Walla News reports on a crazy story with MK Ahmed Tibi accusing a delivery guy of stealing his phone at a gas station..

Chaim Dayan from Tiberias, the manager of a delivery company, was on his way back up north to Tiberias last week when he stopped off at the gas station near the Glilot Junction.

Dayan says he recognized Tibi and nodded to him, noticing the suspicious glances thrown in his direction. Dayan also says he noticed Tibi's assistants photographing his car, but didn't attribute anything important to it, as he had a "for sale" sign on the car.

Dayan says he soon after drove off on his way back to Tiberias, when a few minutes later he received a phone call from a private, blocked, number. He says he recognized Ahmed Tibi's voice on the other end of the line, and Tibi was accusing him of having stolen his phone and was demanding it be returned. Dayan says at first he thought it was a prank, and he laughed, but Tibi responded that it is no joke, he is serious, and Dayan had better return his phone immediately.

Dayan explains that Tibi insisted Dayan had stolen his phone while he was in the bathroom. Dayan denied it and agreed to wait for them to catch up to him - he had driven as far as Kfar Shmaryahu at that point, and he would allow them to search his car for the phone to be convinced that he had not taken it.

He says Tibi's driver got out, intimidated and threatened him to give it back and end things pleasantly. Dayan invited them to search his car, and no phone was found. He decided to leave, and as he was getting in the car, Tibi himself banged on the car window and told him to return the phone and end things pleasantly.

Dayan's lawyer says he is filing a complaint with the ethics committee of the Knesset against Tibi, and might file a libel suit against Tibi. He already filed a complaint with the police against Tibi for having harassed him.

Tibi as well filed a complaint with the police against Dayan. Tibi also claims the manager of the gas station witnessed the theft. ..

What a crazy story! Though, I think I am most impressed that MK Ahmed Tibi uses gas station bathrooms.

I don't know why I feel joy seeing this news item, but I am sure there are many more like me..

Some baggage handler at Ben Gurion airport was caught on video stealing from the luggage he was handling, and has been arrested. He used stolen credit cards to buy stuff in duty free, and to fill his car with gas. During interrogation he admitted what he had done.
(source: Ynetnews)

I am sure anybody who has traveled only to find stuff missing from his suitcase will also feel happy about this discovery, even though he knows he won't get his stuff back. There is just too big of a dark hole form the time a person parts with his luggage until the time he gets it back, and there has been no way to know what is happening to one's stuff when n that black hole.

I saw a very interesting psak written on a sign in shul (it is an advertising sign that has a section with a discussion of halachic issues), and Bechadrei is reporting on the same psak.

An incident happened in which someone collecting tzedakka money abroad for an Israeli yeshiva was mugged. The driver had dropped him off at the guest house where he was staying, and on his way up with his case containing the money he had collected 2 muggers attacked him and ran off with his case.

He called for help and people from around came over to assist him. He pointed at the muggers running away and said throwing his hands up in despair that he has been destroyed, all the money is lost.

A few of these avreichim chased after the muggers, and actually caught them and obtained the case of money which was returned to the grateful meshulach.. One of the avreichim mentioned, explaining how much of a chessed it really was, that because the meshulach had given up hope, really when they retrieved the case of money they could have kept it for themselves. Giving it back to the meshulach was really a tremendous chessed.

Upon the meshulach's return to Eretz Yisrael, he went to Rav Wosner to ask about that.

Rav Wosner paskened that it was not a chessed, but was rightfully his. his despair had no affect on the status of the money, because he had no authority to give up hope. The money was not his that his despair would change its ownership status. Because the money belonged to the yeshiva, only the owners of the money, the yeshiva administration, can give up hope and make it hefker, but because they had not even known about it, the money belonged to the yeshiva all along and those avreichim would not have been allowed to keep it.

It is not addressed in the psak, but I wonder about the percentage taken by the meshulach. if he takes 40% (or whatever the actual number is), perhaps 40% of the money returned should be considered a chessed. It might depend on whether all the money goes to the yeshiva, and then the yeshiva pays the collector his commission, or if the collector takes his commission off the top.

The Yated floated an amazing new concept that really cracked me up when I first heard of it (thanks, TS).

