A couple of weeks ago there was an incident of a woman sitting in the wrong section of a Mehadrin bus from Bet Shemesh to Bnei Brak. The woman ended up in an altercation with the local extremists and she refused to switch seats and move to the back of the bus. After they beat her and a soldier who came to her assistance, they fled the scene and disappeared.

The story has made it beyond the local scene and was included in a writeup on Haredim and Bet Shemesh in the NY Times recently. It was discussed ad nauseum in the blog world (including here briefly), along with by Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz and others.

Israel's channel 2 did a news clip on the incident and interviewed the woman who was involved, and the soldier as well. I had suggested, not knowing any differently, that maybe the woman did not want to move because she was elderly or not well.

It turns out she is a young woman and I see no reasonable reason for her to not have moved (other than maybe she was tired and hates the back of the bus which vibrates more and is hotter). She is wrong for alighting a Mehadrin bus that has rules of separate seating and sitting in the mens section.

It reminds me of a story that I witnessed once. There used to be a private van/bus service to Bnei Brak that was mehadrin, before Egged set up a mehadrin line. I used to travel regularly on this van because it was the quickest way for me to get to work (for a while, pre-train days). One time a couple gets on the bus and they sit together in the middle of the van. The driver (who was an Arab and did not really care) told him to move to the front and not sit with the women (he was making the other women clearly uncomfortable).

He started to scream that he wants to sit with his wife and nobody can stop him and there is nothing wrong with it. I happen to have been in agreement with his position however I felt that if he felt it to be so, he should go on the regular bus line. It is wrong of him, despite there being nothing wrong with it, to abuse the services provided and not follow the rules. You want to sit with your wife, do not ride the mehadrin line (assuming there is an alternative).

When he screamed the driver left him alone and nobody else really cared and the women who were uncomfortable left him alone and said nothing. So he stayed where he was. I said something to him afterwards that he is riding a private van service that has rules and despite his being generally right, he is using someone else's service and he should follow their rules. He brushed it off saying he had every right.

That being said, despite the fact that this girl is likely to be wrong and should have moved to the back or ridden a non-mehadrin line (assuming there is one), that gives the assaulters no right to have attacked her. They could have protested to Egged for not enforcing the rules. They shjould have found a different way of dealing with the issue.

Anyways, Channel 2 in Israel just ran a short piece interviewing some of those involved. It also touches on some of the larger issues and the "dati-leumi protest" that took place last week.

I am not going to translate it, but the Hebrew is not difficult.

Welcome to the 140th edition of Haveil Havalim. I am calling this the potpourri edition because it is a mixture of a lot of different categories of posts. I decided not to separate them into categories as there is a lot of overlap. It is pretty much potluck.

There are some really great posts in this edition. When preparing this edition, I looked for posts that were not submitted. I have found a lot of new blogs in the process.

Most of these bloggers just do not know about HH yet so I took the liberty of submitting their posts myself. I asked some of them permission and some I did not. If I did not ask you permission and you did not want your post publicized, I apologize. If you let me know, I will remove it. The new blogs and the other blogs whose posts I pulled without them being submitted are all just mixed in, so you have to look through it and find the posts that look interesting to you. Don't just expect to see the usual lineup of bloggers.

This HH, in the process, has become much bigger than I originally planned or anticipated. I can't imagine anyone will have the time to read all or even most of the posts within. Peruse it. Pick out what looks interesting to you. And meet some new bloggers.

Now it is time to tip our hat to our to Soccer Dad. Soccer Dad is a heavy duty old time blogger. He is the founder of Haveil Havalim and it is due to his management and dedication to HH that we have this weekly roundup. So here is a shout out to you SD!!

And now on to the posts!



Dodgeblogium recommends a DVD saying Farewell Israel discussing the real intentions of Islam.

Barbara talks about the Islamofascists...

Friar Yid describes who his 3 Jewish role models would be...

DafNotes discusses did Yerushalmi women need more or less perfume....

