Some yeshiva students from Mexico have not returned to their yeshivas in Israel after the Sukkos break because of the war that broke out. Because the war and potential danger, they were unsure whether to return to Israel or not and sent the question to Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein looking for guidance.

Rav Moshe Londinski, one of the three Roshei Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim’s Yeshiva in Radin, inquired of the Chofetz Chaim, “What will be the fate of our brethren in Germany and in Poland?” Rav Londinski pointed out that Hitler y”s had been talking about destroying the entirety of Klal Yisroel for years. 

 The Chofetz Chaim responded that it is impossible for someone to succeed in wiping out Klal Yisroel in all the lands of the exile and he cited the pasuk (Bereishis 32:4-9) “’If Esav comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp will escape.” 

At that point, Rav Moshe Londinski zt”l realized that the danger was quite grave. He asked further, “If Heaven forbid, he succeeds in wiping out European Jewry, who and where is the other camp that will survive?” 

 The Chofetz Chaim answered, “This too is a pasuk, it is in the beginning of the Navi Ovadiah (1:17), “And on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant, and it shall be holy..” Rav Londinski left the Chofetz Chaim’s presence with his hands shaking on the future destruction of European Jewry, but he was assured that the Holy Land will be spared and no sword of the Nazi menace would pass before it.   

Remember the story of the Lebanese avreich? How could anyone forget? The news was a splash when it broke. A young man from Lebanon spent years posing as a Jew, and eventually even married a frum young woman, only to be discovered a week later as being a fraud.

I have nothing exciting to say about this, but it is an interesting human life story that you might be interested in hearing..

Ah, Ponevezh Yeshiva.

According to YWN, it has been worked out via the efforts of Rabbi Nechamya Malinowitz of "the Igud" to allow all foreign students into Israel. This will include yeshiva bochurim, kollel avreichim with their wives and children and other single students. Also, this will include both returning students and new students who were not in Israel before.

Big news, hot off the press.By the way, this means that families that wish to travel abroad with children who were not vaccinated (because they cannot be vaccinated at this point) nor got sick with, and recovered from, CoronaVirus, will not be able to travel, as they would not be allowed back in because of the children. Unless they want to come back to Israel and eave their children behind, of course.

There were several articles in the news last week about the various rabbonim who said the yeshivas should not send out, or allow, the boys to go collecting this year for Purim as they do every year, but it should all be done by telephone this year.

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.

I don't think the government makes any necessarily bad decisions about dealing with the CoronaVirus. Confusing decisions, perhaps. Unenforced decisions, perhaps, Contradictory decisions, perhaps. But I would not blame them for bad decisions. There are still, after several months of dealing with it, so many unknowns about the virus and how to beat it. As I have said before, I don't envy anyone responsible for making these decisions. They all trying their best and trying to find the best way to beat the virus and keep it at bay as much as possible - sometimes a decision made isn't as effective as expected, sometimes it is, sometimes the public refuses to cooperate regarding a specific restriction, and sometimes the public cooperates more. And at the same time the government has, and has to have, other considerations to keep in mind as well, such as not destroying the economy any further, allowing people to make a living, etc.

That is Rav Moshe Meiselman, Rosh yeshiva of Toras Moshe, speaking to a Knesset Committee today via Zoom regarding the possible return of American yeshiva students.

Rav Motka Bloi, Bnei Braq educator and askan for the Degel Hatorah faction of UTJ, is disturbed by the changes in the Haredi wrought by CoronaVirus - changes he says are bad, even devastating.

A lot has been discussed as to how Corona will change us all, by the time it is over. A lot of fuss was made specifically with how it will change the Haredi community, especially in light of the early on lack of rabbinic leadership that made bad decisions that turned out to be harmful to the community. A lot has been written suggesting it would mostly hurt the institution of "daas torah", with banned internet use also being a clear victim.

Bloi points to a number of problems he is already seeing, such as:

  - many yeshivas are still closed. As well, yeshiva ketanas that are functioning are generally on a  shortened schedule, as they cannot provide food - so the boys start the day at 9:30, 10am instead of at 7, and they finish at 8pm instead of at 9pm. These are a lot of extra hours the boys have no framework to be in. The best of the boys expend their energy going to the Kotel, while the more "chevraman" type might go to Kever Yosef and the like, many regular boys are going on trips such as bike trips along the beach, and many are spending a lot of time on the Internet.

