You have probably read about the story of 5 Hareidi men beating up a woman the other day on Egged bus #497 from Bet Shemesh to Bnei Brak. She sat down in the front of the bus, they requested she move to the back of the bus. She refused. A soldier sat down next to her thinking it would deter them from making trouble. They did not care but proceeded to beat her and the soldier and disappeared before the police arrived.

If you missed it on the news sites, you could not have missed it on the blogs. Many of the various jblogs have written about it.

I delayed writing about it because the only details I knew were the ones mentioned above which came from the various media outlets.

I wanted to get more details. I posted on various neighborhood and social forums and asked around.

Nobody responded with any more information than that which was printed in the media.

This kind of stuff happens because the Rabbonim and askanim are busy making life difficult for the simple people. They are busy finding things to ban and posting signs about using only kosher cellphones, no computers and internet, no higher education, no army, no reading this book or that book, no this or that. All the narishkeit in the world has to be banned with signs declaring the protection of the sanctity of the community and speaking in the name of God.

But when incidents like this happen there is only deafening silence. Not a word from the Rabbonim banning such behavior or such beasts. Not a sign on the wall that this is not the way of our camp.

No - our camp does not use unapproved cellphones or eat from hetter mechira. We do not surf the internet or go to concerts that have men and women present even with separate seating. We only beat women who do not acquiesce to our selfish requests. How holy we are.

There is only time and energy for narishkeit.

The Navi says many times in the times of the Kings of Israel that anarchy reigned as "people did what was right in their eyes". There was no authority. The top brass was busy with narishkeit.

That leads to incidents like this. The top brass are busy with narishkeit and not with leading the people properly and providing what the people need.

The Mishpacha Hebrew newspaper this past week reported of a tragic incident that happened in yerushalayim last week.

A mikva attendant (male) collapsed on Friday while at work in the mikva (I don't think it happened in the water but while he was attending).

Hatzalah came quickly and found him unconscious. They tried to resuscitate him to no avail and they had to bring a doctor to pronounce his death.

Not to make light of his tragedy, but I can't get the image out of my head of a bunch of guys in the mikva trying to resuscitate someone...

It is clear that in a life threatening situation one would be allowed to use his GPS system to navigate quicker to get a sick person to a hospital. In a life threatening situation every moment counts and therefore the GPS can be used because it helps you get to the hospital that much quicker.

The question arose when it is not a life threatening situation, such as a woman in labor (early stages let's say) or other examples where you have to get the person to the hospital but another couple of minutes will not make a difference.

Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein, Rav of Ramat Elchonon in Bnei Brak, was unsure of how to pasken. The question is can you use the GPS in order to minimize the driving and the "chilul shabbos" or can you not use it because that is an extra form of chilul b'yadayim - you are, in other words, performing one chilul shabbos that might not be necessary in order to minimize a second chilul shabbos that is necessary.

Rav Zilberstein sent the question to his father in law, Rav Elyashiv.

Rav Elyashiv, after weighing the options, paskened that one could use the GPS even in the situations where it is "pikuach nefesh" without the urgency (and a matter of minutes will not make a difference). His rationale was that because it is still a life threatening situation, even though it is not critical, it is still important to get to the hospital as fast as possible.

I am a yekke (and am proud of it). I do most of my minhagim according to the German custom.

That means I wash before kiddush, wait three hours after meat before eating dairy, do not wash mayim achronim, wear tallis after a minha aliya until after kedusha, etc.. (among many others).

The thing is, I did not grow up in a yekke community and did not grow up in a yekkish shul. I am therefore lacking in my knowledge of many minhagim related to the prayer services. It is not such a big deal because I still do not daven in a yekke shul (there is none where I live) so it probably would not work out anyway.

My brother told me that my Opa (grandfather for you non-yekkes out there) used to say that we (Yekkes) do not say "Baruch Hu U'Varuch Sh'mo" during brachos.

I never heard of this minhag to not say it and am curious if there is such a minhag and what the reason for it is.

I do remember being surprised when I learned that one should say it because I never said it as a child and only began doing so when I went to Yeshiva High School (which in America has become identified as the greatest cause of people not knowing their own minhagim and taking on other peoples generic minhagim).

Sometimes I thought we did not say things just because we did not know better, but over time I have found that a number of the things we did not say were because of minhag (such as the bracha at maariv said in America before shmoneh esrei for the latecomers), though there were also some that were not said probably out of laziness (such as "V'Yiten Lecha" on Saturday nights).