Batya, a teacher, gives us her explanation and point of view of the teacher's strike in Israel which has kept high schools closed for nearly a month now...

Barry Rubin talks about the media and the resulting comedy club..

stillinshidduchim is not playing by the rules but also has no solution for her shidduch crisis

Hesh from Frum Satire put up a video rant... It is pretty funny so go check it out... and for some laughs check out his other posts as well...I can see you nodding in agreement already with a lot of what he writes...

flatbushgal wonders if she should be going to study in Israel and if people are honest about why they go...

DixieYid tells a great story about R' Chaim Shmuelevitz for shabbos....

Snapped Shot compares an Arab protest and a right-wing protest on basically the same issue and shows how the media is not fair and balanced...

Backspin shows how the Arab countries exploited their Jewish citizens and talks about the possibility of the Right of Return

the Rabbi Without a Cause has a cause right now and that would be that every shul should have a doctor....

The History News Network talks finances for the Palestinians and how they need change...

Ben Chorin talks about some supreme court issues, including the affect of the recent shmitta ruling...

The Wolf wants to know where we are going as a society...

Lubab No More listened to a tape from R' Orlofsky and found some things he said interesting. Being that I know R' Orlofsky personally and went to yeshiva with him (he was and is older than me though) I know R' Orlofsky as a straight talking, pulls no punches kind of guy...that is probably why Lubab found him interesting...

Miriam talks about some of her heroes...in honor of a belated Positive Blogging Week.

Mazel tov to Da Jew and Da Wife on their recent anniversary...

Joe Settler salutes the residents and government of Gaza... and I am giving Joe a second link here because of what he writes about the recent situation during a Beitar Yerushalayim soccer (football) match when some of the fans booed and chanted during the minute of silence for Rabin...

ProfK compares sorting socks to shidduchim...

Webgirl went through her mom's jewelery box (with her mom) and got some surprising pieces....
Rafi G (that would be me) wrote an amazing story about the daughters of Lot that Reb Moshe Feinstein had been involved in.

The Lion of Zion talks about the truth of the level of Israeli deterrence....

Gabriel Ironheart gives us his take on some of the various incidents of Haredi violence, including those in Bet Shemesh and the counter-protest by the Dati Leumi community...

Orthomom comments on a Jewish woman who was fired for taking off of work on Rosh Hashana - the company gave a reasonable excuse, but, she asks, would they have forced a Christian to come in on Christmas?

The Rubicon talks about Jewish Geneaology (not the game but actual geneaology) among Holocaust survivors and an Israeli radio program that helps people find lost relatives... I have heard this program on the radio occassionally and found it very interesting to hear some of these stories...

The Fiery Spirited Zionist shows how the IAEA has been protecting Iran...

Schvach Yid talks about kristallnacht, whose anniversary was November 9..

Seraphic Press reviews the new album, Rock of Sages, of Moshe Skier, a.k.a. PsychoToddler...

Treppenwitz gives in and discusses Yitzchak Rabin and Yigal Amir and has some things to say that will probably get him arrested because on this topic nobody really wants to discuss the truths, they just want the legend and myth.

HubsCubs has now met Bibi Netanyahu, always a memorable experience, for the third time. For some reason he thinks he deserves an ice cream for it...

Jameel gives us a frightening story describing some of what really happened during the riots in Pekiin last week and wonders why the media has covered it up..

Rabbi Wolpoe points us to the rules of psak....

Shmitta Rediscovered comments on the suggestion of a possible solution for the shmitta controversy..

Esser Agaroth talks about minor mishaps being part of daily life, even in the realm of security

The Big Felafel gives some funny examples of the language known as Hebrish..

Hirschel Tzig reviews a new book that he found interesting because it shows the human side of many of the gedolim... and it is published by ArtScroll!!

CosmicX goes over some more issues of the annual RabinFest..

Bad for Shidduchim describes some of the various shidduch euphemisms and explains what they really mean...

Baruch Who? discusses what Reuters could possibly mean when using the word "gesture" to caption an image...

