The following image was copied from a pamphlet that was distributed to the bochurim in the Elon Moreh yeshiva..


The marked part instructs the students to spray some deodorant on their hands before pesach and taste it. if the taste is putrid, then the deodorant can be used on Pesach.

I never heard of the "Deodorant Taste test" before...

Newsweek has published their now annual list of the 50 Top Influential Rabbis in America.

The list is diverse and interesting. What particularly struck me is how few Orthodox rabbis are on the list.

It definitely should be looked at as a kick in the pants. I think we sometimes get ahead of ourselves and think how important and influential we are, and how we are the leaders of Judaism with everybody else trying to catch up or somehow "hang" with us.

This list can, and perhaps should, be a reminder to us of our place in Judaism. Maybe it means we have to work harder to present religious/orthodox Judaism to the people in a more positive light. Maybe it means we have to work harder to be more influential and be more involved in the leadership of Judaism. Whatever the specific message might be, this list should somehow spur orthodox leadership to do more and better.

Dov Bear and Israelity Bites both linked to the Washington Post article about women in haredi papers and how the Yated took out the women ministers from the photograph of the new ministers..


The truth is that there is nothing new about this, other than the fact that the Washington Post picked it up. The ridiculous policy has been picked up and written about and criticized many a time.

The only thing different about it this time is as Israelity Bites points out that instead of just whiting out the faces or blurring the picture as they usually do, or instead of cropping them out of the picture, they did something different this time.

They replaced the women with pictures of other men. Not just random men, but they cut up the whol epicture and moved people around to fill the gaps. They filled the gaps created by the missing women, by moving Ariel Attias over to Limor Livnat's spot, and moved Moshe Kachlon to fill in for Sofa Landver. Obviously they then had to fill the spots created from moving Attias and Kachlon over. So while I do not see the whole pictuire, as it is cut off at the ends, they either moved other people over to fill in the gaps, or left the big gaps.

It seems like a journalistic ethical problem to doctor photos like that. Even if the policy of removing womens faces is justified, for argument's sake, white out the face or leave the space blank, but to then move people around? It seems pointless and ethically wrong. if they openly doctor photos like that for more than just "religious reasons" (i.e. removing Limor Livnat could be understood for religious reasons, but moving someone else over has no justification or need), who is to say any other picture displayed in the newspaper is reliable and not doctored?

The Zoabi interview that Samuel Sokol ran last week in a number of media channels, including the Jerusalem Post and Israel's Channel 2 has been causing quite a stir.

It turns out Zoabi attacked Sokol and says he was unfair and misportrayed her statements. unfortunately for her, Sokol has a recording of the whole interview which shows that she said what he claimed she said.

Zoabi demanded the Jpost retract the interview, as she never approved it, and she says she had asked Sokol to send it to her for approval. Unfortunately, again for her, that is a breach of ethics and it goes against the code of ethics Zoabi herself wrote for journalists in which she herself established that:

12. Independence / nonpartisanship

- "Journalists are to refrain from complying with directions, directives, instructions or threats that relate to his or her journalistic work that are issued by any external party, and in particular by advertisers, an official institutions, or political advertisers." Emphasis added.

So she claims that in her need to cover up her real views from being exposed to Israelis, Sokol should have been obligated to go against what she considers journalistic ethis. And there is the small fact that he never agreed or obligated himself to attain her approval before publishing.

Sokol was interviewed by Yishai Fleisher on Arutz 7 to discuss the interview with Zoabi - they play clips from the original interview....

the Jerusalem Post, considering all the above, stands by the interview and refused to pull it.

It is time Israel woke up and called a spade a spade. the Israeli Arabs, are not necessarily loyal to the state and only try to keep it quiet from the public eye.
What amazes me is that she said it in the interview and then expected it not to be published.

You can get all the details on Sokol's blog... including the A7 interview

On Thursday they were talking on the radio about an incident in which a monkey had escaped from the Safari in Ramat Gan and was running around the streets of Ramat Gan-Tel Aviv (the monkey was subsequently captured in a tree and returned to the Safari).

I heard them interviewing someone from the Safari - I think it was the director. The conversation was fairly humorous as they discussed how the monkey escaped and if it is dangerous and residents shold beware - the radio show host let out a sigh of relief when she was told that the monkey is not dangerous - she said something to the effect of "so we don't have a King Kong running loose in Tel Aviv?".

The director being interviewed said something very interesting. He said that the monkey is definitely scared and regretting his decision to jump the fence. The monkeys are not familiar with the environment outside the walls of the safari, and he is definitely feeling pressure as he does not know where to go, where to get food, and sees nothing familiar. The monkeys, he said, do not like change.

