The IDF has released the following images taken from fighter jets over Egypt in the Six Day War.. They are amazing pictures of an historic time during battle..

A Mirage plane after taking down an enemy fighter

The sphinx in Egypt within sight of IDF troops

The Egyptian pyramid

Ezer Weizman, Moshe Dayan, and Motti Hod standing on the banks of the Suez Canal

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Rav Shmuel Eliyahu was asked by a young student if it is ok to upload class pictures to Facebook, without asking first, when the pictures include photos of other classmates and friends.

Rav Eliyahu's response was that it is never allowed to photograph someone without their express permission. Therefore one could also not publicize pictures of other people on Facebook without their permission.

Something I noticed... both Condoleeza Rice and soccer/football coach Avram Grant always look angry and upset.

Ben Pakua. A ben pakua is when you slaughter a cow and find a baby cow inside the womb of the slaughtered mother. The ben pakua is unique in the sense that it can be eaten without sehchita, as long as the shechita on the mother cow was kosher.

I spoke to a couple of people who raise cows, and to a couple of shochtim about the ben pakua, and was told by all of them that it is very rare nowadays to find. The reason it is rare is twofold:

1. Everything is very closely supervised by veterinarians and supervisors, while it used to not be.
2. Financial reasons - if a grower realizes he has a pregnant cow, he will not have it slaughtered. He will wait until the calf is born before he slaughters the cow, as that gives him another cow to raise which will be worth a lot more when it grows up, then it is worth at the time as a calf.

Being that it is rare, I was surprised when my nephew in Chicago sent me a message that his Rebbe somehow got hold of a ben pakua and brought it in to class for them to see (he has not yet told me how his rebbe got hold of it). I stole his pictures from his Facebook photo album and present some of them to you here.... Thanks Matis.


Warning: the following pictures might burn your eyes out of your head, if you are sensitive.

I received a series of pictures of a Haredi/Hassidic couple on the beach during Chol Hamoed Pessach. Originally I only posted the last picture - of him wearing the shtreimel on the beach in gotchkes. Now I decided to post the rest of them, blurring all the faces to keep his privacy.

There are two sites that have compiled pictures of the terror attack last night in which an Arab entered a prominent Yeshiva and shot the students, killing 8 and wounding many.

Take a look here and here.

The picture on the right side is a real picture of that angle. The picture on the left is the picture on the banners and posters being used by the Ministry of Education as part of the announcements of celebrations for the upcoming 60th birthday of Israel.

The differences are clear. They added an abbey that does not exist in real life in between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Burak Mosque. Also, the Al Burak Mosque was moved to be closer to the Dome. If you want to see for yourself, go to the Old City and take a look, or you can look at pictures taken that appear on Google Images...

NRG reports that a member of the Jerusalem City Council has lodged a complaint with the Ministry and with the PMO that corrupting reality and using this picture to display Jerusalem as a more international city is damaging to Jerusalem's standing as the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel. He calls upon them to remove the corrupted banner and replace it with one that accurately depicts the reality.

Yehuda Glick, Director of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, has issued a statement as well. He says, "It is a shame that those that run the offices responsible for the education of our children don't learn history and are ashamed of the Jewish roots of Jerusalem. The Jewish Nation is the only nation that prays towards the place of our Temple and pine to its rebuilding. Attempts to distort this will not change history.
It is interesting to see if the Ministry will put out banners of the Supreme Court with the Vatican and Sharia Court beside it. Alternatively they can create a banner with Mt. Herzl with the graves of George Habash and Stalin upon it, with a note that it is for sensitivity to all the nations."

Glick concludes, "It would have been appropriate for the 60th year celebrations of the State of Israel that the Education Ministry would create a banner displaying Temple Mount with the Beis Hamikdash upon it. At the same time they should also work to unite the people around what is really holy to the Jewish People."

The Ministry of Education issued a response that "Pictures for the 60th year of the State include central symbols of the State of Israel. The picture will be distributed among all the schools - public, religious, minority... [blah blah blah]

Regarding the specific issue: In order to give a visual appearance of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, holy to three religions, a Jerusalem abbey was added to the image. It is simply an act of design meant to give over that concept (Jerusalem being holy to three religions)"

I think they should have kept the image as real. if it does not display the concept desired, find a different picture. Once you start distorting pictures and reality, there is no end. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. People looking at the picture will receive an unreal impression, and if that can be justified, than who is to stop people form distorting other images and passing them off as real, with the sole excuse being that one wants to posit a specific concept.

Real must remain real.

Regarding what Yehuda Glick said, I think that he meant (and if not, this is my opinion) that Israel should be using a real image and not distorting it. Once we have decided that we want to publicize a specific concept and therefore distort the image to fit that concept, we should distort it in a way that is Jewish and gives over what is holy to the Jews.

Are you familiar with those signs on the backs of trucks and delivery vans that say "How am I driving? Call now at 123-4567"?

Well, here is a new variation of that sign....

For the Hebrew challenged among us, it says, "How am I behaving? Call now at 050-767204 (this must be an old picture because about 2 years ago Israel changed over the cellular system to use 10-digit phone numbers..)