Dr. Daniel Gordis has a touching story of people connecting. The connection made and discovered is an amazing story that while some would call coincidence clearly was directed from Above.

Today, for the first time ever, I took the local #11 bus - the local mehadrin line. The bus route goes through all the neighborhoods that have people that might want a mehadrin bus, and is a cicuitous route.

The situation was a bit strange. The women mostly got on in the back of the bus. There was a machine in the back for them to be able to swipe their cards for payment, but there was also a bus attendant fellow (a haredi guy) who stood mostly in the back to take payment from those who wanted to pay cash, and to help those who needed help with the card machine.

The front of the bus, when I took it, was mostly kids and teenagers. As far as adults, there was only me and one other adult at the time. Neither of us cared when a couple of the women with their kids sat in the last row of the mens section.

The front half of the bus has far fewer seats than the back half. It had 11 seats for the men, and the back half has the bulk of the seats. On this bus that I rode, the front half was mostly kids, and was not full, but the back half was packed with women and kids, standing room only.

In the front half, as in all Superbus local buses that I have been on, the 6 middle seats (3 on each side of the bus) are arranged with 2 seats facing forward and 1 seat facing backwards. For a mehadrin bus this seems to be a strange arrangement. It means that a male sitting in the seat facing backwards is looking right at the women. I noticed because that is the seat I was sitting in. It just seemed strange that they would want a mehadrin bus with everything completely separate, yet be ok with a seat facing the women directly.

Ever think a Hannukah party could get controversial?

Here comes the President, trying to make a gesture to the Jews by hosting a nice Hannukah party, as did previous presidents, and all it does is upset people.

People are upset that guest list has been reduced fro the Bush days - Bush invited upwards of 600 people to his Hannukah party, and bama's guest list is down to about 500. Also, the invitation calls it a "holiday reception" rather than directly mentioning Hannukah.

From the NY Times:

But to the dismay of some administration officials, the plans for next week’s party — one of the hottest holiday events for the nation’s Jewish elite — have been overtaken by feverish debate over the size of the guest list, the language on the invitations and what this says (or does not say) about Mr. Obama’s relationship with Jews.

President George W. Bush, who began the tradition of White House Hanukkah parties, invited 600 people to his last party, administration officials say. But rumors spread wildly, first in the Israeli press and then locally, that President Bush had invited 800 people and that the Obamas were planning to invite only 400. (Administration officials say they have invited 550 people.)

The invitations have also caused some consternation because they make no mention of Hanukkah, inviting guests to “a holiday reception” on Dec. 16.

In an opinion article published by JTA, the Jewish news agency, Tevi Troy, a former Bush administration liaison to Jewish groups, warned that the Obama White House had given Jewish Americans “a number of reasons to fear that it takes its votes for granted.” Mr. Troy cited as examples the administration’s call for a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the decision to honor Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, who has been accused by some Democratic lawmakers of anti-Israel bias.

Mr. Troy said the reduced guest list created “a nagging sense that there may be a studied callousness at work here.”

His commentary, published on Nov. 23, and an article a week earlier in The Jerusalem Post, touched off a flurry of news articles, blog postings and kitchen table discussions. This week, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot published photographs of President Bush lighting a menorah and Mr. Obama standing with Santa Claus alongside an article headlined, “Obama Downsizes Hanukkah in the White House.”

and from Rabbi Levi Shem-Tov, the guy kashering the White House kitchen, we hear a voice of reason..

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who is overseeing the process of making the White House kitchen kosher for the party, said he was besieged with questions about the issue on a recent trip to Israel.

“I usually get asked when I came and how long I’m staying; this time, all anyone wanted to know was whether I was getting invited to the White House Hanukkah party,” said Rabbi Shemtov, who heads the Washington office of the American Friends of Lubavitch, which lobbies for the Lubavitch movement.

Rabbi Shemtov, who has attended Hanukkah parties at the White House, said he raised an eyebrow when he received his invitation, but noted that the Bush administration once sent invitations out with Christmas trees on them.