It seems we are not so unlike... we humans also do not like change. Most of us (myself definitely included) tend to stick with the familiar and rarely go out and take risks in unfamiliar territories.

Lawman's Thoughts on Life's post about his personal situation and the options he is considering is a perfect example of this.

Whoever sends a terrorist with an axe in his hand to kill innocent children, should not be so bold to come afterwards and preach to us in the name of justice and peace. the Palestinian terror organizations again are displaying their true faces in front of the whole world. Our hearts are with the dwellers of Gush Etzion in this difficult time. Anybody who murders in cold blood should know that terror attacks will only bring a strengthening of Jewish settlement in this area.


-----MK, and Director of the Likud Party, Zeev Elkin

1. Minister Gilad Erdan: Lieberman statements reflect positions of Likud, gov`t

2. Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman has already made changes in his new office- he started a new minyan for mincha after work hours followed by a shiur. Hopefully it is the start of making the Justice Ministry and all of the government with more of a Jewish flavor... (source: NRG)

3. The Hermon site will be open to the public for free during pesach. They want the public to be able to enjoy the late winter - Spring Snow. Of course, using the equipment - skis and snowboards and all that stuff will cost money, but at least you can enter for free and just enjoy the snow if you so wish. (source: Ynet)

4. The Rabbanut will be putting special barcode readers in supermarkets. These barcode scanners will block chametz products from being sold inadvertently. Often stores just block off a section of chametz shelves. Somebody might still take, whether by accident or on purpose, a chametz product to purchase. the cashier might not notice and ring it up. This will not allow the product to be scanned and sold. of course this is only good for stores that will only sell by scanning the product. Go to a smaller store where they are not so careful and this will not help. (source: Jpost)

of course, we might be completely better off if we cancel the chametz laws, as Moshe Feiglin wants to do. Doing so would lower the antagonism towards it...

Inter Aliya thought up a new chumra for pesach - no cleaning because of chukas hagoyim, since our cleaning is more like spring cleaning.

then he found out that the origin of spring cleaning is Pesach cleaning!

So which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Today I had to go to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. After numerous delays, it was finally a good time to give in the applications for a social security card for my 16 month old daughter.

Social Security services do not require an appointment, so it should have been easy. I checked the website to confirm the times I could walk in and give in the form. I confirmed the paperwork I needed to bring along, and considering the stars were properly aligned and I had everything in order it looked like today would finally be "the day".

I clear my pockets in advance, taking nothing with me but the papers I needed for the Embassy and some money for taxis (and some just in case there was a fee I did not expect).

I walk in, breezing through the line like never before. they swab my hands to look for dangerous chemicals or gunpowder or whatever they look for, and suddenly I am in the room. The lady at the entrance to the room asks what I am there for and directs me to the social security services window.

I am sitting there waiting, with a few people before me in line, and suddenly she comes over and apologizes. It turns out that they recently changed the times for walk in to social security, and Thursday is no longer a walk in day. Thursday is now only for telephone inquiries (for social security). So she apologizes and tells us we should all leave and come back a different day.

We all get noticeably upset - people took off work, traveled from various parts of the country, wasted time and money, and it is all because they did not update the website or the phone message with the new schedule (NOTE: the new schedule is already ten days old, so they have had plenty of time to update their information).

She says she will see what she can do, but the lady for social security is running a little late so we have to wait until she gets there before we can find out what will be.

We wait something like 20 minutes until she shows up. There is some discussion in the back and she agrees to see us. We process all the papers and go on the way. I thank her for being so amenable.

U.S. Bureaucracy is just as bad as Israeli bureaucracy... the only thing better about it is the attitude that the customer is always right. That means they found us a solution, despite the bureaucracy. And they are courteous rather than gruff.

One more embassy tip I can offer is to bring photocopies of everything. And I mean everything! I brought all the papers - originals and copies- the website told me I need to bring, and she still made me go photocopy some documents that I had not photocopied because the website did not say I needed to.. so photocopy everything in advance.

And in case you do not photocopy everything in advance, they have a photocopy machine on site that you can use. The machine charges 50ag. for every photocopy and does not give change. Of course, I brought no small change along, and nobody else did either. All I had was a 10 shekel coin form the change from my taxi. So I spent 10 shekel on two photocopies that should have cost me 1 shekel...and the guy after me will get a few free photocopies. So, bring small change along with you as well, just in case.

"Lieberman an Obstacle to Peace"

----Ynetnews quoting Arab leaders

Pray tell - and what about the past 14 years since Oslo without Lieberman in the Foreign Ministry? Why have we not been able to come to peace with all the forthcoming Foreign ministers who have been willing to give away everything for almost nothing in return?

