The news is reporting that Yeshivat Merkaz Harav has decided to not invite Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to its annual Yom Yerushalayim celebrations, and is even considering inviting MK Benjamin Netanyahu, Head of the Opposition, in his place. 

Just over a week ago when the tiktokifada began, Rav Chaim Kanievsky reportedly instructed the communities under his guidance in southern Israel to continue their [Torah] studies as normal, despite the increase in violence, both from the tiktokifada (though he probably did not call it that) and from the renewed barrage of rockets from Gaza.

Ah, Ponevezh Yeshiva.

I heard today that Rav Malkiel Kotler, the Rosh Yeshiva of BMG, the lakewood Yeshiva, sad on Simchas Torah in his drasha, "A person who wants to wear a mask in the bais midrash is the same as a person who wants to open an umbrella on the teivah"

The numbers were bound to skyrocket quickly as the kids went back to school and the boys went back to yeshiva. I don't think anybody did not expect this to happen.

Some people can be very creative, and honestly some of the most creative people are in the leadership and askanus of the Haredi community.

According to Kikar, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe LiOn has appealed  to the Minister of Health and from the National Security Council to not shut down the yeshivas.

LiOn's request has two aspects to it.

The first request is to not shut down the yeshivas now. Lion says that shutting down the yeshivas will send all the yeshiva boys home to their families to spread the infections in small overcrowded apartments, in the shuls they will definitely go to, and on the streets as the kids look for things to do and for ways to keep busy. Lion says the yeshivas are functioning on the capsule system and can stay that way. Breaking that up and sending that home will spread the disease. The right thing to do would be to isolate the yeshivas the way they are now and keep them there.

The second request is to force the yeshivas to not shut down in two weeks for bein hazmanim. Rather, make them continue all the way until the Tishrei holidays with no break. Doing this will keep the boys off the streets and out of the communities an will prevent the spread of the virus.

Lion didn't come up with the first idea on his own. That has been said a number of times already by many. I don't know what the government plans to do, but it makes sense to keep the petri dishes closed off rather than open them up to exposing everyone back home. As much as the idea makes sense, Lion is just pandering to his voters by pushing this. he added nothing and he probably has little to no influence.

The second suggestion is one I had not heard before, and kudos to Moshe Lion for the idea/suggestion. It sounds like a good idea, especially with the complaining about the yeshiva system being so hurt by the situation with so many boys unable to return to yeshiva - this could strengthen the yeshivas and the boys in them, even if it does not help the boys that unfortunately have not been able to return. At least the yeshivas that are open can do something extraordinary.

We have seen groups of people doing activities in various places during Corona find ways around the rules, such as having a minyan but calling it a protest for George Floyd, having a children's street fair and turning it into a protest, and the like.

We haven't seen, that I know of, anyone running a business or event that is technically against the rules but calling it a yeshiva to get around the rules...

Until now.

Yaron Cohen, owner of Crossfit Bet Shean, a gym in Bet Shean has decided that instead of closing his gym, as per the new regulations, he will bring in shiurei torah to the gym and then 19 people will be allowed at the same time, and they can workout while listening to the shiurei torah. And I assume the word listening nit he previous sentence should be in quotation marks...

Actually, they arent actually shiurei torah in the traditional sense, but as he writes on his Facebook page:
The Torah - Crossfit
The God - the God of physical fitness
The Faith - physical fitness contributes to physical and mental health and saves people from disease

Basically, they are going to teach Crossfit as if it is Torah - not "as if" - they are saying it is Torah, so they qualify under the rules.

To clarify, he says, he is not trying to insult anyone, he respects religion and has many religious people coming to train, but this is not against religion or Torah but against the decisions of the government. If someone wants to be insulted anyway, he says, that's his prerogative, as their gym was hurt by the State.

I think it is likely they might play some torah shiurim on the sound system just as an extra precaution

Who knows? Maybe someone will become religious or love Torah just a little more because of this...

This morning on two different news whatsapp groups I am in there were interesting news items posted one after the other.

First was posted an item about People from MK Gafni's team (sourced to Israel Hayom) explaining Gafni's anger about the yeshivas possibly being shut down. Gafni said that there are 92 yeshivot, most of the yeshivot that reopened, that are working on the "capsule" system of keeping groups of boys together with no external contact and no contact between groups. It was a logistical nightmare, but it works and Gafni says that in those 92 yeshivas there has not been one single case of Corona or required isolation.

The next notice in those whatsapp groups was of a yeshiva (Ateret Shlomo) in which another group of students were found to have Corona, bringing the number of infected boys in that yeshiva to over 100.

I thought those two notices one after the other was ironic.

So first of all, Ateret Shlomo was one of the first to adopt the program of capsules in order to reopen. And they are highly infected there. So Gafni is wrong. Maybe they have not kept to the capsules strictly, I don't know, but even if that's the case that shows a problem with the capsules anyway. Either way, Gafni is wrong because yeshivas that opened with the capsules are still having problems.

