men, even "kosher men", causing great difficulties, even if not wearing jewelry, especially today when employers often demand their employees come to work looking respectful, so that adds on to all the other problems.

Advice given includes that if a woman should need to go out, she should find alternatives - make ones purchases via the telephone, send children to their schools via paid carpools, one can hear shiurim from home, pay bills by credit card, and these should be done even if it will incur greater expense. Similar to the Lulav and Esrog that cost a lot of money, as well as other mitzvis that we know how to invest in hiddur.

The guide also says that if a woman has to go out, it is prohibited to wear jewelry, not to use perfume or makeup, and obviously not to wear any skin-colored clothing. Avoid any deodorants or things that cause a nice smell, no soap or shampoo that smell nice.

I don't know where they get this stuff from, but more power to 'em! The more they stay indoors, the less we will have to see them!

It seems as though everything the members of the "kat ha'shalim", the veiled women cult, do, or anything that happens to them, makes the news.

A dispute, like similar disputes that happen regularly, get blown up when one of the member is a member of the kat ha'shalim. A domestic dispute, something that happens in many divorce or separation situations, gets taken out of context. I imagine if one was spotted picking her nose it would also make the news. There is some sort of fascination with what is going on among the kat ha'shalim people.

Bechadrei is reporting on what should simply be looked at as a domestic dispute. A couple is separated, due to her involvement with the kat ha'shalim. he is a member of a "well-known" hassidus in jerusalem, and is living there, while she is a member of the kat ha'shalim and is living in Bet Shemesh. She had the 5 kids with her, but members of his family came in the night and "kidnapped" them.

The families situation is known to the courts and to social services, and may have to step in and get involved to resolve this situation.

If not for the fact that she is a kat ha'shalim, there is nothing unusual in this story. Unfortunately it happens all the time, to people affiliated, and to people unaffiliated, with all sorts of groups and communities..

Picture Of The Day

this is the picture of the chuppa at a recent wedding among the extremist "kat ha'shalim" (veiled ladies' cult). The current trend among them and some other extremist people is to have a mechitza under the chuppa. When the groom needs to place the ring on his bride's finger, she sticks her finger through the cloth partition.

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After yesterday's crazy divorce story, I found another one for you today.

Truth is, this is not really a story about divorce but about how crazy some people have gotten about tzniyus, and how they have distorted Judaism in the name of tzniyus.

Bechadrei is reporting on a recent wedding in Mea She'arim. The wedding was small, because the groom's family opposed the wedding, on account of the wife and her family being crazy, to put it lightly.

The chosson had recently been married, but unfortunately it did not work out. When he tried to divorce her, she refused to accept the get. He responded by arranging a hetter meia rabbonim, the allowance to remarry by getting 100 rabbis spanning 3 different continents to sign a document allowing him to remarry despite the ban on marrying more than one wife. This is a rare arrangement, and is only done, even then only rarely, when he is willing to give his wife the get but she refuses to accept it. Anyway, she refused the get and he arranged to be allowed to remarry.

In his recent wedding, this past Friday, he married a woman who was marrying for the first time. Gilad Shalit was kept inside for over 5 years. This girl, the bride, had been kept in her house, by her parents, for 1.5 years because they considered it a tzniyus problem for her to go outside.

She was kept indoors for one-and-a-half years!

She could not go outside because of tzniyus concerns, despite the fact that her family is a card carrying member of the burqa people - the kat ha'shalim. Meaning even though they wear shals and burqas, it still isn't tzniyus to go outside!

The chosson's grandfather, a respected rav in Jerusalem, said, when he heard about her family, that when one sees a woman wearing a shal he must spit at her, as it is the sitra achra.

As well, also because of concerns of tzniyus, the kallah's father did not go to the wedding of his daughter. Rather, he spent the entire weekend in Meron.

This chosson picked some real winners!