A group running a gmach from Jerusalem has created a new foundation, called "V'Heishiv". The purpose of the new foundation is to give an opportunity to the community of God-fearers, as it provides an opportunity to return debts, before the Day of Judgement - debts that are unknown in nature, and for children to give merit to dead parents who might have passed away leaving open debts.

What they do is, if someone thinks he might have a debt that he cannot repay, he is in a bind as he wants to repay his debt, he does not want to hold money that is not his, yet he has no way to do so. That person will now be able to give an estimated amount of money, enough that he would be comfortable thinking he has covered his possible debt, and deposit that sum with this new foundation, VHeishiv. VHeishiv will receive the money, with a kinyan, on behalf of the real owner, despite the owner being unknown. They can do this, seemingly, because anyway the owner, if such a debt ever existed in the first place, by now does not expect to get it repaid ever. This becomes a merit for them, as the money will be used for lending interest-free, and whatever else (presumably mitzvos) the gmach funds, and eventually, when Eliyahu arrives bearing the news of Mashiach's immediate arrival, Eliyahu will clarify who owes whom money and the money will be given to the rightful owners. They, by doing this, are saving you from possible theft.

The article in the Yated lists a bunch of rabbis who supported the idea of the foundation.

So, if you want to be machmir with your money, if you think you might owe somebody money but just cannot remember who it is or how much, just send the money to this group and they will hold it for you until Eliyahu arrives.

I love it!

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An office of Kupat Ha'Ir Bnei Braq was broken into on Shavuos. During the break-in, a safe with a lot of money was taken.

According to Bechadrei, an Arab worker of a baker below the office had heard the noise and called the police, who ignored him. He called a again a short while later when he saw them getting into their car to make their escape. The Arab employee also went in the morning to the home of the administrator of the office and to one of the shuls, but he waved it off as well not understanding what he was talking about.

The crooks tried to steal the safe getting it down 3 flights in the elevator, but the elevator got stuck. They broke out and carried it down instead. The police tracked them down near the house of the owner of the car, but they escaped (without the safe), and were only just now captured and arrested.

I'd say the events happened like this:
Kupat Ha'Ir at first did not donate enough to the kupa, but the criminals did. That si why they successfully stole the safe and got away.
But then, the Kupa donated more in order to get the safe back, and the crooks did not donate, so they were caught and the safe was returned.

See - donating to Kupat Ha'Ir does work!
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Lag b'Omer is already a distant memory, but Bechadrei just publicized an interesting psak issued by Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, the rav of the Ramat Elchonon neighborhood of Bnei Braq.

The question was brought to Rav Zilbershtein by a fellow who had been invited by a group of boys to be honored by leading the lighting of their bonfire on Lag b'Omer night. When he got to the bonfire, he saw palettes of wood along with good quality beams. It was clear to him that the palettes had been taken form stores, and the other wood from building sites. While it is possible that the owners had forgone their ownership of all this wood, he still suspected that some of it might be outright theft.

This fellow asked Rav Zilbershtein if he would be allowed to light the bonfire in this situation?

Rav Zilbershtein's response was that it is not really a problem, as the wood had been hefker and the owners had given up hope. However, it still remains a problem that by his participation he is encouraging them to do something that is inappropriate. Therefore, Rav Zilbershtein paskened, that he is not allowed to light the bonfire so as not to encourage them and strengthen their hands. he added that the fellow should gather the boys together and have them "testify" as to how they obtained the wood.

Comments:
1. I am not sure what this testimony doe. I can only see it helping if they were above the age of bar mitzva. if they were younger, they aren't qualified to testify.
2. Even if by then the owners of the wood had given up hope of ever retrieving the wood, the boys took the wood before the owner gave up hope. They stole the wood outright (on that assumption that it was actually stolen), and therefore the fact that the owner later gave up hope should not make a difference.
3. If what they did was ok because the wood was hefker, then how is he encouraging them, by his participation, to steal more wood in the future?



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The level of "bus fare avoidance" on the mehadrin lines is in the news again.

The supporters of the mehadrin bus lines every now and again publish advertisements reminding, or encouraging, riders to be sure to pay the bus fare even when they get on at the back of the bus. There are regular complaints about the high percentage of riders who use the cover of the mehadrin bus line honor system to ride without paying. At a transportation committee meeting in the Knesset two years ago the director of Superbus claimed that on mehadrin bus lines 30% do not pay. While that number seems impossibly high to me, that is what Balilius claimed at the time.

