618 students and staff of Yeshiva University got together to spin dreidels in a "dreidel-palooza" to set a new world record.

Calling it "sports history" seems to be a bit of a spin, but so be it..mazel tov to them!

Ruby Rivlin Dancing With The Crowd After Lighting The Menora In Hebron

It is amazing that about 10 people, or less, can instill fear on nearly half of a city. And that the police don't do anything about it. And that other community leaders don't do anything about putting stop to this group. Once again, they call themselves the "sikrikim", giving themselves a sense of ideology and holiness, as per the way the term is used in the gemara.

Kikar Shabbos reports that after a relative lull in their local activities, and a general quiet period, the self-appointed guardians of tzniyus standards and Jewish community behavior, are back in action, in Bet Shemesh once again.

Kikar reports that they have been busy threatening business owners that they either comply with the rules that they set down or else. When the business owner does not immediately comply, their storefront windows have turned up smashed almost immediately.

The report talks about a shoe store that was threatened to stop selling heeled shoes. When the owner did not remove the shoes from the store, the window was smashed. Another shoes store that was divided in 2 with a wall separating them and separate entrances was also approached and told they are not allowed to sell womens shoes at all. The windows were then smashed.

They approached another store, not even in their own neighborhood, that sells womens lingerie. The store does not open to the street, has no picture window with displays of merchandise and the clerks are all women. The group of enforcers went to the store and set a series of rules that must be complied with, including not selling more than 3 styles in any size, and only basic undergarments can be sold and only in one color.

A wig and makeup store, also in a different neighborhood was also attacked, because they did not approve of the way the storekeeper dressed. A stink bomb was thrown in the store and the window was defaced with mud.

A sad story was just reported in the newspapers, of a young woman, a 25 year old Haredi woman, who was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her uterus.

For months the doctors have been trying to convince her to agree to undergo the only procedure they say will save her, as her situation has been continually deteriorating, which is to remove her uterus. She has been refusing because she has not yet had children and sees no point in living if she cannot have kids. She continues to refuse any treatment, and will not give up on her uterus, until she has a kid.

Without receiving any treatment, her situation has deteriorated even more and she has recently been hospitalized as a result of her illness.

The doctors, with no other choice available to them, have decided to fight her wishes. They are convening the ethics board of the insurance fund she is part of, to see if they can find a way to get her the treatment she needs.

The ethics board has decided to contact her rabbi, a hassidic rebbe, to ask him to persuade her to accept the treatment, as her life is in danger if she does not.

The rebbe is being consulted and no decision has yet been arrived at. She continues to prefer to wait for a miracle, while the doctors continue to look for ways to convince her to undergo the treatment.

One can be critical of her and say she is doing the wrong thing, and she clearly is from an objective point of view, and should immediately undergo the treatment. Adoption is always an option, surrogacy is an option, and other options are available. Life does not have to end at the uterus. Who inculcated in her the idea that without bearing a child life is not worth living?

One can be critical, but who knows what is going through the head of a terminally ill patient. She has so much on her head, such heavy decisions to make. I hope she comes to her senses, or someone brings her to them, and she accepts the treatment she requires.

She should have a refuah shleimah.

Tzedek-Tzedek has an important update and message about another arrest in RBS on child sex abuse allegations.

The Orthodox Jewish world has finally made it! We have been cut out of most forms of entertainment because they are almost never appropriate for a religious Jew.

A new video game has been developed by the good people of Lakewood that is a video dance game. Previously, Orthodox Jews could not previously enjoy the fun and other benefits of video dance games, because of the non-Jewish music, along with images of the singers and inappropriately clad female dancers in the background.

Now, though, that "Step It Up" has been created, we Jews can enjoy life just like anybody else!

Step It Up is a dance video game based on the frum singers, Yeshiva Boys Choir, Chevra, Lipa, Avraham Fried, and others, and the participant is encouraged to dance to the Hebrew and yisddishe songs and music.




In all seriousness, kol hakavod to them and I hope they are successful.

