Purim is coming.. prepare for getting over your hangover!

As the carnival atmosphere warms up in Ramat Beit Shemesh - you may not have noticed Lema'an Achai's low profile campaign.

1. Goodbye, shul candyman! - don't worry, this is Purim parody... or is it?

2. Where danger is

3. keep the cardinal out - I agree but I also add another reason. the shul is not the place for the cardinal. rent a hall if you want to invite him to speak in front of the community. The sul is not an appropriate place because of what the cardinal represents, what the church has done, what the motives and intentions of the cardinal might be..

4. Gershon Veroba on the YESS legacy

5. the soap opera of Buddha and Israel

6. a brief electric vehicle geek-out and a customer-service case-study from Better Place

7. Mahatzit Hashekel this year

8. lifepatch scammers convicted

9. the point of davening

10. 10 ideas for Purim

11. 10 images that will change the way you look at tefillin

12. myths and facts about the IDF and religious soldiers

13. why did the chicken cross the road?

14. A modest proposal for draft exemptions

15. Rationalist Tzedakah

MK Moshe Feiglin has come up with an interesting idea regarding Jonathan Pollard.

A petition had been passed around for signing that called upon US President Barak Obama to pardon Jonathan Pollard and bring him home on the upcoming trip to Israel. As of right now the petition has accumulated just over 50,000 signatures.

Nobody knows what will happen, but people are concerned that this request will be ignored, the same way previous requests were ignored. Some people are therefore trying to find ways in advance to increase the pressure on Obama in a way that might urge him to come through this time.

MK Moshe Feiglin today said that he has realized today that we have reached the red line that beyond it we will lose Jonathan Pollard . He then says that when Obama will release Jonathan Pollard, he will be happy to greet the president and listen to his speech in the Knesset. In the meantime, if chalila Obama will not release Pollard, he calls upon the Members of Knesset in joining him in a ban against Obama's Knesset speech - to leave the chamber and abandon Obama to an empty Knesset.

Even if a few MKs join Feiglin's protest, there is no way the entire Knesset will. There is no way Obama will be speaking to an empty Knesset chamber. It just won't happen. I like Feiglin's creative protest, but I don't expect too much will come of it.

With us, the ashkenazi haredim, they have not spoken in two weeks. The only offer they have offered to us so far is a cup of water... I know double what Netanyahu knows about what will be and what the final scenario of the coalition will be - Bibi knows nothing, and I know doubly nothing.

  -- Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman

Way too much candy ends up in mishloach manot. Today there is an increased awareness to eating healthy, and many people minimize the unhealthy foods used in mishloach manot preparation. Despite that, just walk into any supermarket in the week leading up to Purim and you will see that many many people still use a lot of junk food in their mishloach manot.

I am not sure this will help much, but Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger publicized a call to people to minimize the inclusion of such foods in mishloach manot and to include more healthy foods instead.
(source: Srugim and Mako)

Rav Metzger said:

Unfortunately in recent years the phenomenon has spread of stressing the beauty and externality of the mishloach manot. This is the opposite of what it should be. Because of that, it is common in many shops, especially in the time of Purim, to find all sorts of sweets that are based on artifical ingredients, containing chemicals, food colorings, things that can cause damage to the body, and especially to children whose body's are not yet strong enough.

Experts in this field have enlightened me that in not so few countries marketing these products has been prohibited, due to their bad influence. These products are sold, usually, at cheap prices, due to low manufacturing costs that do not require a lot of resources. And, there are those who buy them so the package will externally look beautiful and impressive.

The truth of the matter is that we should take care to be concerned that the mishloach manot will not include any such items at all, to pay attention to the ingredients with which the sweets are manufactured, and during Purim when a lot of mishloach manot come into the house the small children could get out of hand eating these sweets and thereby cause damage to their bodies, upon which we have been commanded to protect.

I call with endearment to all our brethren to pay attention to the ingredients of the sweets that are sold in the stores and minimize the mishloach manot that include health damaging products, and by doing this we will merit to fulfill the mitzva of mishloach manot in an elegant way that also has a benefit to the recipient, and will thereby prevent any damage to the health of the recipient and his household.

So, if you have not yet come to this conclusion yourself that you should not be including so much candy and artificial stuff in your mishloach manot, now you have rabbinic counsel informing you of the problem!

(he should have brought them ice cream! - :-)  )

The historical fact is that the Christian Jesus walked around jerusalem, and he did not see in it anywhere any church, the first was built 150 years after him, and he did not see anywhere in jerusalem a mosque, the first was built only 600 years after him. Jesus saw in Jerusalem only the final days of the second Temple of the Jews

  -- MK Mordechai Yogav (Habayit Hayehudi) in his inaugural speech

I like this response to a letter of inquiry - it is critical and praiseworthy of all parties involved, and points to where everybody involved can and should improve.