Anybody hear of such a minhag?

It turns out that some Fatah people (I do not call them terrorists because the Israeli government insists that Fatah is more moderate than Hamas and a partner). tried to attack the Prime Minister's convoy when passing near Jericho on the way to a meeting with Abbas way back in August.

The article does not say how the attack was averted, but it does say the militants were arrested.

Israel is upset because the militants were recently released. They issued a "harsh protest" to the PA..

I do not see what they are so upset about. These are terrorists who do not have blood on their hands. The attack was averted. The Israeli government themselves would release such "militants" without a second thought, simply as a way to bolster the standing of the weak Abbas.

Ben-Yehudah did a great job on Haveil Havalim #137... Go check it out..

The baby now has a name.

It is (drumroll please..)

Chaviva Chaya (or of you are pedantic about the transliteration spellings from Hebrew to English that might be spelled Khavivaw Khayauo - correct me in the comments... :-)

explanation:
Chaviva means beloved.
The Midrash says that all 7's are beloved (to God I guess). It goes through a whole list of 7's such as the 7th day being shabbos, the 7th month being tishrei (containing rosh hashana, yom kippur, sukkos..), the 7th land being Tevel (Eretz Yisrael) the 7th year being shmitta, etc..

This baby is our 7th child and she was born in a shmitta year, so Chaviva is appropriate.

Chaya was (one of) my Bubbys name(s).

The only question remaining is how to actually spell the name on the birth certificate and id card.. should it be Haviva Haya (as I prefer) or Chaviva Chaya (as my wife prefers)...

opinions?

For those of you who might be interested in joining discussions, or following discussions, on various aspects of shmitta, there is a group under Yahoo Groups called Shmitta. It is active and there is some great lively discussion going on.

It is great for keeping up with the latest shmitta news and speculation...

Head over to the Shmitta group page and register to join the group (and get the postings by email..)

I mentioned in the comments of a previous post about a lead I had in procuring OBD veggies at a very reasonable price.

Tonight I received my first "shipment" of OBD veggies. They are OBD from Moshav Kommemiyut (not Otzar Ha'Aretz). I received 3 kilo of cucumbers and 3 kilo of red peppers. You have to purchase in 3 kilo bundles. The cost was 3 NIS per kilo, and I paid 19 NIS (not sure why not 18, but the guy who brought it to me said 19).

The quality is excellent, though I am not 100% sur what I am going to do with 3 kilos of red peppers. They did not have tomatoes available today.

To compare, I stopped off in Aleph and at Shefa Shuk this evening to check the prices they were selling these veggies at. Aleph and Shefa are both large Haredi supermarket chains selling produce from "yevul Nochri" (Arab produce).

The price for red peppers in each of the two stores was 8.79 NIS and 8.91 NIS respectively.
The price for cucumbers in each of the two stores was 6.90 NIS and 6.99 NIS respectively.

The quality looked fine but I did not pay too close attention to that.

Clearly the savings of OBD are significant. I am not sure why the prices of Otzar Ha'Aretz OBD are so much higher than this other OBD. Otzar Ha'Aretz prices are very similar (give or take a bit) to the Arab produce being sold in the supermarkets.

I do not know if it is price gouging or if they simply have a shortage of produce or extra expenses due to their system or whatnot.

Anyways, this is another blip in the shmitta saga and series..

The Haredim have systematically been taking over the Israeli Rabbanut (Chief Rabbinate). Almost all new jobs open, be it in dayanus, mashgiach supervision, Rabbis, etc., have been going to Haredi applicants. This has been happening for a few years now, as the Haredi influence in the Rabbanut sphere has increased.

A prime example of this is how Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger was chosen. While his background is one of having studied in National Religious yeshivot, over the years he has become very close with Rav Elyashiv. His whole candidacy was pushed by Rav Elyashiv and his main contender at the time was Rav Ariel (Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan) who is a major figure in the National Zionist Rabbinate. Rabbi Metzger won the position with the help of Rav Elyashiv's pressure on the system.

The same is happening in many realms within the Rabbinate. The majority of jobs are going to Haredi candidates. They apply for these jobs because they pay decently and there is little else for many of these people to do. They are not trained for work after many years in yeshiva, so they become a mashgiach (for example) after a short course and then get a job in the Rabbanut.

