enjoy, especially Shlomo Katz's music..

She has a great message...

1. depriving Palestinians of 3G

2. dont count your charedim until they are drafted

3. think twice before using the Jerusalem Light-Rail

4. Beware of all who disrespect Rav Ovadia

5. redeeming captives

6. anticipating geula

7. Rabbi Fink says the Forward doesnt understand Rabbi Schachter, but then clarifies that he disagrees with Rabbi Schachter himself

8. feeling closer

9. what's a rabbi worth?

10. the Israeli government cash machine

11. matzah constipated chazal

12. everyone is a rabbi

13. what I learned running 21km in Tel Aviv

14. tinfoil treife kosher guy

15. good press or a possible קטרוג

16. hunting in Israel

17. kol isha: a womans perspective

18. National Religious: The Dilemma of Power

If you are not friends with me on Facebook and do not follow me on Twitter, you might have missed this yesterday...

Hands down, the best product I have found on the market for Pesach up to this point, is this package of 10 pieces of bread prepared for bedikas chametz.
Each individually wrapped piece of bread comes in its own ziploc bag and is numbered, so you know which ones you have found when searching for chametz and which ones you must still look for. I hear that engineers are working on version 2.0 for next year that will include GPS tracking devices that will be embedded into each of the 10 pieces of bread, so not finding one will not be an option.

The price of the bedikas chametz bread pieces is $1.99. That comes to about 7.3 shekels. For the same price I can buy a loaf of sliced bread in the makolet, though their permanent sale price is 2 loaves for 12 shekels ($3.2). Throw in the cost of 10 ziploc bags, and it is closer to being worth it, financially.

If you live in Israel, you might want to think twice before ordering. According to the shipping calculator on the website, United Parcel Service Worldwide Expedited will cost $104.44 , and Worldwide Express Saver shipping will cost $109.98. At those prices it just is not worth it. Even including the Ziploc bags.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rav of Efrat, has bought for himself a set of bigdei kehuna - priestly garments. You don't get these things in Walmart, Target or even Bagir, but in the Machon HaMikdash - the Temple Institute.

Yom Kippur? Nope. Just a group of kohanim preparing for the Temple service..

Rav Riskin is a kohen and is preparing for the ability to sacrifice the korban pesach. Technically, we could even sacrifice the korban pesach this year on erev Pesach, as this korban does not require the beit hamikdash or a state of purity to do so. If the entire public is impure, the korban pesach is allowed in a state of impurity, and all you need for the sacrifice is an altar, rather than the whole Temple.

Rabbi Riskin, in addition to his purchase, has also called for the renewal of the korban pesach. He says there is no reason why we should not be able to have permission to build a mizbeiach on Har HaBayit, and he even says that many sheikhs would not oppose it. He says there is no reason why until now a place has not been allocated on Har HaBayit for this, and it is not understandable why every other religion - Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, etc - can all pray there, but just we Jews cannot. There is no justification.

Rabbi Riskin throws a little blame our way, saying use it or lose it. If we would go there more, it would send a message to the entire world that for us this place is central.
(source: Kikar)

The Veterinary Service Refused to Permit Slaughter of Korban Pesach

  -- INN

When I saw that headline, I did not know what was going on. The vet service is in charge of approving the korban pesach? Wouldn't that run through either the Defense Ministry due to security implications that might be caused by Jewish sacrifice on Temple Mount? Or maybe through the PMO or the Foreign Ministry due to the possible diplomatic issues that would result from such an event? But the veterinary services?

Then I read the article. The headline is a bit more dramatic than what actually happened. It turns out, the Mikdash organizations run an annual study session before Pesach in which the laws of the korban pesach are reviewed and described, and in the past a sheep was shechted as part of the session and the process was described through this form of show and tell. They requested permission from the veterinary services to perform the slaughter again as in previous years, for the purpose of study, not actual sacrifice, at the Sherover Boardwalk in the Armon HaNetziv neighborhood of Jerusalem - not anywhere near the Temple Mount.