Second, there is a concept of lo plug. I can understand it, even if it is not necessary, if it is deemed that any given industry needs to be shut down because of public health concerns - the government shuts the entire industry even if a yeshiva or business within the group doesn't suffer form the problem - but they get shut down along with everyone else.

Third, I have no problem with Gafni wanting to keep such yeshivas open - if they have determined that their methods of keeping people safe works, go for it. Gafni should not be out there protecting the yeshiva industry from being shut down - he should be putting together a plan to keep safe yeshivas open and infected yeshivas closed. Instead he fights to keep everything open. So Beit Matisyahu and Ateret Shlomo (among others) are infecting by the hundreds because Gafni isn't willing to take any responsibility and only scream and use political pressure. 

Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri today approved, in coordination with the Health Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, the return of all foreign yeshiva students and avreichim back to Israel to learn in the yeshivos and kollels.

Deri sent a letter to the various Rosh Yeshivas explaining the process and the requirements for this to happen.

the yeshiva will have to make specific requests for approval of each student, though they will be given a dedicated email address for these requests rather than having to go through the general process and department.
The yeshiva will have to declare that they know the returning avreich and family has a place for quarantine.
For yeshiva bochurim, the yeshiva will set aside a dormitory area for the students to quarantine in.
The yeshiva will have to provide all the necessary food for the students during the duration of their quarantine.
Each student will need his own bedroom, bathroom and shower in quarantine, not to be shared with other students.

Haredim10 quotes an anonymous person in the yeshiva system who asks why Deri isnt requiring Corona tests for students to return, and he also does not specify what the punishment will be if a yeshiva is not careful about following these guidelines.

The most difficult part of this, to me, would seem to be the requirement of one room/shower/toilet per quarantined student. Most yeshivas, I would imagine, do not have facilities that can meet such a requirement.

Rav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin was given permission to open his yeshiva without the limitations of the "capsules" as it has been over the past couple of weeks.

Rav Sorotzkin gave a drasha in the yeshiva and said some very nice things to his talmidim about them being chosen to be first to open fully...

The interesting part is that Rav Sorotzkin said took the credit for the end of Corona by saying that as soon as his yeshiva opened, the pandemic finished.

That is like the question of which came first - the chicken or the egg? Did the yeshiva open because the pandemic was over or is the pandemic over because the yeshiva opened? Maybe it does not matter, and let each person think what he wants about it.

And, to be fair, the pandemic isnt quite over. People are still sick and dying from it, even in Israel, even if the numbers are going down. Hopefully it is really on the way out, but we don't really know for sure.

The Ministry of Finance is cutting budgets. Among other things, the budget allocated for yeshiva students and avreichim is also being cut.

The news has publicized a series of meetings that were to be held by leaders of the Haredi parties, the Ministry of Finance and PM Benjamin Netanyahu to try to find a solution, to try to persuade the MoF to scrap the budget cuts, to find alternate monies, or some other solution to save the yeshivas and avreichim from these cuts.

At the last minute the meetings were canceled by Netanyahu. Supposedly Netanyahu was concerned about the publicity the issue would receive in the press of him cutting budgets of various items but agreeing to increase the budgets for yeshivas, or at least cancel the planned cuts if not an actual increase.

In the grand scheme of things, it does not sound like a lot of money, but when bundled with all the other budget cuts it is probably pretty significant.

According to Actualic, the Prime Minister's Office told the Haredi politicians to lower their profile on the matter and not turn it into a crisis and not talk about this topic in interviews. UTJ seems to think that despite the efforts they plan to continue to make to avert the budget cuts, it is a done deal and there won't be anything for them to do.

According to Behadrei, the cuts are so significant that the new numbers are similar to what the yeshivas and avreichim received from the government back in the days of Yair Lapid's government (also under Netanyahu). The numbers they publish, if accurate, are pretty similar.

I am surprised. The Haredi parties have backed Netanyahu through thick and thin in recent years and have been unwavering in their support. This does not seem like so much money that Netanyahu would not agree to give it back, especially considering the support he received from them. Netanyahu has overseen significant budget cuts to the yeshivas a number of times already.

Back in the day Netanyahu, as Finance Minister in 2003 I think, cut yeshiva budgets and child allowances. Thart was harsh, but Netanyahu was quickly forgiven.

In 2013 Yair Lapid was Finance Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, and Lapid cut the yeshiva bdgets significantly. Lapid has been treated as an anti-haredi politician since then with Haredi politicians refusing to sit with him or even talk with him, yet Netanyahu who was overall in charge was let off the hook.

Now in 2020 Netanyahu is Prime Minister and the Likud holds the FInance Ministry and budgets are again being cut. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but so far the Haredi politicians are making nary a peep.

Somehow Netanyahu gets a free pass on these issues. Not only does it seem the Haredi politicians won't be making much noise about this, but they will also likely continue supporting him for Prime Minister more solidly than anyone else...

There was an interesting court case regarding a yeshiva and a shul in Elad in which it ended up that it was up to the courts to set the official time for starting davening.