A Simple Jew shows us what Esav must really have looked like!

Neil, the Modern Uberdox, has issues with going into a new supermarket and ends up talking about his options with Design Thinking..

Batya responds to Elliot Jager of the Jerusalem Post about his method of publishing op-eds..

Rebecca from Jewess comments on a shul's womens balcony...

Chayyei Sarah sent a letter to the NY Times about buying homes in Jerusalem

tnspr569 had a birthday this week and catches up with us after a short blogging break

Jewish Blogmeister lets us know about a new kosher restaurant opening up in town..

Sabra made some chicken soup for the onset of winter...

A lot of other bloggers discussed this topic as well, but Serandez brought the great article by Rabbi Horowitz on violence, specifically Haredi violence and how it should not be tolerated.

Mystical Paths has a wonderful story to describe davening...

The Israeli Satire Lab suggests a new police force to make sure Israelis continue to ignore reality in pursuit of peace...

Snoopy the Goon honors Eliezer Ben Yehuda on his recent yahrtzeit... yeah, that one - the guy who revived the Hebrew language...

A Mother in Israel wrote up a description of the various publications that get placed in her family's shul every shabbos and mentions some of the big issues of the day that they discuss... Also, congrats to MOI for her being a finalist in the international Weblog awards. She came out with a very respectable showing... Congrats to all the other jblogs who participated as well, including David von treppenwitz, Dry Bones, Random Thoughts, Israel Matzav and any others I might have missed...

Am Echad writes about how much the ongoing teachers strike has cost Israel so far... the numbers are staggering...

WestBankMama is feeling rebellious and displays it by ignoring the law that says you have to turn on your headlights... hope she stays safe..

It's Almost Supernatural thinks South Africa poses a great danger to Israel.. in the UN..

JammieWearingFool tells us about a concert that was supposed to happen at the site of a former Nazi death camp...

SoccerDad wants to know if the Arabs really want what Israel is,seemingly, ready to give them at Annapolis...

Here is Meryl Yourish's Bat Mitzvah speech... 3 to 5 thousand readers a day? wow!

The New Republic offers a humorous story of Menachem Begin and how he talked down the Pres of the Southern Baptist Convention...

Corner Point always wanted to break out of her box, until she learned the lesson one day that everybody has their box and need to grow within it...

Mottel made some dessert.. and chewed over some interesting facts

Daniel Saunders gives some background and commentary on the book of Yoel

Yisrael Medad writes about the left wing author who refused to shake Olmert's hand at a ceremony... and compares it to when a rightwinger refused...

Yisrael in his Arutz Sheva blog discusses the booing of Rabin at the soccer/football match this past week...

Carl in Jerusalem points out how the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank (yes, the ones that were thrown out of Gaza during the takeover by the extremist Hamas terrorists) just transferred a lot of money to pay the salaries of Hamas officials.. Kind of makes you wonder if they really are not working together as they say.. and I am giving Carl an extra link because he has an important piece on the upcoming Annapolis conference in which he compares Condi Rice to Tom Brady - the quarterback of the New England Patriots..

Moshe in the Sin of the Expulsion Blog talks about Binyamin Ben Eliezer's recent statements declaring the Disengagement to be a complete mistake.

Come Running has a free ticket but does not know where to go...

Jack laments a bagel place that closed down...

Yid With Lid suggests that if Hitler were alive today he would likely sue Bin Laden for plagiarism....

Dixie Yid learned a lesson from an inconsiderate meshulach..

Likelihood of Success discusses British anti-semitism..

Elder of Ziyon points out that Hamas is just an inconvenient bump in the road and should not disturb the Annapolis conference....

The Shadchun has a funny joke about an 80 year old wife getting arrested for shoplifting...

And that's a wrap... I hope you all have a good week....

If you go to shul on shabbos in Israel you will likely find a variety of publications. They get printed on topics ranging from political to parsha to kabbala to cultural to youth to you name it. For a good description see MOI's post on the subject.