The thing is that most of these people, and the Haredi public in general, do not rely on Rabbanut as a Rabbinic body. They will not rely on it for kashrut, because the Rabbanut uses lighter standards in its kashrut supervision (as it is making kashrut for the masses). They will generally not use the Rabbanut battei din, will not get married under the authority of the Rabbanut, etc., rather are using the services of the various stricter authorities, such as Badat"z and the like.

So they are taking over the Rabbanut but do not trust and use its services.

The National Religious, the natural public who always used the services of the Rabbanut, are starting to move away and form their own organizations. They are disturbed by the apparent takeover by the Haredim. They are disturbed by the changes in policy that make the Rabbanut follow stricter standards, which make it difficult on the general public to follow them.

An example of this is the recent debacle regarding shmitta and the use of the hetter mechira produce. The Rabbanut always allowed the use of Hetter mechira produce, while the haredi public eschewed such produce and during shmitta even stayed away from the Rabbanut more than usual because of it. The claim is that this food is not at all kosher and therefore in such instances the Rabbanut must be completely avoided (not just being lenient and I prefer to be more stringent - in this case it is not kosher at all).

Now that the Rabbanut has become more Haredi, the Rabbanut has decided while it generally accepts hetter mechira produce as kosher, each local authority would have the right to choose and set its own policy regarding hetter mechira. So we have a situation in which Rabbanuts in areas with few religious people who care are rejecting the use of hetter mechira. A result of this is many people in those areas are eating non-kosher. The restaurants refuse to pay the extra expense of non-hetter mechira produce, so they prefer to not get kosher supervision and then they buy whatever they want, unsupervised, and who knows what is happening and what produce, or meats, are being used.

As a result of this, last week we read in the news about a large group of Zionist Rabbis who are leaving the Rabbanut and setting up their own alternative organization to offer kashrut and other services.

Another example of this was announced today. The Rabbanut over the past two years has made conversion requirements much stricter, and has even come to loggerheads with Rabbinic organizations abroad over their standards (such as the RCA) and has even refused to accept conversions performed by them.

A group of 45 Zionist Rabbis has decided to set up their own alternative court for deciding on conversions. They will use more relaxed standards, as they claim that the standards have become increasingly strict and make it very difficult for very many people.

So the Haredim never relied on the Rabbanut and now the Zionist Rabbis are abandoning the Rabbanut.

The general public has always relied on the Rabbanut because they provided the services that were required without making life too difficult for them. The Rabbanut was really there to make kashrut and Judaism available for people who otherwise would likely not bother. The used relaxed standards, but they did so as a way of helping millions of Jews eat kosher food, when they would not if it was too difficult or expensive. They used relaxed standards when it came to everything, because they were dealing with a large public who otherwise would not look for an alternative. The place of the Rabbanut was, and remains, very important for the general public.

The general public however is become increasingly disenfranchised with the Rabbanut. As the haredi Rabbis take over more and more within the Rabbanut and the standards are being raised and made stricter in various aspects, many people are deciding to forgo the whole thing.

An example of this is Hertzliya. Because the local Rabbanut in Hertzliya decided to not accept hetter mechira produce, many stores and restaurants elected to drop their kashrut supervision completely. They prefer to eat non-kosher rather than go through the extra expense of stricter supervision. The job of the Rabbanut was always specifically for these people precisely. It was for those who would otherwise not eat kosher, but now will because the Rabbanut makes it accessible and reasonably priced.

So the Haredi public avoids the Rabbanut, the Zionist public is beginning to abandon the Rabbanut, and the general public is abandoning the Rabbanut.

I have friends in the National Religious community who have told me that this was precisely the goal of the Haredim when taking over the Rabbanut. They say the whole purpose was to destroy the Rabbanut and render it irrelevant.

That is a bit too conspiratorial for me to accept completely, but it might have some truth to it.

The destruction of the Rabbanut is almost complete. Soon there will be serious clashes between the various organizations sprouting up to fill the void the Rabbanut is creating. The confusion will be great, as people will not know what standards the various organizations are adhering to.

This can only be bad for klal yisrael.

Check out Mother in Israel's post describing her trip to a shmitta store and how they deal with shmitta in her area.

I am very impressed with the shmitta store - by us it is the small fruit and veggie section in a local makolet. We have nothing like the size of the carts that she displays...