In this past week's Chadash newspaper, the issue came up again. Superbus drivers regularly catch people who did not pay. They decided to make an example out of someone they repeatedly have caught not paying when getting on the bus. They figure, they say, that they have been screaming until they are blue in the face to no avail, and if they now make an example of someone it will go a long way to ensuring riders pay.

How are they making an example of one rider?

Superbus is suing a female passenger that did not pay when she got on the bus using the back door. Superbus has installed "smart card readers" next to the back door for the "mehadrin" buses and by the honor system riders boarding in the back are meant to swipe their card. The article says they plan on suing for thousands to tens of thousands of shekels for damages.

Superbus responded, when asked, saying that they spent a lot of money installing systems to make it possible, all out of desire to respect the wishes of the community that wanted it, while trusting that the riders in the haredi community would be careful to pay. After investing a lot of money in machines that are easy to use, instead of making it easier for everyone involved, it has become a source of a breach in the system, allowing people to not pay and causing them a lot of loss of fees and has become a tremendous bother for them.

Superbus has admitted that the lawsuit being filed is in order to teach a lesson so that others will begin paying and not be prone to such suits of their own. Riding without paying is illegal and each time it is done it is subject to a fine worth thousands of shekels. Suing one person, they say, will hopefully cause others to decide to start paying for their rides.

Who would have ever thought that riding with separate seating was more important than theft? With the knowledge that this has been going on for years and all their encouragement to pay, a significant enough percentage of people (whatever the actual percentage is, it is clearly significant enough) still do not, the rabbonim and askanim should simply cancel the mehadrin lines. They should say that enabling theft is not an acceptable byproduct of sitting with gender-segregation, and if people are going to continue not paying for their rides they will make everyone get on in the front of the bus and pay the driver directly.

We don't blow shofar when Rosh Hashana falls out on Shabbos out of concern of one ignorant fellow that might carry the shofar in a place he isnt allowed to. We have many takanos in our religion to prevent people from getting anywhere near sinning inadvertently, or to prevent temptation of sin. Here we have a situation that is causing the temptation of theft - if theft is rampant on these buses, the mehadrin status should be cancelled by the rabbonim who have backed them until now.

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And speaking of mikvas... here is a nice story of someone who sinned and repented in the mikvah.

One day, the safe in the mikvah was stolen, with about 1100 NIS in it. The investigation turned up nothing.

Five years later a repentant avreich turns up to the management and says he wants to pay in full for what he stole, including the cost of the safe. At the time he had been going through a bad period and had "turned off the path", but has since returned and the incident and what he had done is weighing heavily on his conscience.

The incident described within this post was told to me firsthand by the person to whom it happened and by whom it was witnessed. I am relating only the more relevant details..

A woman took a mehadrin bus yesterday. She got on the bus and sat in the first row of seats with her child. The bus was empty, so she figured it was ok, and the driver didn't care. She said she prefers the front because she gets nauseous in the back, and since the bus was empty...

At a much later stop, the bus suddenly filled up. It was near a simcha hall, so it was probably people getting out of the simcha, or just a very popular stop. One person made a big deal about her sitting in the front and pestered her until she moved. She moved further back, but at another stop this guy told all the women sitting in that area (the first section of the womens area) to move further back as there were some empty seats and if they moved back to fill those seats, the men could have more seats available and some standing would have seats.

There was a bit of a ruckus, with this guy making all the trouble. It seems he felt like he was in charge of the bus and passengers, as he kept moving people around telling them where to sit. When this woman got up to help a different woman with her kids, the guy took her kid and bag off the seat and put them on the floor, freeing up the seat for a man, forcing her to stand much of the way after that.

After that, as the bus came to the later stops and people were disembarking and the bus was less full, this guy was walking back and forth from the front to the back to talk to his wife and see the kids. This woman told me that he was the only man on the bus who spent considerable time walking through the womens section a number of times.

Lesson #1 - mehadrin buses are not about frumkeit. they are about control.

On the same bus ride, it seems that it is pretty common that people find ways to avoid paying the bus fare. Some get on the bus using the back door - as the driver has to open it for the women, and don't bother coming to the front to pay, hoping the driver hadn't seen them or hadn't noticed that they hadn't paid. Others blame the spouse - oh, I thought my husband was paying for me, or my wife was paying for me.

