Congratulations to Yitzchak Shapira, son of former MK Rabbi Avraham Yosef Shapira, who is being awarded with the appointment as Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Times of Israel

The queen of England has decided to so honor Shapira due to his efforts on behalf of the Haredi community and his work in strengthening the ties between Britain and the Haredi community.
(source: Ladaat)


I don't know what he did, but whatever it was it must have been important to be deserving of such an honor! Whatever it was, he clearly has lived a life of kiddush hashem.

Israel has floated a new idea for the peace negotiations with the Palestinans. The suggestion is basically a land swap - in exchange for areas of Judea and Samaria that would be annexed to Israel, Israel would transfer land from "The Triangle" - the area known as "Eizor HaMeshulash", to the Palestinians.

For details of The Triangle, see Wikipedia. The area is largely populated by Arabs, with some Jewish towns as well. The area under consideration for transfer is the northern part of the Triangle.

The interesting part about this is how the Arab MKs are so opposed to it.

MK Ahmed Tibi (Raam Tal) said this suggestion is delusional and treats the Arab residents like chess pieces (pawns?) that can be moved and replaced. Any such suggestion would be rejected by the people and by the Palestinian Authority...

MK Massoud Genaim (Raam Tal) also opposes it, saying this is their birthright, and their legitimate home and they cannot be compared to settlers in the West Bank who are not legal or legitimate.

MK Dr. Afu Agabriya (Chadash) said citizens in a democratic country are not chess pieces or hostages in the hand of its government. If Israel wants to redraw the map of the borders, we would be happy to go back to the borders of 1947.
(source: NRG)

I understand the preference to live under the Israeli government rather than the Palestinian government. Israel is a [mostly] free democracy, people have liberties and rights. Palestine will be a dismal place of poverty (they don't have the oil of Saudi Arabia) and dictatorships (like all Muslim countries).

But I don't get it. Only Jews can lose their land for peace? Don't they want Israeli land to be given to the Palestinians? Don't they want to dismantle Israel and give it all to the Palestinians?

Israel would not even kick them out of their homes.. it would just transfer the land to Palestinian authority, the future Palestinian State, and they would presumably become citizens of that State. Maybe they would be given a choice.

Isn't this exactly what they really want?

Rav Aviner issued an interesting psak in regards to the sterioration of the already poor health of Ariel Sharon.

Rav Aviner said there is no need to daven for Ariel Sharon's health.

I'll admit that when I first heard the announcement I assumed it was because of Sharon's involvement in the Disengagement from Gaza. Rabbi Aviner was very involved in opposing the Disengagement. I could understand if Rav Aviner would think very badly of Sharon, as a result of that conflict, and would therefore say Sharon is a rasha whose life shiould not be davened for.

I admit that is what I first thought was going on.

But that was wrong. That was not the reasoning employed by Rav Aviner. It had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Rav Aviner said that one need not pray for Ariel Sharon's health because even if gets out of his current predicament, it would bring him to a life not worth living. Davening for him would not be doing him a favor.

Regarding the idea that maybe he should not be prayed for because of his involvement in the Disengagement, Rav Aviner said that he did problematic things, but he also did good things. He is a hero, in the Yom Kippur War he saved us - not just him, but he saved us. He has many merits, and he has debts. We must be grateful to him for his good aspects.

One could daven very generally. Just like we daven for rain but we dont specify how much rain we want on how many dunam of land, we can daven generally for Sharon and let Hashem decide what to do with the prayers.
(source: Srugim)

I would suggest that one can daven that Sharon be in less pain or suffer less. I have no idea what he feels and what he doesn't. While davening for his recovery might be pointless, one could still daven regarding his level of suffering.

However, that was a side point. I am surprised to hear such a statement, that even if he could recover from this it could only be to a life of tremendous pain, one of serious brain injury, and one not worth living. I always thought that we, as Orthodox Jews, believed that our prayers can overcome anything. And that any additional moment of life is worth living, no matter what state the person is in.

I have been torn many times, not knowing what is right. Someone who suffers tremendously, do you daven for his recovery or not. For example, just like we can daven generally for Ariel Sharon, as Rav Aviner explained, why can we not also daven that he recover from his brain injury? He says we can daven, but if the prayers help it would bring him to a bad situation - so why not daven for that situation to be repaired as well?

What are the limits of our tefilla? Are there limits? Are there no limits? All sorts of questions come to mind as a result of Rav Aviner's statement...

Whoever forged [votes] in Bet Shemesh will have to make a personal accounting of his actions... in Elad there were cases prepared with forged ballots. I strongly opposed going to the courts over this against other Haredi candidates, as strong as the claims might have been.

  -- MK Aryeh Deri (Shas)

It's the first time a Haredi MK has spoken about the subject without using the spin of downplaying the level of forgery or blaming the accusation on anti-haredi sentiments.

Rabbonim in the USA have found the solution to the shidduch crisis. It is a new-old solution. A group of rosh yeshivas are calling on the sector of marriage-age young men to stop going to Israel to learn for a couple of years before marriage, but to stay in the USA and get married younger.

They explain that many boys learn in yeshiva in the USA until 22 years of age, or so. Then they go to Israel to learn for a couple of years. At about age 24 they return to the USA and start the shidduchim process at no later than the age of 22.