So, this falls under the auspices of the veterinary services rather than security or diplomatic offices. Now it makes sense. But why would they refuse the request? People shecht all the time, both for food and for study. The same event has been approved and performed in the past, with no problems arising from it. The Shomronim do a Paschal sacrifice every year on Mt. Gerizim. There are plenty of other slaughtering events taking place, by Jews and/or Arabs that pass with no incident, either political or medical.

The letter offered no explanation and gave no reason for the decision. Yisrael Medad published the letter in his Jerusalem Post blog. Yehuda Glick had sent in the request for permission, and the veterinary service wrote on the same paper "Not Approved" and sent it back. That's it.

 

US President Barak Obama will be coming to Israel for a visit this week. Thomas Friedman said Obama is coming as a tourist, as nothing will be accomplished in the real world by this visit, so nobody should expect much to come out of the visit.

Whether he comes as a tourist or not, he will be wreaking havoc on the local populace around the country but especially in Jerusalem in the form of closed streets and traffic jams, and security protocols.

The Israeli Police have opened a hotline so that people will be able to get updated information in regards to things affected by Obama's visit. The hotline will start operating today and will continue through Friday. The phone number for the hotline will be 1-700-553-100.

One would think in this day and age they would also open a website that will publish all the relevant information in real-time, but I have not seen anything announced about that. I guess it is not as necessary because even if they did it would probably only work in Internet Explorer, like most Israeli government websites, and not in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, let alone in any of the other browsers...

So if you are concerned about needing to go somewhere, especially in Jerusalem, this week, check the hotline first to see if routes are open and h

I heard an interview this morning on Radio Kol B'Rama (haredi station) with MK Menachem Eliezer Mozes (UTJ), who is also the outgoing Deputy Minister of Education. He said something that is crucial to understanding the Haredi [political] position on the issue of "core curriculum", and also for many other issues.

The discussion centered on what they expect the new incoming government to change, with requiring schools to study/teach the core curriculum in order to qualify for funding. The law was quoted, explaining the process, and the new Minister of Education has a certain amount of time to formulate and pass the guidelines of what will be included as part of the required content of education that schools must minimally teach.

As an aside, and this was not mentioned in the interview, but with a religious man (Rav Shay Piron) holding the Ministry of Education portfolio, and with him coming from a party that even though "not religious", it talks about Jewish values and increasing Jewish education, I would hope that part of the core curriculum he will formulate will include a certain amount of Jewish studies, including Torah and Jewish History. After all, the core curriculum is the same minimal requirements for all the secular schools in the country as it is for the religious schools.

Back to the main point, the interviewer asked  MK Mozes saying that it is very possible that nothing problematic will be included in the core curriculum, and what would be so bad if we had to teach a little bit more math, a little bit more dikduk (grammar), some English or whatnot.

The answer supplied by MK Mozes was not anything to the tune of secular studies are not necessary, nor was it anything even close to secular studies taking away from Torah study time, or anything like the secular studies might pull students away and pique interest in things not related to yiddishkeit.

The response given by MK Mozes was, and I have heard similar responses in the past given regarding other issues though none quite as succinctly as that given today by Mozes, שלא יכתיבו לנו. They cannot tell us what to do. We do not listen to secular authorities. We do not want our children being educated in a curriculum dictated by secular authorities.

And that is really the crux of the entire conflict between secular Israel and the haredi community, whether it is in regard to education of secular studies or army service or other things. It does not matter if the education is good or bad. It does not matter if the civil service is good or bad. What can be so bad about a local haredi 20 year old man volunteering his time in a haredi organization like Ezrat Achim or Ezra l'Marpeh? What can be so bad about some basic math and grammar? What can be so bad about an 18 year old who is not learning in yeshiva anyway going to a haredi-designed unit in the army? Nothing really, but we don't want them telling us what to do.

I think they picked the most boring person in America to narrate the video...




 a little more interesting is Ambassador Michael Oren talking on NBC about Obama's upcoming trip..

BBQ'ed matzah!