Rav Yosef Zeini, a rav in Ashdod, was asked why great talmidei chachomim from the "redeemed torah" (referring to rabbonim of the Zionist streams) had to bother to go to the Admors who wanted to speak with them, and not the other way around.

The letter-writer was clearly upset and considered it a sign of disrespect to the rabbonim of the Dati Leumi that they were called in to the haredi rabbonim = perhaps if the haredi rabbonim wanted to chat with them about politics and use their influence, maybe the haredi rabbonim should have gone to the Zionist rabbonim.

Rav Zeini's long response was, and I translate:

First of all, because the way of the world - see how Rabbi Akiva Eiger instructed his sons how to specify the names and titles of people who would receive responses. If so why be different. Second, some of these Rebbes are much older. And with all the sorrow, not for the travel of talmidei chachomim to Rebbes, but that the secular Zionism has not yet merited to have someone educate her on the necessity of Torah in Israel other than the ultra-Orthodox world - because of its political strength, not it torani position, we must give some respect to the ultra-Orthodox, for without them, today, secularism would be raging more.
It is true that their style of influence often does not look successful to us, because they do not delve into in-depth study of faith, along with some shocking side effects, but in the meantime this vision of the political reality has some things.
And if via the topic of drafting yeshiva students we and all of Israel are obligated to clarify the nature of the Torah and its study, although this is spiritual coercion like a tub over our small heads, despite all that, we must bless, despite the bittenress of the matter. Do the "srugim" populations understand what is a talmid chochom? What is devotion to the Torah? Besides for admiration of any military campaign images depicting soldiers wearing tallit and tefillinin the battlefield, on which to declare "See that although they are religious and keep mitzvos they are also serving in the IDF." As it used to be the "secular" were surprised to find people on the benches of the University and the Technion wearing a yarmulke.
We all respect, value and appreciate the army and its achievements, and bless it every minute for its continued successes. But we must not forget that beyond that there is a world of Torah for which in its merit the entire country is becoming more sophisticated. True, that must be explained at length, and not in the way that is being heard right now, but we cannot teach the entire Path of Torah of the Maharal on one leg.
What must be mentioned is, as the Rambam said, at every opportunity, the source of our life is Mount Sinai , And that there is an Israeli timelessness that is not dependant on technological advancements. This is the source of our faith and our very existence.
And an important achievement has already been recorded due to these meetings, and that is that some Rebbes was not aware at all that there are large Zionist yeshivot where hundreds of students learn day and night. One of our rabbis was in shock by the fact that for years he was in contact with the Haredi public but only now noticed that they thought he and his students were all religious farmers growing bug-free lettuce, and nothing more than that.
And if so, we must ask why all the books of our rabbis are not sold in Haredi neighborhoods. Maybe we have a little bit of fault in this, and if so we must fix it before dealing with issues of honor at rabbinic visits with each other..
And do not forget that the purpose of our teacher Rabbi Kook when he founded the Chief Rabbinate of Israel was his desire to bring together all the gedolei yisroel to a conference once or twice a year in Jerusalem, convening scholars lshem shamayim, even if they would not release halachic decisions from the conference, but to accustom the sages of Israel to sit together. Because this is a condition to bringing back the semicha in the future, that all the scholars must agree on one person that he is worthy to be given semicha, and then we will be able to progress with the spiritual redemption.
"Torah scholars increase peace in the world" - are only they are told that? Rav Tzvi Yehuda would ask, dont  we every day mention the Gemara that says that every person must engage in bringing peace between people? but real scholars know to increase peace between scholars and lucky are we that these are our rabbis.

(source: Srugim)

I like it. Everybody bears some blame, everybody can learn a lesson, everybody can improve. they have learned that we do learn torah and have serious rabbonim and yeshiva students, and we can learn from their dedication to Torah and their focus on Torah as to what is really important for the Jewish people.

Most of the time, we take all the credit for ourselves, justify our approach, and blame the other for problems and deride the others way of life. This is a new approach

When I was asked about Livni joining the forming coalition, I said the issue is not Tzippi Livni but the way of the Likud. Netanyahu has the mandate to include whichever partner he wants and create a broad and stable coalition. Along with that, the members of the Likud are watching that the way of the Likud will be what leads the government, and that the precedent of Barak will not return. Briefly, I hope the Likud will also be in the coalition..