“This is all one big overblown latke,” the rabbi said.

“I feel that we need to save our communal kvetching in reserve for when it’s more called for and really matters,” he continued.

Come on everyone, get a life. stop kvetching about the size of the guest list.

A new ban is out. The gedolim have now banned the Haredi websites.

Recent trends indicating increasing numbers of haredim using the Internet has also caused for an increasing number of websites that cater to the haredim.

The websites contain mostly news of interest in the haredi world, forums discussing every nuance and movement in the haredi world, some lashon ha'ra and gossip as well, some criticism, some explaining the haredi position, etc.

This phenomenon irks the askanim and rabbonim and they have issued a ban on such websites.

I think this ban is silly and pointless, and here is why:

1. The gedolim in question (Ravs Elyashiv, Shteinman, Karelitz and Admorim of Belz, Tzanz and Vishnitz) have already banned the internet. Now they have to ban specific pages on the internet?
2. The gedolim in question have already banned the internet. Whoever listens to the ban, this new ban is not relevant. For whomever does not listen o the original ban, they will also not listen to this new ban.
3. For whomever uses the internet, what do the gedolim and askanim think will happen with this new ban? They prefer haredi internet users read not frum websites instead of frum ones? It doesn't make sense.
4. Perhaps they are just trying to intimidate the owners of these websites to shut them down, or maybe give the rabbonim more oversight and control about what gets published and publicized. Again, this will lead to people reading other sites that are "not frum".

It looks to me to be a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater...

Happy Hannukah. Here is a classic...

Yesterday we were driving up north (for the half marathon) and we stopped at a gas station to buy some food at the kiosk for breakfast on the way.

While looking around in the kiosk, I saw that they had a shelf stocking various hard alcoholic drinks - mostly vodka, but a couple bottles of Scotch as well.

What's up with that? Gas stations are selling hard liquor to people driving? To me that looks like a recipe for disaster.

Today I ran the Israel Half-Marathon in Bet She'an.

My finish time was not great - I did not focus on my training, and I have not even run at all during the past 3 weeks leading up to it, but I finished, even though my timing was worse than last year.

I have been running fairly regularly for a bit longer than a year, though I still do not consider myself a "runner", and I am still amazed by what I see when I go out on the roads or trails to run. And it is especially magnified when going to an event, like the half marathon I ran today, where there are so many other people participating (there were 1700 people running today in the event).

If you look around, you will be amazed what a person can do when he puts his mind to it. The words "I can't" or "it is impossible" should almost never be said, as almost always the reasons stopping a person from doing something are more often mental and psychological than physical. Of course there are sometimes where a person cannot do something for physical reasons, but I think most of the time the issues are more mental.

For example, today I saw running, and finishing:

• a guy with one leg - and he was one of the fastest people running - not in the top tier, but near the front.
• Extremely overweight people.
• Old people.
• very old people
• I saw one old man who was running and had to stop to rest/breathe almost every 3 minutes or so. Literally. He was keeping up with me (shows how slow I am) so I saw him for much of the run.
• People with various injuries (army injuries probably for most of them)
• healthy people
• men, women, teenagers, etc.

Running a distance of 21km, or 42km for the full marathon, straight is so unnatural and beyond the normal capabilities of the human body that it is not just amazing that a guy with one leg can do it if he puts his mind to it, or that old and overweight people can do it, but it is amazing that even young and healthy people can do it. If you put your mind to it, and train, it is doable.

The human mind can overcome most physical limitations. You just have to put your mind to it.

Yesterday the Knesset voted on an adjustment to the Referendum Law regarding the Golan Heights and the requirement to hold a referendum in case the government reaches a peace agreement with Syria.

The vote passed with 68 MKs supporting.

UTJ split their vote, though their votes were not needed in the end. Aguda voted with the coalition in favor of the referendum law. Degel abstained and left the plenum.

Degel has always opposed establishing referendums. UTJ always has as whole, and Aguda has not yet explained why they broke ranks from their longstanding position, but Degel voted in line with the longtime UTJ position to vote against establishing referendums.