The bus driver already knows the tricks and knows people aren't paying. At some point he pulled the bus over to the side of the road, as he was about to leave the city, and walked up and down the bus asking people why they did not pay and demanding that they do. A large percentage of the people on the bus had all sorts of excuses, but once confronted by the driver, they all paid up.

Lesson #2 - under the guise of frumkeit, they are all just trying to cop free rides (aka theft), as it is easier to to do so on a mehadrin bus than a regular bus.

It is a shame that the Chief Rabbis have to bother themselves with putting out such statements, but, alas, such is the situation and state of affairs..

The Chief Rabbis of Israel put out a joint statement saying it is prohibited for people to steal and cut down sechach and aravos from trees that grow by the riverside around Israel. These are generally protected, and cutting the branches off is illegal, is theft, and damages the trees.

Also, one should refrain from buying aravos and sechach from merchants whom you suspect are selling merchandise from less than reputable sources...

The other day, the newspaper ran an article about a story of a reserve soldier that was called up to fight in Gaza. His apartment sat empty while he was in the army. Sure enough, the paper describes, his apartment is broken into, and the poor reserve soldier is robbed of all his photography equipment and his laptop and anything else valuable he had.

The story is shocking because here is a guy who dropped everything to go serve the country, and the robbers are so insensitive that they break into such a hero's apartment, taking advantage of his patriotism and his belief in serving the country, and rob him blind.

Yesterday I called me cousin to see what is going on and if he had been called up yet for reserve duty. Sure enough he had. We chat for a bit, and how surprised do you think I was when he told me that his apartment had been broken into???

I said, "Oh, I just read a similar story in the paper of a "miluimnik" whose apartment had been broken into..". he said that was him. When he heard from his friend who checked the apartment and found it ransacked, he called his brother who dealt with the police and contacted the newspaper.

He told me he has lost over 30,000 NIS worth of photography equipment and his laptop. And he keeps remembering other things that were in the apartment that he finds out were stolen. The crooks had plenty of time to clean the place out, as the place was empty of human activity from 10pm when his friend last checked the apartment until 11am the next day when his friend came back to check and found it cleared out!

I left my office today to go to our nearby factory. As I leave the building, I see right across the street a crowd of people with 4 police cars. A lot of activity. I hesitate, not knowing if their was a car accident there, if someone got hurt, a chefetz chashud (suspicious object that night be a bomb) or any one of many other possibilities.

I look around for a minute and decide to keep going. I walk through the crowd. Everyone is talking to each other. It was a crowd of about 20 people standing on a corner outside of the entrance to 3 different (open air)parking lots mingling with policemen. Then I see sitting on the side a woman who looks distraught. She has somebody holding a newspaper over her head to shield her from the light drizzle that had just begun and she was talkign to a policewoman.

As I passed by I looked and did not see her injured, as I still thought maybe a car had hit someone (and I missed the ambulances), and still had no idea what was going on.

I kept going and got to my location. Someone there who came in after me told me that there had been a robbery. The woman I had seen had been attacked and robbed of the merchandise (diamonds) she had been carrying.

There is all sorts of talk of an inside job. Why did the attacker pick her out of the crowd of people? It happened at a time when a lot of people show up for work and there were other people around. Was she randomly selected or did someone tell someone she was leaving the building with merchandise? Was she part of it? The goods were insured, so was an insurance scam involved? Nobody knew details, but lots of rumors are going around.

As I passed by the location again on my way back to the office, things had quieted down and the area had cleared. There was only one policeman left talking to a parking lot attendant about which was the attacker might have gone.

But as I am walking by, I start thinking. What would I have done had I been there 10 minutes earlier? If I walked out just in time to witness the event, what would I have done. The images roll through my mind like a Bruce Willis action film and I picture myself seeing the event unfold, realize what is happening and be aware enough to jump the guy and pound him until he is bloody and can't walk and hand him off to the police.

Then I think I probably would not have registered in my brain what was goign on until it was too late. Even if I had realized in time, I probably would have frozen. Even if not, I probably would have been too slow and stunned to actually even attempt to stop the guy and probably would have gotten hurt in the process of trying...

Ahhhh... our dreams are so much more pleasant. Do all guys imagine the Bruce Willis action movie reaction?