election ads are getting started with a bang!

Yair Lapid started off with a clip showing what laws have been passed by the recent government that he will get rid of when he will be elected prime minister inn the upcoming elections by putting them in the shredder..




The Likud spoofed that video with a clip showing Lapid shredding documentation of things he has done wrong, when compared top what Netanyahu is being investigated for, to no public criticism



and another Likud clip against all the efforts by the Left against Netanyahu

this is strange and amazing..

kol hakavod!

Someone asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky if the portion of his donations to Torah and chessed institutions that he later receives back in the form of tax credits is considered tzedaka as well when he give is or is only 65% of his donation considered tzedaka because he gets 35% back?

According to Kikar, Rav Chaim Kanievsky answered that he gets the mitzva of tezdaka for every penny/agora/pruta that he takes out of his pocket and gives to charity. The fact that he gets some back later does not take away at all from the tremendous mitzva he had done...

Kikar has a wild story running right now.

One of the Visznitzer Rebbes, Rav Yisrael Eliezer Hager, the Seret Visznitz Rebbe of Jerusalem, son in law of the Kretchnif Rebbe, was sick and admitted to the Shaarei Tzedek hospital. In the bed next to him was a sick elderly gentile (Arab?) man.

The Rebbetzin davened, upon seeing her husband in pain, that her husband is a tzaddik and goes every day to the Kotel to daven for klal yisrael - please let him be released from the hospital and pyut his illness on the non-Jew next to him who is sick and in pain anyway and does not go to the Kotel to daven like my husband does..

The son supposedly said that his father was released two days later. They asked about the non-Jew who had been his roommate only to discover that he got much worse and died the next day after the Rebbe's release.

That is wild.

The Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael factions of UTJ yesterday signed an agreement to merge and run on one ticket in the upcoming elections. This is seemingly the first step in the united Haredi party they have been talking about. The next step would be to bring in Shas and if possible the other smaller Haredi parties (e.g. Yachad, Etz, etc)...

In general this is a good thing. These parties should be running together as there is almost no difference between them and a united front is better for the community. Shas will be more difficult and is not to be taken for granted, as they have been attractive to non-Haredi voters in the past, and as part of a joint haredi party they might lose those votes, so that is a bigger issue to figure out.

Regarding the merger that happened between Degel and Agudah, as good as it is, I do not see how this is any different than what the situation has been until now. They have been running together for a long time already. Practically this is a new agreement and the division is 50-50 between the two factions rather than the 60-40 (I think) in favor of Agudah that was in place by old agreements until now. And the new agreements assures they will continue running together for the foreseeable future rather than split up as has been a consideration recently.

The thing is, as far as unity, nothing has really changed. This is simply a bloc of two parties agreeing to work together to try to maximize voting potential. This is not unity. The two parties are still separate and the UTJ party is comprised of a working agreement as to which faction gets which seats and which factions gets which positions in government - they are still just two separate factions working together. As meaningless, to me, as the word achdut always is, this agreement is just that - no achdut, just voting tactics.

If they actually wanted something more like unity and recognized the shared destiny between them rather than identity politics, they would do a full merge and stop with the factions. All gedolim would sit down together and decide which people are most qualified to represent the Haredi public, or they could hold a primary among all the Haredi communities. They would not need to divide the seats and roles along the lines of Litvishe and Hassidic and that a Gerrer has to get this and a Vishnitzer that and a Belzer something else.

So, as good as this is, for a first step, and it is good as a first step, it is not the ultimate unified party they are using as a slogan - this is really just a slightly improved version of what has been until now.

one of 3 triplets, Mordechai composed this for his brother's (another of the triplets) upcoming wedding.. they are neighbors of mine..

Simcha Leiner is proud to present “Life’s better when your with your brother” a song celebrating the power that each and everyone of us has to stand up to a bully. After reaching out to educators and Mechanchim around the world, Simcha embarked on the monumental task of crisscrossing the country recording over 1000 boys together to form a Chorus of Unity. Each of the children were given a chance to discuss how bullying can affect their friend. A global anti-bullying initiative is currently being prepped for launch to further establish an ongoing awareness of the power of anti-bullying tactics.

such a kiddush hashem!

another homerun by The Shalva Band!