This system creates a large gap in the age of the young men and women, and it makes it very difficult for the girls in shidduchim.

The "kol koreh" is signed bY Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky, Rav Yaakov Perlow (the Novominsker Rebbe), Rav Aharon Moshe Shechter, Rav Malkiel Kotler, Rav Matisyahu Solomon, Rav Elya Dov Wachtfogel, among others.
(source: Bechadrei)

Far be it from me to argue with or criticize such gedolim, and I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other about what is the correct age at which one should marry... but it rankles me a bit that they blame it on the boys going to Israel, and subsequently calling on them to stop doing so. If the boys should be marrying at 22, maybe they should send the boys to Israel at age 20 for the two years or so..

Not that I believe their should be a wholesale obligation of all boys going to Israel. Some boys, and girls, do very well in Israel. They learn responsibility, they connect to Eretz Yisrael, they learn a lot of Torah, they make friends and connections from all over the world.. there are definitely benefits in coming.. On the other hand, it is not for everyone - some boys get in trouble, some boys don't deal well with the new freedom they discover, some waste their time, etc.

But, for those that will be going to Israel, it would be very sad to see that stopped. If the rabbonim insist on the boys getting married younger, perhaps they should move the two years in Israel up as well.. Or send them after marriage instead. It might mean less boys getting in trouble, but many of the benefits will  also be lost.

This psak seems really to be only for the ultra-yeshivish. It is only from the real yeshivish yeshivas that boys wait until about 22 before coming to Israel. The slightly less yeshivish and more modern yeshivas and schools send their boys at 18 for a year or two.

Today was, in the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day.

If you are like me, you did not celebrate it in any particular way. It is not a Jewish holiday, has its roots in Christianity and paganism (even though today it is less religious, at least in the USA), and is not really marking anything particularly significant.

If you consider that Israel is more closely aligned with Europe than the USA in many ways, and therefore calls the holiday by the European name - Sylvester - as most Israelis do, there is even more reason to avoid commemorating the day. Sylvester was a Pope and his death coincided with New Years Eve. I don't know if Saint Sylvester was good for the Jews or bad for the Jews, but either way I don't think it is proper for Jews to commemorate the yahrtzeit of a pope.

no shofar blowing this "rosh hashana"

I did see a lot of action online of [religious] Jews wishing people a happy New Year.. Of course they did not mean to be supporting any religious aspect of the day, and that is why I did not criticize them, but ignored it. The same went for Christmas, perhaps on an even larger scale - many Jews were remembering their days in the old country with the beautiful lights, the snow, the carols, etc. Personally I find it distasteful.

I would have continued to ignore it, but now I see an "official" psak about it, so my comments can take on a different approach.

Rav Elyakim Levanon, rav of Elon Moreh, has paskened that it is forbidden to celebrate New Years.

Rav Levanon starts off explaining some history of Christianity and how its belief in Jesus and his being murdered by the jews was the basis for many years of persecution of Jews.. Rav Levanon says form a halachic perspective it is prohibited to mark the day as it is showing support for avoda zara, idol worship, which is completely prohibited.

Rav Levanon does not just leave it at that. He says that from a national perspective as well we should not participate in the days commemoration. The day was one that, for hundreds of years, marked a day of fear among the Jews. The non-Jewish celebrants would get drunk and take out revenge against Jews for killing Jesus. Thousands of Jews were killed on this day throughout history.

Our national honor, Rav Levanon says, demands of us to not take part in commemoration of the day. For us it is a day of memories of thousands of Jews whose blood was spilled like water. We are not calling to get even with them, but we should protect our national honor and not celebrate with them their day..
(source: NRG)

I agree with Rav Levanon completely. Their Rosh Hashana is not like our Rosh Hashana.

What role in society do you think a homosexual can take on, but what role can he not?

Interestingly enough, MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud Beyteynu) took part in a conversation/interview on the Facebook page of an organization called "Kamocha" - an organization for "religious orthodox homosexuals".

You can see the entire interview on the FB page (linked above) and on the website.. (the interview covered, briefly, many topics, not all connected to issues of homosexuality)

One question asked was up until what task  would you be prepared to support a religious homosexual candidate? Mayor? MK? Prime Minister?

Feiglin's answer was "everything (even a rav), except for the role of prime minister".

Asked but not answered was "why not prime minister?" - humorously suggesting that maybe it is because Feiglin wants that job for himself..

The question remains though, why not? If you don't support the freedom of a homosexual to hold public roles, at all, I disagree but I understand the position. If you do support the holding of public roles, why draw the line in that way? Why can he be everything except prime minister? what's special about the prime ministerial role that MK Feiglin thinks a homosexual cannot fulfill properly, while he can fulfill any other role in society?

I don't get it.

Eli Yishai met with Yair Lapid: is initiating Haredi High Schools

  -- Kikar

In my opinion, it is about time. It is about time that someone in the sector recognizes the need and doesn't just continue making everyone fit in to the one system available... If course others are upset about it, and they are also upset Yishai met with Lapid at all, but I hope some good comes of it and more such yeshiva high schools are formed as a result...

I am not quite sure why the government is at fault that the court decided what it decided, that a no-confidence motion is appropriate...