According to Behadrei, City Hall of Elad allocated a plot to a shul in April 2000. 17 years later, in December 2017, the same City Hall (though under different leadership) allocated the same property for a yeshiva, Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo under the ownership and leadership of Rav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin.

Shul leadership tried to get the second allocation canceled after initial attempts at coming to a peaceful agreement of how to share usage of the building failed, as representatives of the yeshiva never cooperated and did not even go to the set meetings.

After spending nearly a year in court fighting over this, they came to agreements regarding most issues on the table with both institutions continuing to use the building. For example, they agreed that on Shabbos the shul membership would get use of 70 seats and the yeshiva would get 100 seats. During yeshiva vacation periods, the shul can use as much of the resources as they see fit.

Other issues as well were relatively easy to find solutions for. Such as, the shul would daven mincha 20 minutes before sunset while the yeshiva would daven mincha gedola at 12:30pm (and I guess 1:15 during the summer months). The shul and yeshiva would daven kabalas shabbos and maariv together, as well as davening mincha on Shabbbos afternoon 40 minutes before sunset together. On Motzei Shabbos the shul would daven first at their regular time and the yeshiva would daven after them. Expenses would be shared with shul membership paying a set monthly fee to the yeshiva to cover expenses.

Aliyot to the torah would divided equally among the yeshiva and the shul membership, as well as dividing up leading the various services. They also agreed upon an arrangement for sharing the gabbaus.

The one thing they could not agree on that required a court decision was what time to start davening on Shabbos morning. The shul wanted to start later, saying they always start at 8:30 with minor adjustments depending on the time of year and the time for shema. The yeshiva says that is too late, as yeshivas always start at 7:15. They also claimed that the shul historically did not really start at 8:30 but at 8:15 and is only claiming 8:30 for the purpose of negotiations. The shul said they would agree to make it earlier up to 8am, but as everyone gets up early to daven during the week before going to work, on Shabbos they want to start later.

Regarding that one issue they could not come to any agreement, so the courts decided that davening on Shabbos morning in the shul/yeshiva would be at 7:45am.

Kikar is reporting that a group of Neturei Karta activists went into the old building of the Knesset Yisrael - Chevron Yeshiva in Hebron, with the cooperation and agreement of local Hebron [Palestinian] residents and, sort of, reopened the yeshiva.

They plan to learn there and even bring more yeshiva students in, for the summer semester and onward.

According to the article, the negotiations were handled secretly so Zionist forces would not thwart them. As well, there is mutual respect between them and their Palestinian neighbors and they look forward to living together in peace and tranquility as it was in the past before the Zionists came along and ruined everything.

Being that the Zionists were not the ones living in Hebron in 1929 and operating the Chevron Yeshiva associated with Slabodka, but the Zionists were already active in other parts of the country, there is no reason to think Zinonists being in other parts of the country now will effect any different of a reaction than the reaction "caused" by Zionists in other parts of the country in 1929.

As much as I don't like the Neturei Karta people, I hope ad pray they will not be slaughtered one day by their new neighbors, as had been done right there in the past, but that they will live in peace and tranquility among them. Expanding the Jewish enterprise in the Holy Land is a wonderful thing, even if it is not being done in the name of a Zionist government.

According to reports, a yeshiva in Jerusalem was vandalized on Friday night. The yeshiva is Yeshivat Tiferet Yisrael, located in the Diskin building in the Givat Shaul neighborhood. The vandals did not desecrate the sifrei torah this time, but they desecrate the seforim, sets of tefillin and megilla scrolls.

After taking keys, they were able to get into the aron kodesh, but they didn't desecrate the torah scrolls, though they did steal the silver "hand" pointer along with a silver torah crown.

I really hope this is not becoming a thing. On the one hand, it seems to me to be different than the incident this past week in Kiryat Hayovel. This looks like frustrated thieves, whereas the incident in Kiryat Hayovel looked like they were out to cause damage. On the other hand, new methods tend to snowball and take on a life of their own...

very interesting..

This is interesting, though I have no idea what makes it newsworthy.

According to The Forward, a male student of Yeshiva University is being fined $150 for violating the rules of a coed shabbaton.

One might think, upon hearing just that, that he must have violated a pretty serious rule. Maybe something keeping the boundaries between the men and the women or something else serious in that way. It turns out the rule he violated was sleeping through minyan. The rules stipulate that all participants must partake in all scheduled programs of the shabbaton and every participant had to sign his/her commitment to do so. Participation was highly subsidized and the fines were set to reimburse monies from the wasted subsidies.

Back when I was in Yeshiva High School, Telshe Yeshiva more specifically, boys also got fined for missing minyan. The fines back then were more to the tune of just a few dollars, increasing with the frequency of the missing of the minyan, but the idea of a fine is nothing new.  I guess with adults you expect people to be treated more like adults than like 14 or 15 year olds, but so be it. One significant difference is that we did not have coed shabbatonim, though that is not really relevant to this story..