 - families are in conflict. normally the boys are mostly out of the house, in yeshivas. Now with the boys home so much, the parents might ask the boys to help with chores around the house. Yet the boy with no schedule might wake up late and when he goes down to shul he forgets to take the garbage out with him, and it leads to friction.

  - some boys, even in haredi cities, are busy playing football (soccer) with "problematic" people - at some point the good boys also might take off their shirt and tzitzis - hey, it is hot - and suddenly he isn't the same young man any longer.
source: Kikar

it is the little things. Everyone looks at the big things, but ignore the little things. Bloi is noticing the little changes. The little changes might lead to big changes, for sure, but these little changes are also a big deal for this type of a community.

Just two weeks after the Minister of Interior approved a plan that would allow yeshiva bochurim to return to Israel to learn in their yeshivas, while meeting numerous conditions, he is already reversing that decision.

I said then that some of the conditions for this to happen seem very difficult for any yeshiva to be able to comply with.

I guess it was so difficult that even the Ministry of Interior couldn't leave it on the table!

Today the Minister announced that he has reversed the decision effective immediately. No more permits will be given and any already given or in the process will be canceled.

From Deri's letter to the Roshei Yeshiva it seems the reason is out of concern from the recent spike of cases in Israel and the concern of it possibly becoming a dangerous situation here quickly.

The married avreichim with their families will continue to be allowed in as was decided previously. Presumably because the quarantine requirements are easier for them to comply with.

So don't book your tickets back just yet...

The various news media, including Haredi media, are reporting about what they call a "pogrom", exacted last night by the boys of a Vizshnitz yeshiva against the boys and dormitory of a neighboring Sefardi yeshiva.

The video is pretty wild:


wow!

The standard comments have already been made in the general media, such as chilul hashem, pogrom, etc, with condemnations by politicians. This morning news reports have the police investigating the matter.

It seems the background to this attack is that the young men in the Sefardi yeshiva have provoked the hassidic boys a number of times by throwing eggs, shouting epitaphs at them as they pass and harassing their Rebbe and throwing things at his car. After another attack in which the Sefardi boys threw bags of water at some of the Hassidic boys, the Hassidic boys decided it was the straw that broke the camels back and it was time to retaliate.

Not to justify how they responded, but some context is always good.

It looks like the type of response Israelis call "baal habayit hishtagea" which basically means the homeowner went crazy and did something extreme just to show the tenant not to mess with him in the future. These guys seem to have responded in that fashion with such an extreme response that those yeshiva boys likely wont mess with them again..

According to Behadrei, a group of 5 yeshiva guys from an unnamed yeshiva in Israel recently flew to Spain to go to a football (soccer) game between Barcelona and some other time.

As happens during a game in any sport, the camera pans the crowd. At one point during the game, the camera picked up the group of 5 yeshiva guys. To their dismay, the game was being watched by some people back home, other yeshiva boys who often watch the games in local kiosks, who recognized them. Word got back to the yeshiva and the 5 boys were tossed.

Needless to say, it is unlikely the boys at the game, spotted on camera, were behaving similarly to the way Rav Zeev Leff recently was caught on camera behaving at a game in Scotland, though I haven't seen video of the incident. Not that I think people are expected to go to games and bring a gemara with them - God knows how many Cubs, Bulls and Blackhawks (and yes, also White Sox) games I have gone to without a gemara in tow.

The main issue is pretty obvious. I won't comment on it. Yeshiva boys should be learning, not traveling to games, the army does not give them deferments so they can go to Spain and watch games, blah blah blah.

The funny thing is that they were snitched on and publicized by other guys who were breaking the rules and going out of yeshiva (granted, they did not go as far as Spain) to watch the game... That breaks some sort of bro code, actually any decent human code, in my book..

Kikar has the story of a 28 year old chassidishe bachur who has been having trouble finding his soulmate. This fellow has been "in shidduchim" for 8 years now but has yet to find success, and says he hardly even gets shidduch recommendations, despite being what he describes as a "normal bachur".

Not only that but he says that he and an entire group of friends are all in the same boat. The entire group of them have been trying for a long time and are all suffering the same difficulties.