There is one publication that gets around to most of the country and that is the one called Sichot Ha'Shavua (talk of the week) put out by one of the various Chabad organizations. I do not read this one for the most part. It does have one section I enjoy and read when I get a hold of it. That would be the section of Jewish Life. It profiles a person who is very active in his community or somebody who has a very interesting story. I find this profile very interesting.

I just got hold of this week's edition and the profile subject is very inspiring, so I will retell it here.

It is Monday night. One in the morning. a six month old baby is rushed to surgery at the Shneider Medical Center in Petah Tikva. After the doors to the surgery room shut, the phone rings at the National Tehillim Telephone Headquarters rings. The father of the baby, who had gotrne hond of the card with the phone number on it (in the hospital) requested, "Can someone please say tehillim for us? Our baby is going into surgery for a complicated situation.."

The father explains,"The baby's situation deteriorated suddenly and they quickly decided the baby had to go right into surgery." I could not even consult with anybody, it was so fast. I called the Tehillim hotline. The person who answered the phone asked for the names of the child and the mother. While still on the line I heard him dial on another line. He first called a group of people who were in Meron at the grave of the Rashbi. Then he called someone by the Kotel. then he called someone who was in Hebron at the Me'arat Ha'Machpela.It was very emotional to know that prayers can be said so quickly from these sites in such a critical situation."

"that was not all. A few minutes later someone calls me from the hotline and asks where I am and where the surgery is taking place and who is the doctor. I gave him all thedetails, while trying to figure out what that has to do with a tehillim hotline. A few minutes later a senior nurse comes in and approaches us presenting herself. She got us information and apprised us of the situation and progress. A senior doctor came to explain what is happening. This nurse was an angel."

"We asked who sent her to us. We were shocked when her response was she is one of the volunteers for the Tehillim hotline and they had called her about us. In the morning, when she could no longer stay with us, a different nurse came and replaced her. For 14 hours straight for the duration of the surgery we had a nurse by our side helping in whatever way she could. And when in between thigns, she sat and said tehillim.


The Tehillim hotline is founded and run by Rav Mordechai Mendel, a 32 year old avreich. He says, "the goal was to do kindness for no gain and via tehillim to do kindness for all types of people."

They run a computerized system 24 hours a day and whoever requests to say tehillim for any need, can call and be recommended what to say, and for whatever need for other people to say tehillim for. We also organize large prayer sessions where we daven for those who need assistance."

Anybody who calls requesting tehillim be said for him or his family is answered. "I sometimes ask for a few details of the sick person and the person calling. I get a database of chessed. I am an agent between people who need help and professionals who volunteer their assistance to the needy. We also have consulting for medical issues and we can offer direction. There are people who can be found at all hours at the graves of tzaddikim or other holy places and I call them and ask them to daven for different names."

It concludes by supplying the number for th tehillim hotline, if you want info or to volunteer. Maybe to request tehillim be said is at the same number... the number is 1-700-700-721 ext. 9

Kol Ha'Kavod.

The first is a video of a game that took place Monday in Europe. An Israeli plays for the Liverpool team. Yossi Benayoun is his name. He scored a hat-trick (I know what that means from hockey - 3 goals) and added 2 assists... This is the first hat trick of the Champions League season and the first of an Israeli player in the league... (I am no soccer/football fan, but it is newsworthy and his athletic abilities should be applauded)..

the second clip was of the biggest news item of the week in Israel. A match between Beitar Jerusalem and some other team (I think Maccabbi Haifa but I am not sure) was the setting. As you can see in the clip they chose to memorialize the murder of Yitzchak Rabin at the game by having the teams wear shirts saying "Dai La'alimut" - no more violence. As they announce the memorial that Yitzchak Rabin was murdered, a section of Beitar fans broke out in cheers and booed Rabin and cheered Amir. (I first saw the Beitar clip at the Muqata)

Yevul Nochri. Non-Jewish (grown) produce. This really means Arab produce, as that is the only non-Jewish produce sold in Israel (though there is a very minute amount of imported produce from Europe and Asia).