One would ask why oppose a referendum, as it is mostly a good thing, especially when you dont necessarily trust the government with too much leeway and when they frequently go against the wishes of the people who voted them into power.. Really the election itself is a referendum, and if we put someone in power, it is with the approval to make decisions. When a government goes against the wishes of the voters who put them into power, the referendum is a tool that can keep them somewhat in check.

So why oppose the possibility of a referendum?

Degel says the reason they have always opposed any suggestion of a referendum is because the fallout of introducing referendums will lead to a referendum one day being brought about the yeshivas. One day someone will propose a referendum on continuing the army exemptions (deferments) for yeshiva bochurim, or for yeshiva funding, or the like. It is basically a breach in the status quo, and gives the people too much power to breach societal norms.

1. Yeshiva Guy on identifying the "Tuna Beigel"

2. The Jewish Worker on the new takana in Satmar against sending kids to music lessons.

3. Tzedek-Tzedek discusses if Turkey is kosher... no, not the food, but the country based on his experience doing business there.

4. esser agaroth on the recent video of a black preacher praising Israel...

5. Rabbi Fink says Gatorade is becoming kosher, on more than just one front...

6. Rationalist Judaism discusses why Orthodox Jews tend to dismiss the issue of climate change and global warming...

In every generation there are those who stand up to destroy us, and in all the countries they stood against the Torah laws. But that Jews should make such noise? This is happening specifically now, right beofre the coming of Mashiach, and is part of the birth pains of mashiach.... What is this hypocrisy? It is as if they are saying the Justice Minister has a large key... and is going to immediately shut down all the courts....Tomorrow they will say it is prohibited to express belief in the coming of the Mashiach. Minister Neeman, like every other religious Jew davens at least three times a day "to bring back the judges like they used to be" - it is nothing new and everybody knows it... We did not force anyone to go to the din torah, but they should be democratic and allow it for anyone who wants to be judged in such courts...

---- Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar

Captions:
1. Looks like Salita's aliyah didn't go so smoothly, as he prepares to punch out Rabbi Fass....
2. Israel's new Olympic boxer
3. I couldn't beat the Muslims in the UK, but maybe in the Middle East I'll do better...

your caption?

The story making waves is that there was an avreich in Bnei Brak married for 10 years who had not been blessed with children.

The avreich went to Rav Kanievsky regularly for a bracha. Rav Kanievsky would give him his usual "Bracha V'Hatzlacha" and then added, cryptically, that he should check what needs to be checked.

The avreich never understood what he was meant to check, but never had the courage to ask for an explanation.

Finally, the avreich got the courage to ask what needs to be checked and what he should be doing. Rav Kanievsky said what do we check? check the mezuzos.

The avreich sent all the mezuzos in his house to be checked. they all came back fine except for one. The mezuza from the door to the bedroom was passul because the words "v'shinantam l'vanecha" (you should teach your children) ran together with no space between the words.

He switched the mezuza for a kosher mezuza, and went back to Rav Kanievsky to tell him what happened. Rav Chaim gave him a new energetic "bracha v'hatzlacha"... (source: Haredim)

we don't know if he got his wife pregnant immediately or not, but we wish him well and hope he has kids aplenty now that the mezuza problem has been solved.

Note that you cannot just go to a gadol and expect everything to be solved. the guy didn't understand what Rav Kanievsky was telling him, didn't ask for an explanation, and didn't get his problem resolved. Going to a gadol isn't enough - you gotta get the picture straight, you have to understand what he tells you to do.

President Shimon Peres' new Youtube Channel

and here is his first message..

1. Tzvee posts, via a guest blogger, a bio of the Bostoner Rebbe zt"l..

2. Geshmack Torah posts a nice vort with an answer to the famous Hannukah question why we light 8 candles...

3. Balashon explains the words mehadrin and hadran

4. Soccer Dad says the Goldstone Report was funded by Muslims..

5. Rav Enkin concludes his series on semicha

6. Kaplan's Korner discusses Salita's first loss..and also posts about the voting for Jewish player of the decade