Mr Single, Naftali, has a theory. Naftali recalls an incident from 8 years prior in which he was going on a Friday from yeshiva in Bnei Braq to his family in Haifa for Shabbos. His friends were going with him to spend Shabbos with his family. Naftali describes that a woman was sitting in the front section of the bus, behind the driver. he describes her as a 40-something woman.

Naftali says they didn't really have anything to do so they started picking on her and bothering her to move to the back of the bus. They said we are yeshiva bochurim and it is inappropriate for you to sit here in the front. She didn't move her seat and they bothered her the entire ride, taking pictures of her, threatening her to put out pashkevilim about her, etc. He says that she ignored them most of the time and when they got off the bus she started crying.

Naftali says he never saw her again, but since then he and his entire group of friends have had trouble with shidduchim. When he tries to figure out why, this incident always comes to mind. He is concerned this woman might have a "kpeida" on him and his friends and that is causing their difficulties.

He thinks, or so he was told, that the women was a teacher in the "Rapaport" school in Jerusalem, though he is not sure. Either way, he asked that anybody who can help him locate the woman should please call him at 052-706-0840. He wants to apologize for his behavior.

What a story!

I have said before that possibly the worst part about the fights regarding the army draft and the Peleg and whatnot is that young men suddenly feel they can attack, verbally or even physically, older men, rabbonim as well, because they have a different opinion. Even forgetting the fact that this is a woman they harassed demanding she sit in the back of the bus, here you had a group of 20 year olds who felt perfectly fine harassing a woman twice their age. Such tremendous chutzpa.

Besides for that, the other issues are well known, and while it is a shame he only feels the need to apologize because he cant get a date and assumes it is this story in his past that is preventing it, but at least he is trying to apologize. Perhaps that story and how bad he feels because of what he did, will be what causes him to treat people, women and men, with more respect. Also, maybe just like he treated that woman so poorly and disrespectfully, maybe he has a reputation for bad behavior and treating others poorly and disrespectfully. Maybe the issue is bigger than this one incident. Maybe his difficulty is because of a reputation he has developed for himself that others are aware of and stay away from him because he is not a good person (at least by reputation).

Kikar paints the image:

some guys in yeshiva,  who all share a room together in the dormitory, became curious about their roommate. They had no idea when he ever davened and put on tefillin. He would learn every day until late at night, and go to sleep late. H ewould also wake up late in the morning and miss the davening in the yeshiva. When he would wake up, he would go immediately to the beis medrash to resume learning, but his roommates never saw him daven or put on tefillin. They were disturbed and curious and decided it required more investigation.

They began by asking him directly - when do you daven? He responded that he davens in the dorm room when nobody is there as they are already learning in the beis medrash.

Unable to ever catch him in the act of davening and/or wearing tefillin, they decided to lay a trap. A bit of subterfuge is always fun. They took out his tefillin from their place in the cabiet and tied the straps of the hand tefillin with the straps of the head tefillin. There was now no way for him to put on the tefillin without untying the knots, and thus they would easily be able to check if he had used them or not.

After a week they checked the tefillin again and found them tied exactly the way they had left them. It was clear they had not been touched all week.

They decided this was unacceptable and planned a public shaming of their roommate. They were going to confront him in public and demand answers and the truth.

One of the young men felt this was wrong and changed his mind about participating in this plan. He decided they need to ask if this is halachically ok to do. To that end they sent the question to the dayan Rav Dovid Axelrod. Can they confront and shame him publicly about not davenign and laying his tefillin?

Rav Axelrod responded that it is prohibited to do so and prohibited to continue with the plan as it was devised. They must immediately untie the tefillin straps and rewrap them in the bag the way they normally are. They should then tell the mashgiach of the yeshiva about all this.

Rav Axelrod said they cannot publicly shame him, and doing so is a situation that would cause a risk to his life - it is like dealing with a capital crime. Rav Axelrod said if we would have a sanhedrin today, we would have to convene the full sanhedrin of 71 to decide what to do about this. He cannot be shamed and they cannot even hint to anyone else in the yeshiva about this. Doing so would be pikuach nefesh and would be akin to murder.

Rav Binyamin Chuta also reacted similarly to the question when sent to him. Rav Chuta responded that the tefillin must be rewrapped the way they always are - the concern being that the shame he would experience by the public outing might cause him to leave religion entirely. He should be allowed to continue to learn and hopefully the light experienced in learning torah will bring him back fully.