Because Jews have to make their fields hefker for the shmitta year, and Jews are not allowed to work the fields and do business with produce grown in shmitta, the kashrus organizations have found a workaround. This is the workaround that is the most prevalent in the Haredi communities, and is also found in other areas though not as prevalent. The workaround is to buy produce grown by Arabs.

This works because Arabs do not have a mitzva of keeping shmitta. they can work the land this year as they do any other year, and they can do business with the produce they grow.

If you do not keep Hetter Mechira, this is the only other solution to attaining vegetables during the shmitta year (other than OBD which I am not including here because the time period of OBD is short (finishing over the next couple of weeks) and the availability is severely limited not rendering it feasible for the masses) is to use Yevul Nochri/Arab Produce.

There is some debate as to whether Arab produce grown in (halchik) Israel has kedusha or not. The ramification of this debate is whether you can eat veggies like in any other year, throwing out the peels, letting your kid mash his tomato all over his hair, smear mashed potatoes all over the floor, etc. or whether such produce needs to be treated with holiness, similar to the way OBD produce is treated.

The debate is based on a larger question of whether an Arab (or any non-Jew) has the ability to remove the kedusha of the land simply by purchasing a tract.

The common custom is known as Minhag Yerushalayim, considers Arab produce to not retain any holiness. So according to that you can let your kids go to the annual tomato fight in Tel Aviv (I think) using Arab grown tomatoes.

The opposing opinion is known as Minhag Bnei Brak. The Chazon Ish decided that Arab produce does retain its holiness and must be treated respectfully. Most people in Bnei Brak follow this custom.

As true of many chumros, the stricter custom of Bnei Brak has begun to spread among the Haredi public of other areas. Even though other places always kept the custom of Jerusalem on this issue, we are finding this shmitta year that many are accepting upon themselves the custom of Bnei Brak.

In my community, the various Rabbis have all told their congregations that they do not need to treat such produce with holiness, as per the custom of Jerusalem. There is one Rabbi of a large congregation however who told his congregation to be machmir and treat it with kedusha. Along with that there are individuals who decided to be machmir.

Many are against using Arab produce for various reasons. Probably the most common reason is the nationalist aspect. People do not want to buy Arab produce because doing so "supports the terrorists". If you buy Arab grown cucumbers (for example), your money is going into the pockets of an Arab. Often that money will end up in part by the PA (taxes) and inadvertently, if not directly, will end up being used (in all likelihood) by terrorists to by guns and ammo which will likely be used against fellow Jews. So the thinking goes, if you buy Arab produce you are supporting terrorists.

Another reason people are against Arab produce is a more halachik based reason. You never really know where the produce is coming from. Arab produce is, for unknown reasons, very expensive. Basic items that normally sell for 2-3 NIS per kilo are selling for anywhere between 7 and 10 NIS per kilo.

That means that a farmer selling his produce elsewhere for 3 NIS per kilo goes into a Haredi supermarket and see the same veggies selling for 10 NIS a kilo. he then has to figure out how he can charge so much.

Often, and it does happen often, the farmers will go to the Arabs and sneak it into the Jewish consumers via the Arab (sometimes they are caught and more often they are not). He will sell it to the Arab who will then pass it off as his own. Now the Jewish farmer is selling in Jerusalem for 10 NIS per kilo the same cucumbers he was charging 3 NIS for in Tel Aviv. Much more profit.

In addition, the farmer often has his market limited. Maybe he sells Hetter Mechira produce and the Haredim will not buy from him. Maybe he has no kashrut at all because he does not follow the shmitta laws, and demand for his produce is even more limited. Selling it off through an Arab as if it is Arab produce allows him to pass off his produce when he would otherwise have a very difficult time finding buyers. (And he gets a lot of profit because of the high prices).

These two problems are very serious because when it happens, the buyer is inadvertently eating produce that is for all intents and purposes, not kosher.