Perhaps it is the arab leaders who are the obstacles to peace....

Rabbi Richman, from the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, talks about Birkat HaChama being a distraction from the greater issue that should be discussed regarding Erev pesach - that is the Korban Pesach and the Beis Hamikdash....

It is interesting to note how the "Pesach terminology" has started to creep into the daily conversation.

Listening to the radio you will hear many phrases taken straight from the haggadah to describe various situations.

One that I heard this evening was "Chasal Seder Annapolis". They were discussing Avigdor Lieberman's grand entry into the Foreign Ministry today. At the ceremony of his taking the reins of the office, one of the things he said was that they will uphold previous agreements such as the Road Map, but Annapolis was never voted on or agreed to so they are doing away with it and will not be bound by anything Olmert promised at Annapolis.

The radio host called it "Chasal Seder Annapolis".

There were others as well throughout the day, but that is the one that I remember off the top of my head.

Netanyahu is the most extreme leader in the region, and he heads the most extreme government in the region.

------Bala'd MK Jamal Zahalkha

That is funny. We think Bibi has gone "too left", they think he is too extreme right. And he is the "most extreme"? More so than a leader who has threatened to wipe out another nation (i.e. Ahmadinejad)? More so than Nasrallah of Hezbollah or Assad of Syria?

The picture was taken during a recent visit by the Amish to the Chabad community. For more pictures see the Chabad website.

The visit for some reason even made it to Foxnews. They have their article on the visit listed in their list of "Top Stories".

At a workshop where a young man was touching up a Torah, a scroll of the holiest Jewish writings, Epstein told the group how a Jew in wartime Germany had rescued the sacred scroll by wrapping it around his midriff under his clothes as he fled to safety.

The Amish listened, commenting to one another in Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of the German of their ancestors.

When Epstein, a native of Chattanooga, Tenn., had first greeted the Amish with the Yiddish "Zei gazunt!" — "be healthy" — they understood. After all, the expression is derived from the German word "sei gesund."

As the two groups walked side by side on Brooklyn streets, Crown Heights residents did double-takes; the Amish could be mistaken for Lubavitchers at a quick glance. But their hats are more square and their ruddy complexions from working outdoors contrast with the pale faces of the studious, urban Lubavitchers.

Hasidic children in Crown Heights begin their formal schooling at age 3, and by age 5 are studying many hours a day. At the headquarters on Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway each day, dozens of men gather to pore over religious books, with little boys dashing around as their fathers fervently debate fine points of the texts — sometimes sounding more like spirited poker players than religious faithful.

John Lapp and his wife, Priscilla, brought their three children on the tour. John Lapp said the ties to the communities might be more surface than substance.

"In some things we are alike, like our clothing and our traditional beliefs," he said. Priscilla Lapp added, "And in some things we are not. The biggest thing is that Jesus is our savior."

The groups also toured a Jewish library and a "matzo factory," where round, unleavened bread was being made for the Passover holiday.

There, a cross-cultural misunderstanding caused one of the Jewish men to look at the Amish, and ask, repeatedly, "Are you from Usbekhistan?"

An Amish man, also confused, asked, "Afghanistan?"

Finally, as they were leaving, another Amish man announced to the matzo-makers: "We're from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania!"

"In some things we are alike, like our clothing and our traditional beliefs," he said. Priscilla Lapp added, "And in some things we are not. The biggest thing is that Jesus is our savior." is the quote that I would nominate for quote of the day, if just for the fact that it provides for such humorous comments against Chabad (if I was wont to make such comments...)....but I will not say the jokes...

Arab MK Hanin Zoabi granted an interview about her thoughts on Israel and Iran to Shmuel Sokol and David Bedein the Philadelphia Bulletin.

What is amazing is that such a person can sit in the parliament of a government to which she is openly hostile. It is astounding that Israel gives her, and others like her, full rights of a citizen and even to be able to sit as MK.

Yes, minorities must have equal rights, but we are not America. We are israel where the minority wants to destroy us. As long as the minority is willing to accept us and live in peace, they are equals. If they are openly hostile to us and only take advantage of our democracy to use as a strategy to undermine us, then she should be sent packing.

Zoabi openly talsk about her desire to see a nuclear Iran, more Iranian influence in Gaza, her fear of Israel as the agressor, etc.

See the full interview below.

I sent an email to the Organization for Quality Government with the link to the interview. Perhaps they can protest her status as MK.

Jpost has now written about it as well...
The original document of the interview has been taken offline.... so you have to stick with the jpost article for now...