I saw in shul today a pile of pamphlets containing a listing of all the gedolim (I don't know how inclusive the list is - I did not even really read the list) and what time, and where, they each light their Chanukah candles.

The purpose is, obviously, to allow the people the ability to go to the gedolim of their choice and watch them light their menorahs.

Personally, I am not a "groupie" of any specific gadol, and going to watch them light candles is not something at the top of my "to do" list. However, I do recognize that other people do enjoy that kind of stuff, and either pick the gadol they want to watch or they make the rounds among various gedolim and watch as many as they can. I recognize the desire to be inspired, even just by watching an important rav light candles.

I do wonder though, as I was glancing at the pamphlet, how this jives with halacha. If you are going after the hassidic rebbes in the list, it should work out ok for the most part. Many of them light later in the evening, so a regular person could light his candles at the proper time and then go to the rebbe of his choice. The litvishe rebbes (I call them "rebbes" because the litvishe community has become very hassidic in style in the past 15 years or so in the way they treat their gedolim and rabbonim) on the other hand all light at the same time the regular people are supposed to be lighting at -eith the sunset minhag or the tzeis minhag. So halachically speaking is it ok to not light on time because you want to drive out to Bnei Braq to watch Rav Steinman or Rav Kanievsky (or whichever other one you prefer) light their candles?

Moshe in his studio

(I received no compensation from highlighting artist Moshe Braun and his work)

I am very impressed with the way some of our representatives in City Hall work. 6 weeks ago a press release was released by the councilman in charge of transportation issues, announcing the finalization of plans for some new bus routes, including a new line to Jerusalem straight from RBS along with a new bus line to Tel Aviv that would be direct via Highway 1 and avoid the moshavim. In the press release, the specific councilman tooted his own horn saying that he has already been dubbed the "Postal Minister because of his success in bringing a new post office branch to RBS, and now some are dubbing him the Minister of Transportation because of his success in establishing these new routes.

It seems he spoke too early. While I had heard there were some technical delays, we are now 6 weeks later and still no new bus routes are operating, though he said they were approved and ready to begin in the very near future (the 412 was said to be starting immediately, and the 419 was going to be in the near future).

Perhaps city councilmen should be more diligent about praising themselves only after their successes and not preempt the successes with premature announcements.

This comes to head because soon the train to Tel Aviv will be taking another week off for rail-works. Those who travel regularly to tel Aviv are in for another nightmare of a week, due to inadequate alternative methods of transportation in that direction.

Many people are of the opinion that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu made a colossal mistake when he offered, in exchange for nothing, to freeze all construction on the other side of the "Green Line". This was a radical change from Likud policy, and nothing like what Netanyahu would have ever classically done based on his past,and he generally has taken the blame as the one who offered the freeze.

The Wikileaks has exposed a lot in the realm of how diplomacy works around the world, and today a new revelation has come to light as a result of the latest batch of leaked documents. That is, the freeze was imposed on Netanyahu by Germany and the United States. Even if his arm was not exactly bent behind his back and he was not being forced into it in the literal sense, he was being put into a position where he could not afford to reject the proposal of a freeze. Netanyahu then expressed support for a freeze.

I have a long-standing belief that no Israeli prime minister does anything radical, especially if he is changing from what were considered long-held beliefs of his, without it coming from pressure from the United States or other important countries. This is so, according to my belief, even if it looks like it happened with no push from anyone else but was created only in the halls of the PM's office or his head.

A prime example of this was the Disengagement. Seemingly, Ariel Sharon concocted the whole thing on his own. People thought he did so to avoid prosecution on corruption charges, or for other reasons. I believed, and said, it had come from the US and president at the time George Bush. Somehow, somewhy, it came from the US.

A few years later, a book was published by a senior official in the previous administration that described how Condoleeza Rice came up with the idea and got Bush on board and they then took it to Ariel Sharon.

Netanyahu took a lot of blame for having offered something nobody even asked for. He still should be blamed, but for following the dictates and interests of other countries.