So some people avoid it for these reasons - if you buy Arab produce there is a reasonable chance it is not kosher at all.

Another reason not to buy Arab produce is the issue of ownership. It is extremely difficult to determine who is the rightful owner of a piece of property in Israel. Land has to be registered in Taboo and often that land is not registered correctly, making it difficult to determine who really is the owner. Sometimes the Jewish owner will take on or already have an Arab partner and they will just say the land is owned by the Arab, even if it really is not. Sometimes there are pieces of land that were owned by Jews over the years and due to the restrictions on the Jews Arabs squatted on the lands (pre-State) taking ownership. Then they might technically own the land in question but halachically that might still be considered as owned by a Jew.

In any of these examples, and there are more, if the land is secretly (or without even being known) owned by a Jew, all that produce is considered not-kosher.

Others simply say it is Arab produce and the kashrut organization certifying it has to deal with those issues. If they say it is fine, that is fine by me. This is an attitude people (including myself) use regarding any kashrut issue - it has a hechsher and the mashgiach has to deal with those issues, not me..

There is another issue - health. Some people say that eating yevul nochri is dangerous. They say the Arabs use lower quality materials - manure, sprays, water, sewage, whatever. I do not believe this to be true, even if it is a bit lesser quality than jewish produce (I do not know if it is or is not, but even if it is that does not mean they use sewage instead of water and it does nott mean it is dangerous to consume).

I suspect that such accusations are baseless and are more similar to the blood libels we Jews were always accused of, such as poisoning the wells, causing the Plague, spreading AIDS among the Palestinians..etc.

I know some people claim that last shmitta they know people who got Hepatitis or other diseases from eating Arab produce that had been grown with sewage. I do not know how they can be so sure of what the source for the illness was.

I know plenty of people who eat Arab produce exclusively and they are as healthy (or unhealthy) as always. So, personally, I would discount this accusation.

This past week's Mishpacha newspaper (Hebrew) had another interesting psak from rav Kanievsky.

Rav Kanievsky is a big supporter of using generators for electricity on shabbos rather than regular electricity. This chumroh (some say basic din) has become fairly popular among the yeshivish public over the past five years. It has become popular despite the great expense involved in hooking up a generator.

An avreich who lives in Ramat Gan came to Rav Kanievsky. Because he lives in Ramat Gan and not in Bnei Brak (the two towns border each other), he does not have the ability to join a generator, as Ramat Gan is not a charedi neighborhood, and he is too far from Bnei Brak to be hooked up to theirs.

The only option remaining for this avreich to have mehadrin electricity for shabbos would be to hook up his own personal generator, or a powerful battery pack.

The problem with this is the expense. Doing this would require this avreich to go into great debt, as he cannot afford it.

The avreich asked Rav Kanievsky what he should do - should he go into debt in order to apply this chumroh?

he asked Rav Kanievsky because he knows Rav Kanievsky is a great supporter of using generators on shabbos, but on the other hand he also knows Rav Kanievsky to be very against people going into debt.

Rav Kanievsky paskened that to attain kosher electricity for shabbos it is worth going into debt. Rav Kanievsky said it falls into the category of "Borrow for me and I will pay you back" (if you borrow money to honor the shabbos, the money will be repaid back - Hashem will find a way to send you money to cover it).

I do not know why Rav Kanievsky did not tell him to move to Bnei Brak where he would not have such a great expense as there is already a generator there. Maybe the rent is too high so it would make his debt even worse....

I have no idea what I did to win this honor, but I am listed as "Website of the Day" at The Jews Report....

I was told this fascinating story last night and it can be found in the introduction to the sefer Igros Moshe vol. 8. There the author writes a brief biography of Reb Moshe and this is one of the stories included...

In 5682 (around 1921 I guess) Reb Moshe Feinstein was the Rav of the town Luban. Somebody from the town fell il with a very unusual disease in which his tongue swelled up.

The doctors could not figure it out, but he was on his deathbed from this illness. Reb Moshe went to visit him. When Reb Moshe walked in, the man sent everyone else out of the room saying he had to talk to Reb Moshe in private.