Yesterday's deal of a body swap for a missing dead Israel civilian for two dead Hezbollah and one sick Lebanese also included other information not yet made public.

Rumor has it that the information includes information on Ron Arad's fate.

While the info is still not public so we have no idea what it is or how reliable it is, today marks a special day. Today is the 21st anniversary of Ron Arad's captivity.

I hope that this day brings us closer to knowing what happened to Ron Arad and bringing him home, alive or dead.

This is the latest model of the Shabbos elevator....

I am a fan of segulahs. I enjpy finding out about segulahs I have not previously heard of. I am curious as to how the various segulahs develop and how they become popular.

That being said, I do not do that many segulahs. There are some of the basic ones that everyone does, such as the simanim on Rosh Hashana, Tashlich, etc.. but most segulahs, even though they interest me, I will not perform.

I just heard about two new segulahs. They are both associated with Rav Chaim Kanievsky. (both of the following are culled from the recent Mishpacha newspaper (Hebrew edition).

1. Employees of a bank recently had been suffering with various problems with their feet/legs (regel in Hebrew). One employee went to Rav Kanievsky to ask about the phenomenon.

Rav Kanievsky asked if they work during the holiday (also regel in Hebrew)?

When the employee responded that they work as usual during the holiday, Rav Kanievsky said if you will not work during the regel, you will not have pains in the regel.

The employees decided that during the upcoming holiday, while they had to work, they would only do actions that were required for the holiday, and nothing extra. They encouraged customers to do as much as possible from their homes (via internet or telephone banking). Other customers who had to come in to perform transactions were encouraged to only do those which were necessary for the duration of the holiday and anything that could be pushed off until after the holiday was.

As an aside, the report goes, most customers happily acquiesced to the request to delay any unnecessary transactions. Some did not and felt they came in to perform a transaction and even though it was not urgent, they wanted it performed. The clerks performed these transactions, as they were obligated to, but were surprised when asking the customer to sign the slips, those same customers refused claiming it was not necessary for the holiday.... (I guess sensitivity to the holiness of the holiday goes only oneway..)

2. Somebody approached Rav Kanievsky asking for his blessing for a new project. The project was suggested during the Second Lebanon War. The project was to work with the electric company to spread out the risk of a missile/rocket landing on and destroying a power station. To minimize the risk, he recommended they establish many small power stations spread out around the country, rather than just having the large stations.

He recommended the project be paid for in conjunction by the Electric Company and by the Haredi public who would also use these smaller stations as shabbos generators.

Rav Kanievsky gave him his blessings. (Rav Kanievsky is very much in favor of using generators for electricity on shabbos and not electricity from the regular power stations).

He then mentioned that if there would be a fault and one of these stations would go down on shabbos, the residents affected by it would have to be automatically switched over to the general grid.

Rav Kanievsky said that it is unacceptable and he would not agree to it.

When asked what about sick people who need medical equipment and the like? We cannot leave them with no electricity?

Rav Kanievsky responded that there would no longer be any sick people.

The fellow left astounded. he later asked a different Rav to explain what Rav Kanievsky meant.

The Rav told him the following story: A resident of the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood of Jerusalem approached Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and asked him - I see you use the generator for your electricity on shabbos. On the other hand in the street you benefit form the electricity of the city (non-generator) and in shul as well. Does that mean i can deduce from this that one could rely on the electricity from the Electric Company because they are producing electricity for sick people in the area as well, such as hospitals or people who need medical equipment?

Rav Auerbach responded that he cannot deduce that. he explained that hospitals each have their own generators. Once there is a problem with the electricity and the hospital transfers to the generator, one would no longer be able to rely on the general electricity (because the hospital no longer is).

So, the fellow continued, how does the Rav rely on the electricity in shul and in the streets?

Rav Auerbach responded that it is not because of the hospitals, but there are sick people in the neighborhood who need medical equipment;inhalers, oxygen, dialysis machines, etc. Because they require the electricity for their equipment, based on that one can be lenient and use the electricity.

The Rav concluded based on this story we can understand Rav Kanievsky's statement (above). Hashem put sick people in the various neighborhoods in order to save us from transgressing the prohibition of using electricity on shabbos. Because of them we are able to use electricity. However, once the whole problem is resolved (by creating these smaller power stations), there will no longer be a need for these sick people.

So if the problem with electricity on shabbos is solved, there will be no more sick people.

Haveil Havalim #136 is up at the founder SoccerDad...