Mistakes can sometimes be expensive. Channel 2 News has reported on a mistake that might end up costing nearly half a million shekels.

10 years ago a couple got married, and is now divorcing. Upon pulling out the kesuba to verify what was written for determining how much the husband would have to pay to his wife upon divorce, a major mistake was discovered. The mistake was almost minor - just an extra zero, though it was written out in words rather than numbers. And then they used the video form the wedding ten years ago to figure out if a mistake had happened and how it happened, or if someone was remembering incorrectly. The husband was claiming that he had offered in the kesuba 3 times 18,000 totaling 54,000 NIS, while in the kesuba was actually written 540,000. A difference of nearly half a million shekels.

In the wedding video, it turns out, the officiating rabbi asked him how much he wants to write in. He clearly says 3 times 18, 000, being 54,000. After a bit of arguing over the math, they come to the correct total and agree on 54,000 NIS. Yet the rabbi, Rav Dovid Abuchatzeira (not the famous Rabbi Dovid Abuchatzeira who is a brother of the late Baba Elazar from Beer Sheva and a grandson of the Baba Sali, though perhaps they are related), wrote into the kesuba 540,000.

The sum had been read out under the chupa with no shock or surprise fromthe groom, but the husband says at the time he had not been paying attention, full of excitement and emotion. he did not notice what had been read out.

Despite the video showing that the groom had wanted to offer only 54,000 NIS, at the end of the day there is a signed contract for 540,000 NIS. His lawyer is appealing the Rabbanut to void the kesuba from day 1 claiming it to be invalid from the outset..

The rabbi simply responded that he does not know how such a mistake happened, and there is no way he would write anything without the agreement of the groom and the father of the bride, though mistakes do happen and now he is here to fix the mistake.

A simple mistake that might cost nearly half a million shekel. And, the wedding video is good for something, even if you have no intention to watch it every year on the anniversary....

According to the magazine called "Cannabis", MK Moshe Feiglin has already come through on his first promise.

Feiglin had promised that his first piece of legislation as MK would be a bill dealing with the legalization of marijuana. According to Cannabis, this morning Feiglin completed the preparation of the bill for submitting to the Knesset. Feiglin's bill would not legalize marijuana in general, but would deal with making it easier for sick people who need medical marijuana to actually get it, or alternatively to allow them to grow it under certain conditions.

Right now there is a tremendous amount of bureaucracy to go through in order to get the permits and the hash. The Health Ministry has one doctor appointed as its representative in handing out the permits for medical marijuana. According to Feiglin's proposal, a family doctor or any specialized doctor should be able to prescribe it and no special permission from the Health Ministry should be necessary.

Cannabis thinks the chances for this bill passing are pretty good, perhaps the best ever, because in the new Knesset there are many supporters of its legalization. Feiglin's bill has already been signed on by MKs Tamar Zandberg of Meretz and Chaim Katz of the Likud.

I am in favor of the legalization of marijuana, and even though this bill does not do that, it is an important first step, and it helps the people who really need it, though it does not help the people who simply want it.

I am going to start trying to bring to your attention, on occasion, deals that I think might be relevant and interesting to a good percentage of blog readers. If this helps you buy items at a discounted price, that's great. if not, just bear with the posts and move on to the next one, and I thank you for your patience. of course, if it bothers you, or if you like this new feature, you are welcome to send me feedback either directly by email (if you have it), or via the Life in Israel contact form..

Disclaimer: Some of the deals I find will be through affiliate programs, meaning I will make a commission if you buy an item after clicking on the link, though of course you will not be paying more for the item because of that, while other items might not generate affiliate commissions.

I spotted these 2 deals on JDeals:

• $12 for Passover Plague Kit for children, including FREE SHIPPING (worth $18) I have used these at the Pesach seder in previous years. These types of props always livens things up and gets the kids excited...

• 

  $22.50 for your choice of beautiful silk Matza covers for your Seder table, with FREE SHIPPING included! ($45 value) this comes with 3 options of colors, and it looks like it would make either a nice gift at a great price or freshen up your  own table