Everyone left and he turned to Reb Moshe and this is what he told him. he said he knows why he contracted this illness. He said that the week before (which had been Parshas Va'Yeira) he had given a drasha in which he berated the daughter's of Lot for what they had done. He spoke very harshly about their act and criticized them especially harshly for the brazenness of naming the child after the deed and thereby publicizing it to everyone. He questioned why they merited to have the Messiah descend from them (the Messiah is a descendant of King David who is a descendant of Ruth the convert from Moab), considering what they had done.

He said that the night before 2 elderly women came to him in a dream and identified themselves as the daughters of Lot. They were upset at the way he had spoken about them and wanted to respond. They told him, so he related to Reb Moshe, that he should not have accused them for living depraved lives and committing such shameful acts. They said we are from the family of Avraham. Everything we did had a purpose.

They explained that they thought they were the last people on earth to survive the destruction and they had to ensure the continuity of mankind. That required them committing such an act even though it was heinous. They had no other choice. However they felt that they had to publicize it because if they did not then future generations would make a deity out of the child born to them because they would consider it a virgin birth considering no other man was around and they would not cohabit with their own father.

To avoid the result of people thinking it to be a virgin birth and possibly making a religion out of them, they decided that they had to publicize what they did, no matter how shameful - to show everyone that there is no such thing as birth without a father.

They concluded that that is exactly the reason they merited having Messiah descend from them - because of the self--sacrifice they displayed in this act.

And they said that is why you have to be punished measure for measure for the harsh words you spoke about us.

He concluded telling the story to Reb Moshe, he turned to the wall, and passed away.

DA sent me this very nice video of Rav Sheinberg via Gruntig....I have no idea what the occasion was for which they made this video....

We all know what happened to the first, and so far last, Israeli who went into space. Ilan Ramon flew to space on the NASA space shuttle which exploded upon re-entry.

Now you can go up and hope for better results. Being that it is commercially run and not governmentally run, this expedition might come out better, but then again who knows...

Virgin Galactic is selling tickets in countries around the world for the first non-astronaut flight to space. The flight is expected to happen around the end of 2009. Tickets are now starting to be sold in Israel. The cost of a ticket is $200,000 and 200 people have already bought tickets, with 500 tickets remaining...

Hurry up and get your tickets while they are still available... you do not want to have to buy them from guys outside of the ticket office scalping them for much higher prices...

Haveil Havalim 139 is being hosted at A Mother in Israel. She did a great job.

MOI is also a finalist in the Weblog awards under the Middle East category. I always like to vote for the underdog, and she is competing against some real big names, so head on over and cast your vote...you can vote once every 24 hours...

Haveil Havalim #140 will be hosted right here at Life in Israel. I am considering, for technical reasons, including only submission per blog (instead of the usual "as many as you submit"), so try to pick for submission the one you really want included, or I might be the one choosing for you...

I just heard the following joke....


Disclaimer: Crude and tasteless joke coming... if you do not like those kind of jokes do not read this post...
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They had to remove the IV from Ariel Sharon................ because during shmitta you cannot water your vegetables....

The WAKF on the Temple Mount has been systematically destroying all archaeological evidence of Jewish history on the Temple Mount. They dig without authorization, they use heavy machinery for digging, and they ignore all archaeological finds. This has been going on for a while and Israel has done nothing to stop it.

Nitzana Darshan Leitner is suing the WAKF for this. I received a few weeks ago a notice that she was preparing the lawsuit and was asking people to register as plaintiffs in the case. Being that Har Ha'Bayit is dear to me, I decided I would register.

So today Leitner filed her suit against the Wakf and I am a plaintiff. My lawyer better go after them like a bulldog and rip 'em to shreds. Leitner is famous for many high profile cases, including having won lawsuits for victims against the PA for terrorism

This is a couple months old, but someone just sent this to me (again) and it is still enjoyable... so enjoy


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