You know how, here in Israel at least, it is pretty common where you are in a shop or walking down the street or waiting for the bus and someone comes over and asks to use your phone to make a call. It is super common with kids needing to make a call but often happens with adults or young adults as well - maybe some people dont carry phones or maybe a phone battery drained, but it happens often enough. As long as I am not in a rush or out of sorts in some way, I will almost always let them use my phone. I think most people do. And if it is a kid, I will just about always allow it unless there are extenuating circumstances. .

So, Kikar reports that an avreich in Bnei Braq was standing outside a wedding hall when a young man (unfamiliar to him) approached asking if he could use his phone for a short call. The magnanimous avreich handed over his phone, as I think most people would do, and the fellow made his call.

A few days later the avreich gets called in to the police station and discovers he is being investigated and questioned due to a complaint of harassment. 

It turns out that this young fellow wanted to threaten someone and knowing he would be easily tracked had he used his own phone decided he would borrow someone else's phone to make his threatening phone call and thereby stay anonymous while framing someone else.

Somehow during the questioning the avreich figured out what happened, that it was the phone call he had lent his phone for and eventually convinced the police that he was telling the truth. The police let him go but because he didnt know the person he had lent the phone to, so they were up a creek though they eventually figured out who the caller was and brought him in (they eventually decided the harassment was not important,. low level stuff and will likely close the case. it was over a fight between two different hassidic groups)

As it says, the fake tzedaka collectors save us for not giving enough tzedaka out of concern the petitioner might be a fraud, so these phone scammers save us from not lending out our phones to people who need to make a call... though I guess this is not overly common so probably wont yet affect anything.

Rav Kolodetzky then said that he heard from "The Mashgiach" (aka Rav Don Segal) that 50 years after the war we did have the arrival of Mashiach - the soul of Mashiach joined and got mixed in to that of Rav Shteinman, but because of our sins of lashon hara and sinat chinam we didnt merit the revelation of him as Mashiach.

I am not sure I can say much more than "whoa!" before wondering about the chabad-like approach invading the Litvishe world... Nothing was revealed to me about this so I can neither confirm nor deny that Rav Shteinman was Mashiach, so all I can do is leave it up to each of you to take it as you will.

I am not going to talk about him but something that struck me when I heard the news reports of final moments.

The news was reporting Rav Baadani's status in critical condition, of the viduy, of his impending passing and all the reports (at least the ones I heard) mentioned that Rav Aryeh Deri (and fellow Shas Minister Yoav Ben Tzur, but he's less interesting) was present in the hospital room.

Now, of course I can understand and would expect his family - children, grandkids, wife, etc - to be with him. I might even be expecting to hear about his gabbai or some close talmidim being in the room with him. But Aryeh Deri? Why is a politician in the room with him in his fial moments?

And this isnt unique to Rav Baadani's situation. This has come up numerous times before when rabbonim pass. In their final moments the politicians flock to their bedside. Sometimes it might be understandable - Rav Ovadia Yosef and Aryeh Deri were extremely close, Rav Shteinman and Rav Kanievsky with maybe Moshe Gafni for example. In some situations maybe they are close enough that it makes sense to be one of the few surrounding the bed. Besides for those unique situations I think this is a sign of how our rabbinics have gotten way too enmeshed in politics. And from the other side, it shouldn't be a time for the politicians to try to be scoring points with communities and followers. The politicians will also surely speak at the funeral. That should be left to the children and talmidim, not to the politicians.

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Interestingly, Smotritch's order is to cancel the tax only until the end of 2023.

The government is expected to lose 330 million shekel in revenue from the tax cancellation this year.

I dont understand why he isnt canceling it outright, as was expected form the pre-election (and post-election too) chatter, but only holding it until the end of 2023. I guess at that point he can revisit it, but why not just cancel it outright, and if one day the government would decide to create such a tax, create it then. I am not sure if this is simply a procedural matter or if there is some sot of intention behind it. So far I have not seen it explained.

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in memory of Ahuviya Sandak

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Hawila wanted to reconcile and because he was actually Jewish, in at least his opinion, he wanted to stay married and it would not be a problem with her Syrian community as he is not a convert. A beis din supposedly did the research and actually discovered it to be true, he is Jewish, but to erase any shadow of a doubt he did a conversion lchumra.

The story has made it into the news once again. 

The lady's family filed for annulment in the beis din of the Rabbanut of Tel Aviv. The family claimed because he was a Muslim at the time of the wedding the marriage was null and void and no divorce should be needed. The beis din did their own research and also discovered he is actually Jewish, or at least there is a strong possibility of that being so. The Rabbanut beis din decided that because of the possibility he might have been Jewish all along, they cannot approve of the dissolution of the marriage without a gett. 

To that end, the beis din put a restraining order on Hawila preventing him from leaving Israel until he would grant the divorce to his wife.

It took several months, but Hawila has now granted his wife the divorce. She is finally rid of him. The crazy story has finally come to an end. At least until he dupes another Jewish girl into marrying him.

When I heard a delegation went I assumed the normal 15 or 20 people, give or take, maybe even five or ten. All the pictures I have seen only show two, so I am happy that it is an unimpressive showing by Neturei Karta and maybe their numbers are dwindling.

After the new published the following picture of the delegation, local Bet Shemesh residents called/wrote in to say that the fellow on the right is a fellow resident of Bet Shemesh, residing in RBS B.

Just as they say not all superheroes wear capes, it seems not all Neturei Karta wear samets and kaftans. Why isn't Minister Ben Gvir evicting the likes of these people?

Construction workers working on a home renovation in Lodz, Poland, at the address of 23 Polnoczna St, discovered a stash of household Judaica items under the building, buried in the ground. The items include tableware, menorahs, candlesticks (leichters), among other household objects like perfume bottles, glass containers and more.

It is thought that this was stashed right when residents were forced into the Lodz ghetto. Authorities will turn it over, after restoration, to a Lodz museum to review it and try to discover the original owners. The building back in 1939 was a shul. The items were wrapped in newspaper, newspapers (all dated October 1939) in the Yiddish, Polish and German languages.